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THE INFORMATION FRONTIER: LINKING PEOPLE AND RESOURCES IN A CHANGING
WORLD
Pamela ANDRÉ
Director, National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave., Room 200
Beltsville, MD 207005-2351
USA
Phone: 301-504-5248
FAX: 301-504-7042
email: pandre@nal.usda.gov
FOREIGN PARTICIPANTS:
Twenty-three foreign participants from fifteen counties will be invited.
They will represent Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, the Slovak
Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
U.S. PARTICIPANTS:
National Agricultural Library (NAL) senior staff; representatives from
the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN) and the International
Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD), and other
participants from the agricultural information sector.
PURPOSE:
To build on the successes ofthe last five years of Roundtable discussions
and activities, and to strengthen the relationships between agricultural
libraries in the United States and those in the Central and Eastern European
countries. Participants will continue to identify the opportunities and
challenges they face in international cooperation and communication, both
cultural and technical, and common solutions will be sought.
The National Agricultural Library is in a unique position to serve as the
leader in establishing and fostering our new relationships with these European
countries in an increasingly networked environment. NAL staff are now involved
with several other academic agricultural libraries in the United States
in a challenege to create a new agricultural resource, an electronic library
of full-text agricultural information, combining and coordinating the resources
of all participants through the Internet. This Roundtable will serve as
an opportunity to interest and involve the European libraries in this project.
RATIONALE:
Access to information is vital to the continuing advancement ofthe food
and fiber system. International contacts and collaboration are essential
to ensure the continued flow of scientifiè and technical information.
Each year thousands of scientific and technical articles, reports, books,
patents, proceedings, software, databases and other materials are published
and produced in agriculture and its related disciplines. These materials
are useful only if their existence is known to potential users of the information,
and ifthe material can be obtained in a reasonable amount oftime and at
a reasonable cost.
Technology and recent world events have converged to bring the idea of
a "global village" much closer to reality in the last five years.
Still, standards, systems, agreements and relationships must be created
and nurtured in order to realize the full benefits that these opportunities
afford.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE:
Since the first Roundtable in 1991, four more Roundtables have been hosted
by participant institutions in Budapest; Warsaw; Nitra, Slovakia and Prague.
Participation has expanded from the original seven countries to fifteen
countries. Below are some of the accomplishments that have been achieved
since that first Roundtable:
-
A Joint Program of Cooperation has been signed and reaffirmed every
year by all participating institutions outlining areas of interest for
cooperatively enhancing access to agricultural information.
-
A CD-ROM workshop was developed and presented by the Hungarian National
Agricultural Library.
-
Joint development of grant proposals in such critical development
areas as technology, training, automation and networking.
-
Grant received from the VTLS Foundation to conduct a third Roundtable
in Warsaw, September,1993. Participating institutions were expanded to
include representation from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
-
A Surplus Book and Journals Program was launched with fiznding from
FAO, USDA/OICD and USDA/ARS.
-
Establishment of a CD-ROM-based agricultural information access capability
in each of the participating Baltic countries.
-
The Albanian Scientific Library ofthe Agricultural University installed
and networked its first five computers last year as part of a five year
project for improvement of agriculture documentation structure. The library
also opened its new Documentation Center with the support of the Albanian
Ministry of Agriculture and the French Embassy, with technical support
from Germany and the United States (Virginia Tech University).
-
The Belarus Agricultural Library purchased the Agricola database to
improve its own search capabilities.
-
A representative from the Library ofthe Agronomy College in Zagreb,
Croatia participated in the fourth Roundtable as an observer, and signed
the joint program agreement.
-
The Central Agriculture and Forestry Library of the Czech Republic
have made progress in spite of great changes in their country's systems
and institutions. In 1991, they installed a new computer, began online
cataloging, andjoined AGLINET. In 1993, the Director of the Central Food
Library came to the United States for two months on a Cochran Fellowship.
Both libraries have upgraded their computers in the last year, and have
-
The Agricultural Library in the Estonian Agricultural University was
designated as an FAO Center and connected with the AGRIS and CARIS systems
in 1993. The next year, a Board of Directors of Scientific and Specialized
Libraries was established to foster closer participation among the scientific
libraries within the country, thus effectively ending the long isolation
ofthat library. The staff installed their first four computers last year.
-
The Hungarian National Agricultural Library became an independent entity
within the Ministry of Agriculture in 1993 and got a new Director. Library
staff received World Bank funding for the development of a national information
infrastructure. The Ministry ofAgriculture sponsored a CD-ROM training
workshop in Budapest (May 1993) for Central Eturopean librarians for which
NAL provided an instructor. By 1994, the Hungarian NAL staff had acquired
and installed a new computerized system, gained access to Internet, purchased
a scanner and continued progress on their CD-ROM networking.
-
The staff of the Fundamental Library ofthe Latvian University of Agriculture
installed their first three computers (with CD-ROM drives) in 1994. That
same year they also joined AGRIS and CARIS. They are planning on networking
with other libraries in Latvia and have connected to the Internet.
-
In 1993 the Lithuanian Agricultural Libraryjoined the FAO and became
the center for AGRIS and CARIS. By 1994, their funding had improved and
the Lithuanian Agro Science Project was implemented by the Lithuanian government.
Computers, printers, and modems were installed and an integrated system
is planned.
-
The Central Agricultural Library of Poland in 1993 was instrumental
in leading a national effort that resulted in the formation of the Polish
Agricultural Library Network which will, when complete, provide access
to over two million titles distributed among several libraries in Poland.
They decided to acquire the VTLS system, and a grant proposal was prepared.
By 1994 the library staff was connected to the Internet.
-
Following the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Slovakian Institute
of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture was completely
reorganized. It joined AGRIS and FAO. Immediately after the third Roundtable,
Andrejka Svorenova, Head of Library and Information Services, came to NAL
for a two month training program on a Cochran fellowship. They connected
to the Internet in 1994, and also joined CARIS.
-
The staff of the Central Biotechnical Library of Slovenia are presently
designing an integrated information system for their country. Mr. Tomaz
Bartol, Head of the AGRIS Center completed a Cochrzn Fellowship at NAL
last fall.
INIMEDIATE OBJECTIVES OF ROUNDTABLE VI:
-
All participants will give a briefing on the state of their library's
capabilities, recent accomplishments, barriers still to be breached, and
their plans for the immediate and long-term future.
-
Review, renew and augment existing relationships and agreements between
NAL and European libraries, especially in the area of document exchange
and delivery.
-
Explore possibilities for new collaboration and strengthening of existing
agreements in information gathering and the development ofinformation products.
LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES:
-
Encourage the transfer of effective and appropriate programs, strategies,
and resources especially as they relate to the use ofadvanced information
technologies to develop information access, retrieval, and delivery systems
that facilitate learning and problem solving in agriculture and the natural
resources.
-
Develop cooperative programs to identify, organize, and provide cost-effective
access to information resources nationally and internationally so that
resources are available regardless of the location of either the user or
the information itself
-
Identify centers of excellence, scientific expertise and current research
within each country.
-
Pursue joint funding of new collaborative information research and
development programs in priority program areas ofmutual interest and concern.
BENEFITS TO THE INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY COMMUNITY:
-
Improved access to agricultural information, both current and historical,
produced in or held by participating countries.
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Assistance in establishing and developing methods and mechanisms for
the exchange of agricultural information.
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Strengthen relationships among participating countries.
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