PANEL ON NATIONAL LIBRARIES' INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS OF THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY
Pam Andre
Director
U.S. National Agricultural Library
Belsville, MD 20705, USA
pandre@nalusda.gov
The National Agricultural Library (NAL) has been participating in international programs for over 20 years. These activities have been based on the need for agricultural information worldwide.
AGRIS/CARIS
The National Agricultural Library's (NAL) most long-term activity is in conjunc-tion with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). NAL is a member of the AGRIS/CARIS system. Established by FAO, this is a world-wide system for collecting, describing, and disseminating agricultural informa-tion. Current membership is over 125 national and 18 international centers.
AGRIS is a cooperative agricultural information system whereby a participa-ting center in each country is responsible for cataloging and indexing its own publications in a standard format and contributing the resulting bibliographic data to FAO. FAO/AGRIS collects the contributed bibliographic information in all fields of agriculture. Monographs and serials in the field of forestry are included. The bibliographic records are made available worldwide in online, CD-ROM, and print formats. AGRIS celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1994.
The NAL serves as the coordinator of the AGRIS system in the United States. As such, it produces a special monthly tape of U.S. imprints for input into the AGRIS database. Last year, NAL contributed over 50,000 records to the AGRIS database on all subjects relating to agriculture, including forestry.
CARIS is a cooperative database that tracks research in progress being carried out in developing countries. Like AGRIS, each country is responsible for contri-buting information on agricultural and related (including forestry and wood technology) research projects being carried out within its borders.
FAO also coordinates an international Agricultural Libraries Network (AGLI-NET) to ensure access to international agricultural literature. With a membership of approximately 30 countries, AGLINET member libraries provide each other with the following services:
• Priority interlibrary loan and reproduction service, normally without charge.
• Bibliographic products to enhance location and referral services.
The AGRIS database contains over 2 million citations.
NEW INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
More recently, with changes in world events, NAL has become involved in USDA initiatives in three different areas of the world: Central/Eastern Europe, Egypt, and Latin America.
Central/Eastern Europe
In 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a major U.S. foreign policy initiative was to support the emerging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. Because most of these countries had agriculturally related economies, USDA became closely involved in the rebuilding effort.
As part of the effort, NAL initiated a program to work with agricultural libraries to help provide an information infrastructure for the agricultural commu-nity. The effort began in the fall of 1991, when NAL hosted a 2-week workshop with representatives from six countries.
Four Roundtables have been held since 1991:
• Possibilities for Cooperation between the U.S. National Agricultural Library (NAL) and Central European Agricultural Libraries, October 4-9, 1992, Budapest, Hungary (hosted by Hungarian National Agricultural Library). This meeting focused on the need for cooperation among all partners.
• Networking Agricultural Information: Next Steps, September 21-24, 1993, Radzikow, Poland (hosted by the Central Agricultural Library). This meet-ing focused on library networking systems.
• The Use of Integrated Library Systems to Access and Disseminate Agricul-tural Information, September 26-30, 1994, Nitra Slovak Republic (hosted by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information on Agriculture-- Nitra). This meeting focused on the importance of automated library systems.
A fifth Roundtable will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, in the fall of 1995.
Accomplishments of the Roundtable Initiative include:
• Presentation and demonstration of CD-ROM workstation and agricultural information products on CD-ROM to the Hungarian National Agricultural Library through a USDA/OICD-supported grant.
• Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture sponsorship of a CD-ROM training workshop in Budapest (mid-May 1993) for Central European librarians. NAL provided an instructor.
• Funding received to launch Surplus Book and Journal Program. Assistance from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; USDA/ OICD; and USDA, Agricultural Research Service.
• Funds received from State Department and OICD for establishment of a CD-ROM-based agricultural information access capability in the Baltic Republic (installed August/September 1994).
• Funds awarded under Cochran Fellowship Program to support two library internships at the National Agricultural Library.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has invested billions of dollars to the improvement of Egyptian agriculture. The National Agricultural Research Project, NARP included an information component that called for the creation of an Egyptian National Agricultural Library (ENAL). This was to be a modern, electronic library facility that would function as a regional center for agricultural information. Through a formal agreement with the USDA unit for international cooperation and development, NAL became a major resource for this effort.
Building plans were developed under contract in the late 1980s. In 1990, NAL became involved in the implementation planning for the ENAL operation. NAL staff were consulted on such issues as organizational size and structure, systems procurement, collection development, training, and AGLINET member-ship.
In the last 1 1/2 years, NAL has sponsored a number of major training activi-ties that have involved hosting over a dozen ENAL staff for periods of 2 to 14 weeks for training in collection development and acquisitions, cataloging, reference, and microcomputers. As part of collection development/acquisitions, NAL assisted in the selection and purchase of over $1.3 million in materials.
A great deal of progress has been made in establishing the ENAL. The ENAL building has been finished and occupied; computer components and software have been delivered and are waiting installation. ENAL staff are awaiting the first receipt of materials from U.S. vendors. Additional storage space has been assigned to the library, and Internet connections are being planned.
With the library component of NARP ending in September 1995, the big issue is continuing funding. NAL is working with the U.S. Agricultural attaché and the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture to ensure funding through the PL480 pro-gram.
The library opening is projected for Spring 1995.
Latin America
As a result of numerous requests from our colleagues in Latin America, plus the impetus of the recently signed NAFTA agreement, NAL and the InterAmerican Development Bank sponsored an InterAmerican Workshop on Agricultural Information in January 1994 (in cooperation with the Associates of NAL, Inc., United States Agricultural Information Network, USDA International Coopera-tion and Development, and AIBDA -- (Inter-American Association of Agricul-tural Librarians and Documentalists).
The attendees included key leaders in the information community from a cross-section of the Americas, plus major international agricultural information organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a regional plan for agricultural infrastructure development based on a draft outline by consultant Jane Kinney Meyers.
The final report has recently been completed and is entitled: "Regional Plan for the Establishment of an InterAmerican Agricultural Network: Report of the InterAmerican Planning Workshop for Information Transfer and Networking." It represents a consensus on the identification of priority areas for access to agricul-tural information in the Americas.
The priority topics and strategies are presented in four sections, as follows:
• Human Resources and Training. Strategy: Professional library and infor-mation associations can play a key role in building capacity through the promotion of productive professional contacts and raising professional standards.
• Information Technology, Automation, and Telecommunications. Strategy: Promotion of networking, cooperative systems, and resource sharing through the use of appropriate information technology to facilitate econo-mic, expedient, and equitable use of agricultural information.
• Programs, Products, and Services. Strategy: Improve the use and accessi-bility of agricultural information for the diverse stakeholders and decision makers, through coordination and resource sharing among all information providers, ranging from smaller libraries to large regional information systems.
Q & A_________________
DISCUSSIONS
[David Penniman]
Pam, since you are the newly appointed director of NAL, can you talk about your priorities for the library specifically?
[Pam Andre]
I will tell you frankly what I told the Interview Committee: that I have a number of short-term and long-term priorities.
The short-term ones include: First of all, within NAL, to improve communi-cations among the staff at the library. The second relates to the image of the library. We need to become better known within the Department of Agriculture. Within the library community and among the FAO institutions around the world, we have established an excellent international and national reputation; however, many of my Department of Agriculture colleagues don't always know of the National Agricultural Library. We must remedy this situation. The third short-term priority is strategic planning. We started the strategic planning process about one and half year ago, and we finished the first phase in the summer of 1994. The product of this first phase is a statement called "The Mission, Vision and Values of the National Agricultural Library" (see Figures 1-2) Even at this moment we are planning the next steps. We will be constituting a team to develop our goals and objectives for the next three to five years.
For the longterm, we have a number of priorities. One of them is the electro-nic information initiative. This effort was initiated about two and half years ago. We recognized that electronic information was critical to the future of NAL -- collecting it, controlling it, describing it, storing it, and disseminating it. This effort will enable us to systematically make the transition from a paper-based library to an electronically based library.
Having said that, absolutely top on the list right now is to shepard NAL suc-cessfully through the reorganization of the Department of Agriculture. We will be merged into the Agricultural Research Service while retaining our name, budget, and leadership in the agriculture information community.
[A. Neelameghan]
You mentioned the activities related to the AGRIS program. Can you say some-thing similar in regard to the CARIS program? What is the kind of working rela-tionship with CGIAR?
[Pam Andre]
AGRIS is an international system for the collection of bibliographic materials published in agriculture. CARIS is a similar kind of system for information related to agricultural research. The second question relates to the relationship between the NAL and the CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricul-ture Research). Four years ago I would have said that we worked very closely with them. We worked with them in conjunction with their CD-ROM project, helping them to evaluate proposals and develop their first CD-ROM product. We are in fact the depository for the archival copy of their CIARL CD-ROM. Cur-rently that is the extent of our relationship.
[Minmin Chang]
I heard your report on projects in Egypt, Latin American and Eastern Europe. I am wondering whether there are any projects going on in Asian countries.
[Pam Andre]
We actually had done some work with the Chinese, particularly related to intern-ship programs. I was trying to focus on some of the key activities and projects which are currently underway. More broadly speaking, we have a number of international activities. These include various internship programs and visitor's programs. We have had a number of interns from the Chinese Academy of Agri-cultural Sciences and Beijing Agricultural University.
[Yakov Shraiberg]
Thank you. Our next speaker is Richard Hsieh of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. He will report on the international activities of the NLM.
[Richard Hsieh]
When I picked up our name tag this morning, it said GII. I must confess that as a new attendee of this conference, I did not immediately recognize the acronym GII. In my years of training in public health, GII stands for gastric intestinal infection, and that cannot be the subject of this conference.
Before describing the International Programs of NLM,
it seems appropriate to say that I have been guided by the public health
understanding of infectious diseases in my work at NLM. That is, when I
begin with a new idea for interna-tional collaboration, I need to find
out what is the host and the environment in which the new idea is to be
introduced. Is the environment and the host ready for the new idea: If
the environment is hostile for a change, or the host is not ready for a
change, one cannot force the introduction of the new idea. The agent of
the new idea will die or fade away quickly.