Managing Document Versions

We hear the stories all the time. A happy Internet surfer downloads a free Military Standard and builds his product "to spec" only to discover he has used an outdated version of the document.

Unless you are a technical librarian, it is difficult to understand the scope of this situation. Version management is big. Some people have built careers around this one activity. Bottom line: Standards documents, handbooks, and regulations are constantly changing - never assume otherwise.

Big Effort
Imagine a bibliography of more than 1,000,000 technical documents including historical versions going back many years. This is the IHS legacy. IHS databases are updated every day and thousands of IHS customers benefit from a silent mountain of effort churning away in the background.

There are literally hundreds of skilled professionals involved in this process:

• IHS Business people manage relationships with more than 370 publishers, tier-1 manufacturers, and government agencies worldwide.
• Web developers update and improve systems and response times.
• Production managers load, update, and catalog documents.
• Product managers strive to increase value while controlling price.
• Quality managers double check the accuracy.
• Support personnel help customers find exactly what they need.

Many documents have more than 10 historical versions available in the IHS database. All IHS applications provide a link to the "Document Details" or "Summary" where older version of the document can be reviewed. Understanding the historical perspective of a document and its update cycle helps users to make better decisions about compliance.

Core Competency
Technical librarians everywhere can attest to the difficulty of managing a large collection of ever-changing documents. Many companies and government organizations still manage versions in this way. Manually updating technical documents is expensive and difficult to maintain.

Forty years ago, IHS did this manual work. The company eventually moved its work to microfiche, computers, and the Internet. Today, IHS gets paid to deliver documents to the very same people who write them. Why? Because IHS manages: updates, addendums, versions, histories, indexes, cross-references, and many other research-enhancing features that add significant value to the collection of documents.

Free Version Checking
It wasn't long ago that IHS sold its bibliography on CD-ROM. Organizations used this information to identify documents and discover new versions. Today, IHS subscribers get the full bibliography even when they subscribe to only a few documents. Non-subscribers can take advantage of free access to the most popular parts of the bibliography through the IHS Store.

For additional help with your document version management, contact IHS experts directly. Ask for subscription pricing on your most used standards publishers.  Ask them about eMail Alerts that can help you avoid version change surprises.

IHS Resources for Librarians