PANEL ON INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE - INTERNATIONAL SCENE

Overview of information activities in the field of agriculture in the Czech Republic

Helena Slezáková

Institute of Agricultural and Food Information
Praha 2, Czech Republic

Historical introduction

Before the breakdown of the Iron Curtain between the East and West in 1989, the dissemination of agricultural information in the Czech Republic was not very satisfactory but relatively stable.

A standardized structure of information centers existed there - starting with the elementary ones situated in individual research institutions, proceeding to the intermediary level, the large information centers that aimed at a broader scope of research activities, and finally proceeding to one central information institution, the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture along with its Central Agricultural and Forestry Library.

There existed a very clear and defined formal link among these institutions regarding their responsibility and decisive powers. Some decisions were made only in the central institution (e.g., decisions about ordering information materials that were paid for in hard currency and limited by the government). This institution was also given limited amounts of hard currency used for sear-ching information in database centers in Western countries. These databases could be accessed from only one specially designated organization that was compelled to monitor the whole information transfer.

Yet the Czechoslovakian agricultural scientists were not completely isolated from the ambient world. In addition to the limited access to foreign databases, they were able to use, without any restrictions, the international information system AGRIS, which was created under the auspices of the Food and Agricul-ture Organization of the United Nations with a contribution by Czechoslovakia. Many scientists received data they needed directly from the authors after they had located the source in Current Contents, and many researchers were members of "invisible colleges" following their participation in international congresses and workshops in Czechoslovakia and abroad.

Changes in the system of information dissemination and in the information needs of Czech researchers after 1989

The changes of the political system and the following economical transformation intensively influenced the system of information dissemination in all fields of the

economical life in the Czech Republic, including agriculture. The access to foreign information sources was fully liberated, and every user could search for information everywhere - if he or she thought it was reasonable from an econo-mic point of view.

Access to information and information technology

Every organization is now allowed to use as much hard currency as they need and can afford. It is easier to buy computers, modems and other equipment from the whole world, not only from the COMECON countries as before. The com-puters are the more powerful the lower are the restrictions from the part of Wes-tern Europe and the United States.

In addition to information resources being available in domestic libraries, Czech research scientists can also access other resources such as databases in foreign database centers (DIALOG, DATASTAR, STN, etc.) as well as a wide spectrum of databases on CD-ROMs.

The transformation is also making it possible to connect the Czech academic and research community to global computer networks. Computer users in the Czech Republic can directly access the following Wide Area Computer Net-works: EARN/BITNET, EUnet, and Internet. Many other networks can be reached from them. EARN, the European Academic and Research Network with its 10 nodes in the Czech Republic, plays an important role in the Czech wide area networking. EUnet, a network of Unix-based computers, has 19 nodes in the Czech Republic, mostly at commercial and academic institutions. The most attractive network for the Czech users is the Internet, the worldwide "network of networks." The backbone of these networks accessible in the Czech Republic has been created by CESNET (Czech Educational and Scientific Network).

CESNET is financed mainly from the state budget through the chapter of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, with contributions from connected institutions that are not supported by this Ministry. The supreme authority of CESNET is the CESNET Council. It consists of professional representatives of the Ministry, of universities, and of other involved institutions. The routine administration of CESNET, both technical and economical, is performed by the

Computing Centre of the Czech Technical University. The following universities

and institutions have been connected to CESNET:

Research Funding

The way of research financing has also changed very significantly. Instead of allocating funds to research institutions as a whole, every researcher has to ask for specified resources for his own project. Many of them, not being used to such procedures, find themselves overwhelmed with this administrative part of their projects and do not have enough time for actual research.

The Impact of the Transformation on User Needs in Agriculture

As in many other fields of the Czech economy, the transition period in agricul-ture has its good as well as bad features. Unlike former times, the decisive point of view is the economical one. With the windows now open to all parts of the world, considerations are being made whether all domestic research is necessary and useful. Some of the research institutions, in an effort to procure necessary resources, have reorganized and are oriented now toward production than research activities.

The former hierarchical network of agricultural information centers does not exist anymore; new ones are being built slowly. The agricultural institutions, with the exception of the Agricultural University, have no Internet connectivity yet. The common policy of acquirement of information sources has been abandoned; a general access to all library catalogs does not exist so far. Hope-fully this situation will improve significantly, as the Czech Ministry of Agricul-

ture becomes aware of the necessity of good information services to all users in agriculture and takes the necessary steps toward its amelioration.
 

Q & A_________________

DISCUSSIONS
 

[David Penniman]

We have more time for questions and discussions. We shall start with questions for Slezakova, and then open up for all previous speakers. Are there comments and questions for Helena?

[Pam Andre]

Many of you may not know that the National Agricultural Library has an ongoing relationship with a number of agricultural libraries in Central and Eastern Euro-pean countries. Helena, I would like to ask you from your perspective, what are the changes you see as a result of your relationship not only with the United States and the National Agricultural Library, but also with your colleagues in Central and Eastern Europe.

[Helena Slezáková]

Until 1988 and 1989, there were strong relationships with our colleagues in Cen-tral and Eastern European countries. The recent efforts from the U.S. National Agricultural Library in bringing the agricultural libraries in the region together are very useful.

[Elizabeth Kirk]

I would like to ask about your perceptions on the extent to which agricultural research and other types of research in the Czech Republic have been revised to give priority to applied agricultural research that places emphasis on economic growth and development. In visiting Prague and Budapest areas, I think that a lot of R&D money has been channeled to things which will bring economic growth. In terms of the library resources which are being offered, I get requests for mana-gement books, business books, and others, but don't hear a lot about basic anato-my and other basic books being ordered. Do you notice that?

[Helena Slezáková]

There is a decreasing amount of interest in research and information in demand. So, what we are trying to do is to collect all necessary information in our library and hope that the users will need us.