As  you have already heard, lively working contacts connect  us
with other international organizations and societies of similar
orientation,  for instance the national agricultural  libraries
and  information  centres of Central and  Eastern  Europe,  the
United   States,  IAALD  (the  international  organization   of
agricultural information workers), ZADI in Bonn, and others.

Since  1993 we have been learning to use the Internet, and  now
can hardly imagine working without it. Since the summer we have
had  our own Homepage. The Environmental impact report  on  the
Gabcikovo  hydro-project is  available there, and  we  hope  to
continue with further projects.   We  also  now  have  our  own
server.
Something else new  is the AgroWebClub, and this is what I want
to  speak  about today. The AgroWebClub will be an  information
tool  based  on the World Wide Web, FTP, mailing lists,  e-mail
and other services of the Internet.

The  AWC  will help facilitate contacts and cooperation between
agricultural  libraries,  research  institutions,  schools  and
other organizations.
The  club  hopes  to  become  an informal   meeting  place  for
discussion of questions of an agricultural character.

The  idea  behind the founding of the AWC came up in  September
1995  in  Nitra,  during an international  seminar  devoted  to
working  on  the  Internet. The seminar was  organized  by  our
Institute, and was attended by representatives of libraries and
information  centres  in  Russia,  Bielorussia,  the   Ukraine,
Latvia,  Lithuania,  Estonia,  Moldava,  Germany,  Austria  and
Slovakia. The creator and operator of the AWC is  ISTIA.

The goal of the project is the development of a metainformation
system, whose functions would be:

A)    To  expand  the  information  circle  in  the  field   of
 agriculture to include all interested co-workers

B)   To  develop  a  channel  for the exchange  of  information
 between agricultural specialists and laymen

C)    To   introduce  the  activities  of  Slovak  and  foreign
 agricultural libraries, information centres, research    
 institutes,  societies,  schools  and  other organizations

D)   To develop a meeting place where all those interested  can
 find out about agricultural activities and events.

Membership

Club  membership is open to any person or organization  on  the
Internet.  Membership  is confirmed  in  writing  to  the  club
manager, the membership form being included on the Page.  Every
member  can  influence the shaping of the Page, by contributing
to  the individual divisions such as articles, reports, and  so
on.  This  can  be done by submitting to us directly  from  the
Page.

Members are not required to fulfill any duties.

Depending  on interest, theme mailing lists will be  developed.
The  first  of  these  will be the Roundtable,  which  will  be
devoted  to the difficulties of national agricultural libraries
and information centres of Central and Eastern Europe. The need
for  fluent contacts between these centres was the motive force
behind the founding of this mailing list.

The Club will first of all operate on the basis of the WWW Home
Page.  We thought also of those members who do not have  access
to  the  Internet  or  to whom the technical  difficulties  are
intimidating.  Such members will be able to take  part  in  the
club  in  various ways: asked information will be  distributed,
discussion  groups will be open, and the texts of  publications
and  material presented on the Home Page will also be available
on the FTP servers.

Services

The AgroWebClub offers a wide range of services.
Since  single services require differing times to  fulfill  and
make  accessible, or because their structure requires the  help
of   contributors,  they  can  be  divided  into   three   time
categories:

In  the first group are those that can be done immediately once
the AWC Page is onto the Net:
*   information   about   the  activities   of   agricultural
    libraries, information and specialized centres
*   discussion groups - according to interest
*   information about special actions and exhibitions
*   presentations of interested institutions’  messages
*   index and addresses of club members
*   links to interested organizations, societies, libraries,
    and individuals through message boxes on the Home Page.
*   expedited research from the databases and acquisition
    lists to collection of the FAO depository library
*   discussion channel in the popular IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

In the second stage will be provided services that are time-
consuming, or whose contents will partly be provided with the
help of  contributors. Such services will include:

*   information on agricultural publications
*   index and addresses of interested institutions

And for the future we are considering making AWC documents
available through FTP (File Transport Processing) information
and viewpoints on agricultural legislation within Slovakia and
the countries of the European Union.

The Club is open to stimulating opinions and ideas. Interested
parties can contact us at the Institute for Scientific and
Technical Information for Agriculture in Nitra, or on e-mail
at:

                       uvtip@nr.sanet.sk
                    chrenekova@nr.sanet.sk
                      libiak@nr.sanet.sk
                    http://www.uniag.sk/awc

In conclusion: AgroWebClub Nitra will be the focal point where
you will be able to find the information you need in
agriculture and related fields.