SUMMARY
      Growing  needs  of  holder of agricultural  knowledge
force  us  to  apply new information technology  and  build
reference  libraries for agriculture as necessary solution.
There are some important elements of their building :

a)  libraries needs which must be satisfied while  building
information system and which must be taken care  of :
*functional  aspects of libraries which are  in  line  with
  goals of building  of  information system
*elements which oppose to basic demands of building of  new
  information  system,  and which must  be  overcamed  (old
  ways of  thinking, old habits, ...)
 *new  elements, which do not exist now, but  which  should
  arise   with   new   possibilities  offered  by    modern
  information technology (various on-line services)

b) special needs for agricaltural libraries: procedures and
ways  for  their determining for  students,  scientist  and
other  users; standards; specialized data bases (of  genes,
seeds,  tissues, ...)

c)  technical aspects of building of information  system  :
design,   implementation,  technical  problems  and   their
solutions

d) properties of implemented solution :
*resources   in  library  (books,  periodicals,  scientific
  data)   became   visible  over   network   to   students,
  scientist and other users in remote places
*bought  resources (f. e. CAB, IFIS, CC, AGRIS, CARIS,  and
  other  data  bases  on CD-ROM) became  available  to  all
  users on the network and in remote places
*interconnection  with other libraries in the  country  and
  worlwide (f.e. AGLINET)
*data base security (inside and outside visibility)

e) potentials of our solution (discussion) :
*national   science   becames   visible   worldwide,    and
  scientific data from around the world becames visible  to
  us,  which  is  especially  important  for  countries  in
  transition
*powerfull  extension  service which allow  deliverance  of
  knowledge to users which is comparable to advice  service
  (f. e. who is who in agriculture in Croatia)
*even   the  least  country  represent  a  part  of  global
  knowledge,  there  is  no country which  is  so  rich  to
  possess all

f) vision of the final goal (virtual library)

Introduction
It is our goal to build reference libraries for agriculture
in  Croatia  using  new  information  technology  available
today.  While  the theorethical aspects of  introducing  an
automated  library system is well known, one of   the  best
rewiews  in Croatia given recently by Wolfram Neubauer  1),
practical  implementation  and problems  which  will  arise
depend  of  specific condition of every  library.  In  this
paper we would like to present some important aspects which
became visible while we were trying to design and implement
a solution for our goal.

Library   needs  which  we  must  satisfy  while   building
information system
Introducing of an automated library system (almost)  always
start  in  situation where we got library  which  is  fully
operational, with its staff and material resources arranged
and  working using old ways, without help of computers,  or
using  it  only  to automate old methods  of  working.  Our
desire  is  that, by applaying new information  technology,
library  user  will have better information services.  That
require  fundamental structural and methodological  changes
in  library  organization  and management.  Normaly,  as  a
consequence  we  expect preserved all what we  found  good,
removed  everything which was not, and a lot of new  things
which was not present before.

a)  functional aspects of libraries which are in line  with
goals  of  building of information system and we  which  we
would like to preserve :
- all  library services available to user before automation
  should  be  present after, and fairly better  (especially
  faster),  that,  of course, means that some  of  services
  are  fully replaced by new ways of obtaining same service
  (for  example, on-line catalogue  instead of  card  index
  box)
- library  staff must be fully operational and  on  service
  in  new  situation, as was before, the  human  factor  is
  allways  the  most important element of  system.  Let  us
  cite   what   could   happend  if  we  disregard   it   :
  ”Frustrated  librarians need twice as  much  time  for  a
  complicated bibliografic  description at a terminal  than
  the    colleague   who   does   the   same    description
  conventionaly and knows the rules” 1)
- library  user should have easy access to new  or  changed
  services at liest as before,  that means that as  a  part
  of  introducing  new  technology we must  offer  ways  to
  educate  user  how  to use and benefit from  new  system.
  That,  again,  require that librarians themselves  should
  be  well  educated  and know how to use  new  system  and
  resources it offers

b)  elements  which oppose to basic demands of building  of
new information technology and which must be overcamed.
This  elements  are  almost  always  connected  with  human
factor.  Human  fears  from new  and  unknown   and  it  is
instinctive. People fear for their jobs, their capacity  to
learn  new  skills and satisfy job needs in new  situation.
This  all  could be overcame by carefully planning  changes
and  informing librarians from beginning, asking  them  for
they  opinion and participation, educating them and alowing
them  to  understand and appreciate benefits of new system.
However,  there are elements which simply must be overcamed
:
- old  ways of thinking, it comes when people are ready  to
  accept computers, but are thinking from current point  of
  view,  for  example  when they want to  use  computer  to
  automate card index by printing cards from computer,  and
  do  not  want  to  replace card index system  by  on-line
  catalogue. This way of thinking is still present by  many
  librarians  even today 2). There is another  example  few
  years ago when person in charge of an library  decide  to
  paralel with buying new computer system worth 7000  US  $
  spend another 9000 US $ to buy special new steel box  for
  card index system.
- old  habits,  sometimes is realy hard  to  introduce  new
  methods,   especialy  with  older   members   of   staff.
  Consider,  for  example  librarian  who  spent  40  years
  working  with card index system, and now must  learn  new
  ways  to  do  the same job, a kind of  revolt  is  almost
  natural.
- using  existing  computer equipment  in  wrong  ways,  or
  misunderstanding arisen from previouse use  of  computers
  without proper education and knowledge.

c)  new elements, which appear after new information system
is  build,  and  which  require  from  library  staff   new
knowledge and skill. If the system is carefully planned  it
could go relatively smouth, however there is realy a lot of
new  things to learn, and  to learn means learn good enough
to  serve  and  educate library user which sometimes   know
considerably  less  than librarian  about  new  information
technology. That include :
- basic   concept   of   using  computers,   entering   and
  retrieving data
- data bases concepts, using and maintaning
- on-line catalogue
- on-line loan system
- automated ordering of books and periodicals
- CD-ROM technology
- ...

Special needs for agricultural libraries
When  introducing  new information system for  agricultural
libraries  we  must  consider their specific  situation  in
Croatia. There exist Central Agricultural Library in Zagreb
and  ten  other agricultural libraries in all major  towns,
which are formally connected with the Central one, but with
very  small information flow. Every library cover  basicaly
agricultural needs which are dominant in their  habit,  and
they  differ very much from one part of the country to  the
other.  Growing  needs of holder of agricultural  knowledge
force  us  to  apply new information technology  and  build
reference  libraries for agriculture as necessary solution.
We  needed to determine precisely what these needs are  and
which is the best way to satisfy them.
By   contacting and asking a lot of students, scientist and
other  users we conclude that there is a need for a  strong
extension service for agricultural knowledge in Croatia. It
is  necessary  to have easy accesssible place  where  users
could find all needed knowledge. That include :

- standards supported or determined by goverment
- specialised  data  bases (of seeds, tissue,  genes,  ...)
  with data concerning Croatian agricultur
- classical agricultural knowledge (concerning Croatia)
- who is who in agricultur in Croatia data base
- ability  to  find  right answer or  advice  for  specific
  questions
- access to agricultural knowledge worldwide

Technical aspects of building of information system
There  are some technical and practical restrictions  which
influence design and building of our new information system:

- the   final   solution   for  our   problem   should   be
  incorporated   considering  existing   global    academic
  network  structure in Croatia (Carnet, Croatian  part  of
  INTERNET),  and   (technical)  development  designed   by
  goverment
- some  libraries have automated some segments by  programs
  donated  and  supported  by goverment  (CROLIST),  UNESCO
  (CDS  ISIS),  or  other  foreign institution.  They  have
  already created data bases with data for their books  and
  periodicals, which are  not compatible between  different
  libraries. The problem which arise from that  is  how  to
  preserve  data  already entered and convert  it  to  new,
  compatible  data  format.  These,  as  experience  shows,
  could  be sometimes very expensive in terms of  time  and
  money 3)
- designing  system which include many scattered  libraries
  (long  distances)  require a lot of time  to  obtain  all
  necessary data and to coordinate planning
Final  solution, which include building local LANs at every
agricultural  library  connected together  in  a  WAN,  and
trough CARNET and INTERNET to CROATIA and world allow us to
build  a cluster of  knowledge which could grow every  day,
is  independent inside and outside and satisfy all  desired
function.

Properties of implemented solution
Final  implementation  will allow all  our  users  to  have
direct  acces to library resources wherevere they physicaly
may be. That include :
- resources  in  library  (books,  periodicals,  scientific
  data)   became   visible  over  network    to   students,
  scientist,  extension services experts, and  other  users
  in remote places
- bought resources (f. e. CAB, IFIS, CC, AGRIS, CARIS,  and
  other  data  bases  on CD- ROM) became available  to  all
  users on the network and in remote places
- interconnection with other libraries in the  country  and
  worlwide     (f.e.    AGLINET),    including    automated
  interlibrary loan
- data  base  security, there are well  defined  levels  of
  access  to  data, beginning from ability of  entering  or
  altering  data,  to  defined  scope  of  visibility   for
  different class of  users

Potentials of our solution
Implementation  of  such information  system  of  reference
libraries   for  agriculture  open  to  us  a  variety   of
possibilities. Here are some interesting points :
- national   science   becames   visible   worldwide,   and
  scientific  data  from around the world  becames  visible
  to  us,  which  is especially important for countries  in
  transition. That  means that we could exchange data  with
  people  which have a lot of problems in  common with  us,
  not only scientific needs.
- powerfull  extension service which allow  deliverance  of
  knowledge  to  users  which  is   comparable  to   advice
  service (f. e. who is who in agriculture in Croatia)
- access  to worldwide knowledge convince people that  only
  national  knowledge is not enough,  more knowledge  means
  faster and better solution of  problems
- even  the  least  country  represent  a  part  of  global
  knowledge,  there  is  no country which  is  so  rich  to
  possess all

Vision of the final goal (virtual library)
We  hope that building of such kind of system is good basis
for  future development, which at the end leads us to  real
virtual library, library without needs for human, with  all
data accessible to user in every moment everywhere, without
needs for they physical alocation or direct intervention.

Refferences
1) Wolfram   Neubauer:  Organization  and   management   of
     automated  systems in libraries, Vjesnik  bibliotekara
     Hrvatske, Zagreb, Croatia 1993
2) Sand   Bakija:  Presentation  of  software  package  for
     processing  periodicals,  presentation and  discussion
     at  30th  kongress  of  Croatian  Librarian   Society,
     Primošten, Croatia 1996
3) Vedrana  Juričić  and  Sand Bakija: Conversion  of  data
     sources  from  CDS  ISIS to  PiKaDo, IAML/IASA  Annual
     conference, Perugia, Italia 1996