The  purpose  of  our  meeting is to  discuss  some  questions
connected  with the cooperation of experts from the  field  of
agricultural   scientific-technical   information.    In    my
presentation I would like to give a description  of the  state
of this sphere in the Czech Republic from the point of view of
branch information institute.

A  large range of activities and services we provide  is based
on primary information sources stored in both our libraries  -
Central  Agricultural and Forestry Library  and  Central  Food
Library.  Delimitation  of activities of  these  libraries  is
given  by  historical background and space capacities  because
two  separate  institutes (the concern of one was  agriculture
and   forestry,  the  concern  of  the  other   was  food  and
nutrition)  existed up to 1992. At present,  we are  facing  a
task  to  integrate  our  libraries  into  one  unit.  It   is
scheduled  to  be  finished  by the  beginning  of   the  next
century.  This fact has to be taken into account when  working
on  computer  technology improvements  and  new  software  and
hardware  implementation  .First  of  all,  compatibility   of
systems in the  above mentioned libraries has to be ensured.

At   this moment, I would like to mention two facts which  are
very  important  from  the  point  of  view  of  international
cooperation.   I  mean  our membership  in  the  international
network  of agricultural libraries AGLINET and the  status  of
the FAO Depository Library for the Czech Republic given to the
Central  Agricultural and Forestry Library.You will hear  more
about that from my colleague Dr Ivo Hoch.

The advantage of the participation of the Central Agricultural
and  Forestry Library in the AGLINET system is the  fact  that
the   Czech  Agricultural  Bibliography  is  produced  in  our
institute and that we have been taking part in the building of
AGRIS  database since its very beginning in 1975.  Since  that
time  until the end of 1992  about 2000 bibliographic  records
for
Czechoslovak agricultural literature was anually sent  to  the
AGRIS   system.  After the split of the Czechoslovak  Republic
into two separate states, a number of records inputted by  our
institute - a representative of the independent Czech Republic
-  has  somewhat  decreased as a result of smaller  number  of
primary  sources published  in the smaller newly -born  state.
At this point I would like to point out that a profession of a
documentalist  consisting in choosing  a  proper  article  and
subsequent abstracting activities  requires an expert with the
excellent knowledge of both subject and language. That can  be
testified by the fact that all our documentalists who  applied
for  fellowship in foreign libraries were successful.  On  the
one  hand,  it  is   pleasant to learn  if  it  goes  for  the
evaluation of their professionalism, on the othe hand, it  can
cause  some  troubles  in  the run of the  department  because
searching for a replacement  for a well-trained worker is very
difficult under the present system of remuneration of research
and information workers.

We  consider both bibliographic records and abstracts of great
importance  to users. A high quality abstract can serve  as  a
guide  in  a  primary source and can help  to  save  time  for
studying  professional  literature.  To  be  short,.  a   good
abstract  has  got  a  great informative value.  We  are  very
pleased   by   an   increasing  number  of   both   abstracted
bibliographic  records  and bibliographic  records  themselves
produced  in  our national  input centre for AGRIS.  The  1995
input  represented 1300 records, of which 389 were  abstracted
ones  (30  %). By the end of September 1996, 512  our  records
were  provided by abstracts  which represented 37 per cent  of
the  total number of 1389 records produced that year. Starting
with  January  1997, new records for AGRIS  (up-to-dated  each
month)  will  be  made  accessible over the  Internet  on  the
International Atomic Energy Agency server. In connection  with
that  fact  I  would  like to emphasize the  necessity  of  an
increasing  number  of abstracted records once  more.  If  our
partners  also  go  the  same way, all sides  will  have  more
opportunity  to benefit from  the results of the others,  will
be  able  to  overcome language barriers and in  that  way  to
contribute  to  expanding cooperation  activities  within  the
AGLINET network.

Now  I  would like to talk a little more about  the  issue  of
abstract quality.  About thirty years ago cooperation  between
the  producer of the word best known food database FSTA  (Food
Science and Technology Abstracts) and the food section of  our
institute  was  established. Since  that  time  we  have  been
contributing abstracted  records for professional articles  by
Czech and other Central and  Eastern European authors to  that
database.  Our documentalists have gained priceless experience
with  producing  annotated records and they can help  to  make
Czech  authors more “visible” in the world databases and  more
known  in  the  professional  world.  And  another  thing.  We
publishes  10 professional journals - Crop production,  Animal
production,  Veterinary  medicine,   Agricultural   economics,
Forestry,  Agricultural Engineering,  Food   sciences,   Plant
Protection,   Horticultural  Science  ,  Genetics  and   Plant
Breeding.  Our publishing activities are generously  supported
from the financial sources of the Ministry of Agriculture.  We
make an effort to made results of  Czech agricultural research
more  known in the world and that is the reason why we publish
some articles in English.  Articles in Czech  are provided  by
detailed   English  summaries   and  we  also  encourage   our
contributors  to produce a  quality abstracts.  We  are  fully
aware  of the fact that an abstract of high quality is a proof
of  a  good  work and can serve as a guide for foreign  users.
This   is   very   important  especially  at   a   time   when
international cooperation contacts are being established   and
experts search for partners  for solving common problems. Here
I  would  like to point out  that although the Slovak Republic
does  not  participate  financially in  publishing  the  above
mentioned  journals, Slovak authors are welcome to  contribute
to  them.   Slovak  which can be understood by  Czech  readers
easily is considered to be in our publications equal to  Czech
.

Besides  our active participation in  AGRIS,  we also  prepare
input  for  another  FAO  system  CARIS (Current  Agricultural
Research   Information  System).  The  importance  of   active
participation consists not only in  inputting records but also
in  using  its  output.   In  accordance  with  the  agreement
concluded   between  representatives  of  our  institute   and
CRIS/USDA  (Current Research Information System), our  records
prepared for CARIS go then to CRIS
where  they  form  a  separate subfile called   CZARIS  (Czech
Agricultural  Research Information System).

The  Czech  Republic became a CARIS member  in  autumn   1993.
After  getting  over  some  initial  problems  connected  with
mastering new rules for processing, the cooperation with CARIS
started  to  develop successfully.  In 1993  an  input  of  50
records was created , in 1994 it was 140 records, in  1995  93
records  and in 1996  we have created 304 records by  the  end
of  September 1996. Quality of  Czech input is highy evaluated
and our country was chosen to test new  input programme called
CARIN Plus.

As  it  has  been already mentioned, the food section  of  our
institute  takes  part  in  the  building  of  the  commercial
database  FSTA  produced  by the international  company  IFIS,
headquarted  in  Reading,  UK. Since  1967  we  have  inputted
thousands of records for articles published in periodicals  in
our  and other Central and Eastern European countries.   After
political changes in
1989,   the   number   of  published  journals   has   dropped
considerably  and that fact, of course,  found its  reflection
in  a decreasing number of our records for FSTA. In the period
of  1992-1995 about 80 records, on average, were anually  sent
to that database.

Retrospective  and   “current awareness”  literature  searches
with  monthly or quarterly periodicity are provided  from  all
these  databases, and also from  smaller Czech  ones.  Primary
information provided by our libraries and information  systems
department (database department) can be used  by the staff  of
study departments as a basis for working out various forms  of
study  materials and expert information according to our users
requests.  We  also  publish  a number  of  brief  information
periodicals  for entrepreneurial sphere containing either  hot
(signal)  information  on novelties and  developments  in  the
respective   field   or    more  detailed   contributions   of
compilatory  nature  with  citations for  original  documents.
Thanks  to these publications information from foreign sources
are made accessible to Czech readers in their mother tongue.

We   also   pay  much  attention  to  the  question  of   food
legislation.  In  our  periodicals we publish  information  on
legislative measures taken throughout the world, mainly in the
EU   and  countries  important  from  the  point  of  view  of
establishing  trade  contacts.  We  also  prepare   foundation
materials  for  authors  of the Czech food  and   agricultural
legislation.  Our  institute serves as a national  information
centre  with  the aim to provide information on the  state  of
Czech  food  legislation . The process  of  rapprochement   of
countries  of  Central and Eastern Europe  and  liberalisation
trends in world and regional trade are important marks of  our
era  and  that  is a reason why  I consider  the expending  of
cooperation  activities in the sphere of  legislation   to  be
very  beneficial.  We gather information concerning  Food  Law
which  is  underway  and also related regulations and  we  are
ready  to provide our foreign partners with them. We would  be
grateful  if our colleagues from Central and Eastern  European
countries could, in return,  supply us with similar ones.   As
our  native  languages can be a barrier for understanding   it
would  be  useful to ensure translation of these   information
into  Russian or English. For cooperation with other  European
countries  is,  of  course, preferred English.  I  kindly  ask
participants to that workshop to consider my suggestion  as  I
think  that its implementation may help to increase reputation
of our institutions.

Our  era is often referred as an “information age”.  It brings
along greater financial demands for the implementation of  new
technologies. Our libraries are already automated and  we  are
making  an  effort to be fully connected to the  Internet.  At
present,  e-mail is already in use and preparatory  works  for
having  www  access  and creation of our  own  home  page  are
underway.  But  here  it is necessary to differeniate  between
commercial   activities  and  and  our  mission   to   provide
information  (in  the  framework of state information  policy)
free  of  charge.  Costs  for meeting  information  needs  are
growing  steadily  but, unfortunately, the same  is  not  true
about the financial means our government put into this sphere.
On the one hand,  the value of information in the costs sector
is  going up,  on the other hand,  we are still witnesses,  in
the  income sector, of an old socialist stereotyte of thinking
that information should be provided free of charge, especially
in the field of agriculture. I consider it  one of the biggest
problems  we are facing. That is why we would like to  develop
cooperation with our partners in two directions -  in  finding
ways  how to decrease common costs (e.g. by division of labour
or   mutual   providing  with  sources)  and   in   exchanging
experiences how to organize our work and raise money.

At  the  end of my paper I would like to mentioned one problem
which  has  arisen  in our food library in connection  with  a
budget cut. Financial means we receive from the sources of the
Ministry  of  Agriculture have not allowed  us  this  year  to
subscribe  to  journals  from  the  field  of  cosmetics   and
household  and personal products industry . We have encouraged
users   interested  in  these  journals  to  sponsored   their
purchase.  These journals are now available for them.  in  the
library.   The  sponsorship proved to be  beneficial  to  both
sides - it has helped us to ensure the continuity of the above
mentioned periodicals and helped users save their money.

The  importance of such meetings of librarians and information
workers from the field of agriculture consists mainly  in  the
possibility to exchange experiences and I was fully  aware  of
that fact when working on my presentation. My intention was to
provoke  response, even negative and I will  consider  it  the
greatest  asset  of  my  contribution.  A   matter   of   fact
discussion
is  ,  in my opinion, a driving power for solving any problem.
Thanks  to  the organizers of that workshop  for providing  us
with a possibility to conduct such a discussion.