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Country reports Albania Belarus Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Poland Romania Slovenia Slovak Republic Croatia United States of America Speakers Organizational Committee Sites Nitra Banská Štiavnica Topolcianky castle Matica Slovenká and the Slovak National Library, Martin < Back |
 The fourth meeting of representatives of agricultural information institutions from the USA and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe was organized by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture (ISTIA), in Nitra, Slovak Republic, in coordination with NAL/USDA, under the auspices of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture. Grants were provided by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, Office of International Cooperation and Development, and by the Cargill Information Center, Minneapolis. Its theme, "Providing and Disseminating Agriculture Information by Means of Electronic Data Processing," was indicative of the changing environment and technologies in the Central and Eastern European agricultural libraries and information centers. 
The Fourth Roundtable was held at the Agroinstitute, the education and
training center of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture. Albania, Belarus,
Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak
Republic, Slovenia, and the United States of America participated. Croatia,
new to the Roundtable, participated in the conference as an observer, and
then signed the "Joint Program of Cooperation."
In addition to the country representatives, 17 guest speakers from the Slovak world of information institutions, information technologies and telecommunications companies, hardware and software firms, and education institutions contributed to the event. Among the RT guests there were representatives of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture (Division of Foreign Affairs, Division of Agrarian Policy, Informatics, Analyses, and Prognoses); Ms. Helga Schmid from the AGRIS Processing Unit, FAO UN, at IAEA, Vienna, Austria; and Ms. Alena Chudikova, Chief Librarian from the U.S. Embassy's Wilson Library in Bratislava and others. The first session speakers gave a general overview of the information system in Slovakia. English/Slovak simultaneous language interpretation was provided throughout the meeting. Mr. Vladimir Kassa from Slovakia's National Center for Informatics, Bratislava, outlined the national information and communication infrastructure, its history, development, and future goals. The CEIT Bratislava representative, Ms. Pavla Stancikova, presented the activities and services of this private company that specializes in ecological information, terminology and standards databases, programming and database con- versions. CEIT cooperates with ISTIA in the Integrated Information System of Scientific, Technical, and Economic Information Project. The results of software development and output of CEIT, as well as the results of its cooperation with Austrian Infoterm and other Vienna organizations were demonstrated. The situation with respect to Slovak telecommunications, networking and the progress of SANET, (Slovak Academic Network), and the Slovak presence on the Internet information highway were the topic of Mr. Pavol Horvath's and Mr. Peter Hermann's presentation. The gentlemen are top managers at the Computer Center of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, the SANET main node. The "Project Internet" was started in 1991, supported by the Slovak government and has been operational since 1992. Detailed information on SANET membership, access, protocols, nodes, costs, and services was provided. Mr. Milos Kovacka from the Slovak National Library spoke about the role of the SNL in the country's information system, library's collection and services, its history, and methodological and integration efforts. SAIA (Slovak-American Academic Information Agency) members, Ms. Subenikova and Ms. Grosekova, reported on SAIA's mission to facilitate Slovak Republic-United States academic information exchange, student exchange, management and distribution of book donations in Slovakia, and other activities. The guest speaker from the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Ms. Alena Chudikova, the chief librarian of the Wilson Library, provided information on the library's information resources and services. Slovak OLUG (On Line User Group) member, Blanka Bajankova, summarized the article she had written to give information about the group's international and domestic status and achievements. Slovak country reports and files of the group had been provided to her by Maria Dologova and Sona Makulova, the representatives of the Slovak OLUG, who were not able to participate. Vlasta Cikatricisova from the Slovak Technical Library in Bratislava described the mission, strategies, collection, and services of the largest technical library in Slovakia. The role of this library in integration and cooperation among Slovak libraries was emphasized. The next three presentations were given by representatives of private companies that helped sponsor the conference. Mr. Milan Martis talked about EUROTEL Slovakia and its Public Data Networks Service. Ms. Lubica Sukenikova (AGRIS Center) read Mr. Stefan Kimlicka's paper on the INFC)CONSULT company's well- known product, the INFOPROFI data- base (printed version: Who's Who it the Slovak Information World I993/4). Albertina Slovakia's representative, Mr. Alexander Lang, discussed the avail- ability and supplies of Silver Platter CD-ROMs which the company distributes. The final paper was presented by the guest from the Czech Republic, Mr. Bohumir Suk, from Info Technology Supply (former chief of Czechoslovakia's INIS inputting service), and concerned the recent developments in OCLC and the Info Technology Supply achievements.  The
afternoon session was devoted to presentations by the most important libraries
in Slovakia. Cooperation in collection, processing, dissemination and use
of agricultural/forestry/ veterinary/ biological/ecological information
was discussed. Participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with the
profile information on four specialized central libraries. Lectures were
delivered by their directors: Ms. Dana Petrasova from the Slovak Agricultural
Library of the Agricultural University in Nitra (read by Beata Bellerova);
Ms. Lubica Ludvighova from the Slovak Forestry and Wood Technology Library
in Zvolen; Ms. Sona Lemakova from the Library and Institute of Scientific
Information of the Veterinary Medicine University in Kosice (read by Monika
Garcarova); and Ms. Marcela Horvathova from the Central Library of the
Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.
The day's busy program ended with a short sightseeing tour to Nitra and a welcome reception and a little piano concert at the beautiful Malanta castle. The agenda of September 28,1994, included the reports of the participating countries. ISTIA considered this an unique opportunity for the Slovak agricultural librarians and information specialists to get first-hand information on what's new in the field abroad, and invited them to Nitra. Thirty of them joined the Roundtable from the following institutions: The busy day ended with a visit to ISTIA premises. Participants were also allowed to visit the ancient Bishopry Library (closed to the public) with the very-well preserved religious collection and catalogues, set in unique historical library shelving. All of the visitors signed the historical Chronicle. On 29 September 1994 participants went on a field trip to the Slovak National Library, where they were met by its Director, Ms. Daniela Slizova, and were shown selected departments(SNL Database and Computer Center, Microfilming Department, Old Books and Incunabula Department, and the Congress Hall). Special attention was paid to presenting the ALEPH integrated library system and historical books units. On the way back to Nitra the Roundtable group visited Banska Stiavnica, the Slovak town listed in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Sites List, where the First College of Mining in the world was established. Visitors were met also by the Mayor of Banska Bystrica. The last day was devoted to working in groups and planning for further roundtables. Michal Demes proposed establishment of a permanent secretariat of the Roundtable for the ongoing support of Roundtable initiatives. The participants agreed that the idea has merit and should be further developed and discussed again next year. The final two contributions were reviews of two Cochran fellowships in the U.S.A. by Jana Skladalova and Andrejka Svorenova (published in ALIN, Vol. 20, Nos. 7-9, July-September 1994, pages 24-27). After the afternoon trip to the personal library of the first CzechoSlovak president T. G. Masaryk in his summer residential palace in Topolcianky, the final meeting and farewell reception was organized. Representatives of all participating countries signed the Joint Program of Cooperation. The signature of a new participant, Croatia, represented by Nikola Kezic from the Zagreb Agriculture University, was added to the document. The roundtable came to a close with the announcement by Dr. Ctibor Perlin, that the Czech Republic will sponsor the 5th Roundtable in Prague in September 1995. |