The  Institute  of  Scientific and  Technical  Information  for
Agriculture (ISTIA) has a well-developed history of cooperation
with  the  Food  and  Agriculture Organization  of  the  United
Nations.  One  of ISTIA’s main tasks  is to input the  national
agricultural data onto the AGRIS and CARIS databases.

Slovakia has been a participant in AGRIS since 1975. The Slovak
records were at first handled at the national centre in Prague.
Later, in the 1980s, they were prepared at the Nitra sub-office
and  regularly  sent to Prague, there put onto punch  tape  and
together with the Czech records sent on to Vienna. In 1985  the
punch  tapes were replaced by floppy disks. In 1993, after  the
birth of the independent Slovak state, ISTIA’s branch office in
Bratislava took over the handling of the national data.

In 1995 the institute made a welcome step forward when it began
to input onto the international CARIS database data on on-going
or just-completed research projects.
A landmark was the extension of the AGRIS/CARIS network through
sub-centres around Slovakia.

Another  important step was entry onto the Internet.  From  the
latter  half  of  1995  our input has been  passed  along  this
international network.

At  present  in Slovakia four of the sub-centres  handle  AGRIS
records  and  thirty-one handle CARIS records.  These  are  all
mainly  in research institutes related to agriculture,  in  the
Slovak Academy of Sciences, and in universities.
With  a  view to widening the network of Slovak sub-centres  we
were  asked  by  ACCG  in Rome to test out  the  new  CARINplus
software for the inputting of data onto the CARIS database.

In  December  1995  AGRIS/CARIS was moved  from  Bratislava  to
Nitra,  and during the year personnel stabilized. The institute
was   joined  by  Ing.  Mária  Debrecéniová,  CSc.  and  Lubica
Jedličková, PhDr.

Onto  the AGRIS database we process about 700 records  a  year,
mostly  from periodicals, and some proceedings from  scientific
conferences  and  seminars, monographs,  and  similar  sources.
According to the conclusions of the last technical consultation
on AGRIS/CARIS in 1994, we want in the largest possible measure
to  handle ”grey” literature, or non-traditional documents.  It
is  important  to  obtain these documents in a systematic  way,
however,  as at present we receive them only through   personal
contacts or by accident. By the end of the year we will, as  an
experiment,  arrange in the database films that were  presented
at  the  international film festival AGROFILM. Later  we  would
like  to  present films shown at the film festivals  ENVIROFILM
and  EKOTOPFILM, held this year in Banska Bystrica and  Žilina.
In  the  future we will also store patents and norms.  This  is
made  easier  for  us  by  the fact the  Slovak  Institute  for
Standardization also uses the Micro CDS/ISIS software.

Thanks  to ACCG in Rome and APU in Vienna our future work  will
be  strengthened.  New  software will  be  introduced  for  the
inputting of AGRINplus and CARINplus.  In APU in Vienna an  FTP
server was installed, which makes possible not only the sending
of   inputs  but  the  retrieval  of  files  connected  to  the
preparation of the inputs, for example AGROVOC (if  the  office
were  to  lose  its  hard copy). In recent days  the  moderated
discussion  group AGRIS-input, meeting through  the  electronic
post,  was  renewed.  As its name implies the  group  discusses
matters  related  to inputting, and we find this  very  useful,
since  new  questions  are constantly arising.  A  further  two
discussion  groups dedicated to indexing and to  the  technical
details of input preparation will soon start up.

With  the  help of CEIT we are working on linking MicroCDS/ISIS
applications for the handling of the central catalogue and  for
entering  records onto the AGRIS database - AGRIN - which  will
mean much greater efficiency in our work.

No  matter  how from year to year the quality of the literature
increases, there always remains a gap, mostly in the quality of
the English abstracts, in some periodicals.
In  the  latter  period our work has also been  affected  by  a
decrease in the number of Slovak periodicals and by a very  low
number of specialist monographs.

Onto the CARIS database we place about sixty records yearly. We
feel  there  is  a problem in that some of our  scientists  and
researchers  do  not wish the most basic information  on  their
projects  to  be  placed onto the database.  A  record  on  the
database  is  still perceived as an ”escape”  of   information,
even though it only concerns information contained in the title
and  goal of the project, and the names and affiliations of the
members of the research collective. This mistrust we would like
to  overcome,  and we would like the scientists  themselves  to
apply to be placed onto the databases, whether AGRIS or CARIS.

In  this regard it is necessary to realize that these databases
offer to our scientific research workers the unique possibility
for  the  results  of  their work to  enter  the  international
information   network.  Precisely  through  the  research   and
searching capabilities this information reaches other web users
and becomes part of the living information stream.

Because of centralised processing, such as that for CAB,  there
are very strict selection criteria for information entering the
databases. In CAB for example, there is room for only the  most
distinguished journals, and the process of recognition is  very
strict.  In AGRIS/CARIS,  the databases handled by the national
centres  (system  of  sub-centres) allow the  mapping  out  and
processing  of information on a much broader and,  importantly,
national scale. The possibilities for presenting the results of
Slovak  science are therefore much greater. If we  compare  the
number  of  records  of  Slovak authors on  the  CAB  Abstracts
database and in the AGRIS database, for the period 1995 to July
1996, on the CAB Abstracts there were found 166 records and  on
the  AGRIS  database  743. These numbers  confirm  my  previous
statement.

Also to overcome the hesitation of the research specialists, to
show  them  how  useful  our work can  be  for  them,  we  make
presentations  on AGRIS/CARIS at conferences and workshops.  We
do   retrieval  services  free  of  charge  for   students   of
agriculture  as  our  future users. And we  want  to  establish
closer  contact with the University of Agriculture by means  of
presentations for students and other academic staff.

Besides the activity of which I have spoken, our centre  offers
to carry out searches - in the AGRIS database, in the fields of
Food  and  Human  Nutrition, Fisheries  and  Forestry;  in  CAB
Abstracts,   AGRICOLA,  AGRISEARCH,  FAOSTAT,  and   from   the
Internet. We also offer translation and advisory services.

On  the  basis  of  our agreement with the FAO,  this  year  we
translated   four   FAO   publications   into   Slovak.   These
publications are:

1.  Computerised  systems  of  land  resources  appraisal  for
    agricultural development
2.  Intercountry comparisons of agricultural output and
    productivity
3.  Agricultural research policy and development
4.  Agricultural  sustainability: definition and  implications
    for agricultural and trade policy

At  the moment we are working on the AgroWebClub project, which
is  an aid to rapid communication among agricultural workers on
the Internet. But this will be covered in a further paper.