ELECTRONIC ACADEMIC RESEARCH NETWORK IN SLOVENIA IN ASSISTANCE OF THE AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY-INFORMATION SYSTEM

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1 ELECTRONIC ACADEMIC RESEARCH NETWORK IN SLOVENIA IN ASSISTANCE OF THE AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY-INFORMATION SYSTEM Tomaz BARTOL a ABSTRACT Professional and research library networking in Slovenia is presented in the paper along with the support of main communication utilities. Emphasis is placed on national and international networked activities of the agricultural libraries. Majority of network services to the two universities, other higher education institutions and government research institutions in Slovenia are assisted by ARNES (Academic Research NEtwork of Slovenia) which is Slovenian licensed Internet provider. Research libraries are connected via university Computer Centres (wide area network METULJ in Ljubljana) and via system COBISS/OPAC (Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services) which is based on all-slovenian shared cataloguing. Slovenia has continued full international participation in AGRIS and AGLINET systems with forwarding documents also to CABI, and intensifying exchange programme with the NAL and some other institutions. Libraries have by the end of 1996 almost fully adopted networked shared managing of library collections. inter-library loan is also widely used. The paper is supplied with several WWW URLs refering to the library-related institutions and services in Slovenia. 1 INTRODUCTION Slovenia is a Central European nation with population of two million, an area of 20,256 km2 and some 45 km of Mediterranean coastline (6). It became independent in The capital city of Ljubljana has 300,000 inhabitants. Climate is very varied and ranges from mediterranean to moderate continental and alpine. In Slovenia there are two universities, each with a computer centre and several other research institutions. Academic online networking and Internet activities in Slovenia are coordinated by ARNES (Academic Research NEtwork of Slovenia). Most academic agricultural networking is serviced via the University of Ljubljana wide area network METULJ, maintained by the University Computer Centre, and consequently via ARNES. Library holdings are managed by local online computer catalogues, and by all-slovenian library-information system COBISS/OPAC (Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services / Online Public Access Catalogues) maintained at IZUM (Institute of Information Science Maribor). a Author's self-archive M.Sc., University Lecturer, Head of the Slovenian National AGRIS Centre Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1111 Ljubljana, Slovenia TOMAZ.BARTOL@BF.UNI-LJ.SI

2 2 MAJOR LIBRARIES/INFORMATION CENTRES IN SLOVENIA Library-information system in Slovenia which serves professional and academic community consists of special libraries and of libraries of institutions of higher education. The later are affiliated to the University of Ljubljana and the University of Maribor, the former to some independent research institutions and industry. University of Ljubljana (7) is the older and much larger of the two universities, and links 20 faculties, 3 art academies and 3 university colleges with altogether 35,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students. At the University there are almost 60 faculty or college libraries (9) that hold majority of professional and scientific information sources and documents in Slovenia (1,450,000 titles). Besides faculty libraries, there are in Ljubljana also the National and University Library (NUL) (11), and the Central Technological Library (CTL) (10) which are two major Slovenian public libraries and are partially associated with the University. CTL is a major natural science and technology library and holds 125,000 books and 1,250 current periodicals. The NUL is the largest library in Slovenia and holds 1,300,000 books and current periodicals. These two libraries and some other larger faculty libraries offer direct access to electronic commercial services. University of Maribor (14) consists of 8 faculties and two colleges with 12,000 students registered each year. The University Library of Maribor (15) holds some 650,000 volumes. Large Slovenian libraries cooperate as University Libraries of the Alps Adria Work Community. Alps Adria Work Community is an association of neighbouring provinces of Southern Germany, Northern Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Western Hungary. The libraries hold a common Internet page (18). Libraries and information centres in Slovenia are organized in the six so called coordinating fields: Agriculture (biotechnics), Arts and humanities, Biomedicine, Life (natural) sciences, Social sciences, Technical sciences. This organization was adopted by the Slovenian Ministry of Science and Technology in order to facilitate coordinated acquisition of information sources and distribution of financial resources. The above fields embrace all of Slovenian scientific libraries. 3 ARNES/INTERNET AND NETWORKED SUPPORT TO THE LIBRARIES IN SLOVENIA 3.1 UNIVERSITY COMPUTER CENTRES Both Slovenian universities are serviced by a pertaining computer centre. The University of Maribor Computer Centre (16) manages a Local Area Network which is based on Ethernet and is connected to the Public Switch Data Network (SIPAX.25), Slovenian DECnet and international IP network. The University of Ljubljana Computer Centre (8) serves a much larger and more complex network of faculties which are scattered all around the city. The 100 Mb network backbone is composed of four main rooters which bind 30 different locations via access rooters. It is connected by TCP/IP, DECnet and LAT protocols. The Centre has been developing and extensive wide area computer network METULJ (butterfly) with the aim to integrally serve University needs ranging from student or research activities to the libraryinformation system. The Computer Centre has been maintaining selected online bibliographic databases of certain faculties and departments of the University of Ljubljana, using a computer package TRIP. Attempts are just being made to develop a new comprehensive information system of the University of Ljubljana (3) to manage bibliographic, organizational

3 and biographic information. The two Slovenian universities and libraries are linked to the Internet via main Slovenian communication backbone ARNES. 3.2 IZUM/COBISS IZUM (Institute of Information Science Maribor) (5, 17) has been developed as a coordinator of the development of the shared cataloguing system and host of the library information system in Slovenia. It has been maintaining system COBISS (Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services) that currently represents the basis for electronic shared collecting of library information sources in Slovenia. The communication computer is connected to the PSDN (48 Kb) and to the local optical network of the University of Maribor as well as to the 2 Mb link for data transmission at the relation Maribor-Ljubljana with the communication node in the telecommunications centre in Ljubljana. IZUM is linked to the main Slovenian backbone ARNES. The COBISS system connects and supports the functions and activities of libraries, information centres and information retrieval services that apply a uniform methodology of distributed data processing. It provides support at the automation of library activities on the local level, and at the development of national library information systems and systems of scientific information and communications. It provides online access to public catalogues (OPAC) and to other databases. The national input is carried out on shared principles. The cataloguer first verifies if the data are not as yet present in the union database and if not he or she inputs the data into the respective local database. The data are generated only once and in local databases only, and are then simultaneously transferred into the union (cooperative) COBIB database where they are accessible to all the participants in the COBISS system, the libraries as well as end-users. The application allows a simultaneous synchronous updating of the data. If the data already exist in the database the cataloguer merely adds the code for his institution. It is then possible to determine all Slovenian locations of a single document. COBISS connects almost all of Slovenian libraries, university or special libraries as well as local public libraries. The computer and communications infrastructure for the functioning of the COBISS system and services is compounded of the VAX/VMS compatible computer systems, connected to the DECNET network via academic network ARNES or via public network for data transfer (SIPAX.25). 3.3 ARNES Network services to Universities, other higher education institutions and government research institutions in Slovenia are provided by ARNES (Academic Research NEtwork of Slovenia) (13) which was established as a public institution in May It has been developed as the national communication backbone. The main task of ARNES is the development, operation and management of the communication and information network for education and research. The objective is to promote and enhance national and international cooperation in this field. ARNES provides ISO OSI services, Internet services and DECnet services to the institutions in Slovenia. The network protocols are X.25, ISO IP and DECnet Phase IV. ARNES is fully integrated in pan-european activities in academic and research networking. It is a full national member of RARE (The Association of European networking organizations), a shareholder in DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe Limited), it participates in the PARADISE project which tries to set up an international X.500 directory service, and participates in RIPE coordinating activities between

4 European IP networks. ARNES offers connection via a leased line to ARNES backbone, dialup access using PPP via an account on the ARNES server, and a user-support center. General services offered by ARNES to its customers as well as to other service providers in Slovenia: -Domain name registration under.si TLD -Top level DNS for all Slovenian networks -Top level X.500 DSA for Slovenia -USENET News feeds to ARNES customers and also to members of SIX (Slovenian Internet exchange). As a result of this agreement ARNES is currently providing USENET News access to all commercial service providers in Slovenia. - SI-CERT (Slovenian Computer Emergency and Response Team) coordinating incident handling involving domains under.si TLD and serving as an information entry point for other CERTs world-wide. 4 AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY NETWORKING IN SLOVENIA 4.1 AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION CENTRES Most of agricultural information sources in Slovenia are kept at the libraries of the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana (9, 12). Biotechnical Faculty consists of six departments (Agronomy, Biology, Food Science and Technology, Forestry, Wood Science and Technology, and the Zootechnical Department). Each department has its own library. The forestry library is partially managed also by the Forestry Institute of Slovenia. There are also the library of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, the Library of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Maribor and the Central Biotechnical Library with The Slovenian National AGRIS Centre (CBL/AGRIS). CBL /AGRIS is located in the central administration building of the Biotechnical Faculty and is the coordinating body of the agricultural library-information system in Slovenia which is made up of the above libraries, accept for biology. Libraries of the Biology Department and the Veterinary Faculty are members of the biomedical coordinating field. The departments of the Biotechnical Faculty are located on different premises, however, they are all connected to the University wide area network METULJ, and consequently to the ARNES and the Internet. The Dean s office, and the departments of agronomy, and food science and technology share common (Ethernet-based) local area network with its own server. Libraries of the Faculty have been pioneers in using the wider Slovenian network and have been connected by a VAX/VMS computer even before the development of the local area network at the Faculty. 4.2 NATIONAL COOPERATION AND NETWORKED COLLECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA Most of Slovenian agricultural libraries have by 1996 acquired online connections to ARNES/Internet and thus to the COBISS and Slovenian OPAC. International Internet information as well as shared information on all library holdings in Slovenia have become accessible to all the libraries in the system. It has become increasingly customary to use E-

5 mail services for interlibrary loan. COBISS/OPAC has also become principal bibliographic utility in Slovenia. Majority of agricultural libraries has consequently started to use the system for maintaining personal bibliographies of the researchers on analytical level (single article). However, even though the University of Ljubljana has been fully using the COBISS/OPAC as a union catalogue of library holdings, it has still not fully embraced this system as a bibliographic utility. Some older bibliographies, also agricultural, are still available only via system TRIP maintained by the University of Ljubljana Computer Centre. These bibliographies, however, are not unified, and exist as separate databases. 4.3 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION OF SLOVENIA IN THE PROCESS OF DISSEMINATING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION COLLECTION AND PROCESSING OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA Principal aim of almost any printed scientific or professional publication or paper is to present author s experience with a certain problem. It is of course highly sought after that the author s views or experiment results be visible as widely as possible and consequently be used as a citation to prove scientific or professional feed-back. In the age of the Internet such possibilities are increasing. However, with the Internet it still remains rather difficult to acquire precise information if the information is scattered in unarranged. That is why many end-users still judge bibliographic databases as indispensable. Moreover, an increasing number of bibliographic databases is becoming accessible also via Internet where information is arranged according to systematic criteria of the database in question. The most important databases have been for quite some time generally accessible via CD-ROMs and different online services. Slovenian agricultural bibliographic information is processed mostly by AGRIS, CAB International (CABI), and to limited extent also by AGRICOLA. AGRIS processing of Slovenian documents has been performed by the Slovenian National AGRIS Centre (SNAC) (1). SNAC was set up in 1994 when it became an official national member of the AGRIS information system, coordinated and maintained by the FAO in Rome. SNAC processes, according to the policy of AGRIS, only those documents that have been published in Slovenia. However, many Slovenian scientists publish bulk of their research in foreign publications, so those documents are processed by other AGRIS centres or by other information providers. SNAC sends on regular basis most Slovenian publications to CABI to be included as references in the CABCD database. Slovenian serial references are also accessible via WLAS (World List of Agricultural Serials) database. Steps in building further Slovenian input in AGRIS -Collection of data Publications or articles are collected directly from editors or authors. The role of AGRIS has been widely known so not many data escape attention of SNAC. The vast majority of data are produced by the researchers of the Biotechnical faculty and by the researchers who publish

6 their articles in the Faculty-affiliated publications. All the publications are then available in the Central Biotechnical Library or the Faculty department libraries. -Processing of data Quality articles to-be-included-in-agris are selected from national documents. Only those documents that have been supplied with both English language abstract and title are considered. The SNAC also strongly encourages inclusion of bilingual tables and pictures to increase international information value of Slovenian documents. articles are being increasingly published fully in English. The electronic input of bibliographic data is accompanied by exhaustive English-language indexing according to strict international guidelines (2, 4) to maintain internationally comparable indexing consistency. The data are technically processed by the use of UNESCO s Micro CDS/ISIS. The abstracts are collected separately as computer files obtained from editors. The data, after having been processed at the SNAC, are being forwarded to the central AGRIS Processing Unit (APU) in Vienna. Both the CDS/ISIS export files as well as abstract files are sent together. This dispatchment to the APU is executed at least once a month. The process has been, since the beginning of 1996, fully networked via attachments using Slovenian ARNES/Internet connectivity. New Slovenian input in WLAS via the National Agricultural Library New Slovenian references are accessible since 1996 also in the WLAS (World List of Agricultural Serials) database. Slovenian references in WLAS are being processed with the assistance of the American National Agricultural Library (NAL). The data are being sent to the NAL electronically. All of Slovenian serials are included in this processing INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF SLOVENIAN AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONS Selected Slovenian agriculture-related publications have been for quite some time exchanged with publications published in other countries. However, exchange programme has been much enhanced with the setting up of the Slovenian National AGRIS Centre and with the Central Biotechnical Library becoming the Slovenian AGLINET library. Research Reports of the Biotechnical Faculty are currently being sent to more than 160 locations around the world, such as British Library, Bibliothek der Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur in Vienna, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Paris, Wageningen Agricultural University, etc. Almost all of the major Slovenian agricultural publications are sent to the CABI and the David Lubin Memorial Library at the FAO in Rome. In 1996 an intensive exchange programme has been set up also with the NAL. Nearly all Slovenian agricultural publications are now being sent to NAL in exchange for selected publications by the US Department of Agriculture. 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Most of Slovenian academic institutions and consequently pertaining libraries have become fully networked by the end of the 1996 what implies full access to the Internet via ARNES which is Slovenian national network provider. Libraries have become increasingly interconnected with the possibility of shared cataloguing of all library collections or

7 documents wherever in Slovenia. However, with increased online accessibility of scientific material to individual researchers via different information providers and the Internet academic libraries will now possibly have to strive to justify their very role. The value of electronic synthesizing and inputting documents into field-specific bibliographic databases, as well as of international exchange of publications, has already been challenged by some authors with a notion that, sooner or later, all academic publications will be as fulltext available via the Internet. It is somehow hard to oppose such opinion given its theoretic feasibility. It is our belief, however, that controlled and systematic collection of arranged documents will for quite some time hold many advantages over widely dispersed Internet information which surface in millions of locations. Yet, the libraries will somehow have to redefine their role in the process of networked information dissemination if they don t want to become, albeit the pioneers, the most prominent victim of information networks. Some assertion will be needed on the part of libraries and information centres to prove the value of logically arranged and catalogued information. Such information, accessible increasingly on the Internet, but in a form of wellstructured databases, will still prove the indispensability of the role of library information professionals. These professionals might be very useful in sharing the experiences they have with hierarchical subject categorisation. We believe that cooperation with other non-library professionals in keeping up different field-specialized collections in order to present data on the Internet might be an essential feature in upgrading of the role of the library. 6 REFERENCES 1. Bartol. T.: International networked collection and dissemination of Slovenian agricultural information. IFID, 21 (1996) 4, p Bonnichon, M.: Guide to indexing for AGRIS (International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology) and CARIS (Current Agricultural Research Information System. Rome, FAO, 1994, 149 p. 3. Juznic, P.: Special libraries and computer centres - A case of the system BOBI. In: Vloga specialnih knjiznic pri pospesevanju druzbenega in gospodarskega razvoja, Proceedings of the 6. Conference of the special libraries, Ljubljana, Oct, 1996, p Krieger, C.; Schmid, H.: The thesaurus implementation for AGRIS on CD-ROM. Quarterly-Bulletin-of-IAALD, 38 (1993) 4, p Seljak, M.:The COBISS system: Supporting interlending and document supply. Interlending & Document Supply, 24 (1996) 2, p

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