PRESENT STATE AND POSSIBLE FUTURE ROLES OF AGRIS IN THE EUROPEAN LIBRARY COMMUNITY - SLOVENIAN EXPERIENCE

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1 PRESENT STATE AND POSSIBLE FUTURE ROLES OF AGRIS IN THE EUROPEAN LIBRARY COMMUNITY - SLOVENIAN EXPERIENCE Tomaz BARTOL a ABSTRACT: AGRIS has been widely used as a bibliographic and information utility by European countries. These have accounted for some of new records in the database on the CD-ROM for the period of Nov In this period AGRIS/CARIS has been actively joined by new European countries. AGRIS/CARIS is a constituent of the FAO s WAICENT (World Agricultural Centre) network which is made up of interactive utilities such as FAOSTAT, FAOINFO and FAOSIS. Development in the field of electronic communications has set new demands, some of which will have to be heeded by AGRIS and other similar information systems. The term document will have to be redefined. Some new elements, such as hyperlinks to the full-text of certain documents might be in the future added to the possible Internet version of the database. More than two decades of experiences in vast international cooperation in the AGRIS community should serve as a valuable basis for application of present and future development in the networked information transfer of agricultural information. Local (national) AGRIS centres should more actively assert their present role in the process of transfer of national scientific and technical information. They could extend their help in the area of local publishing of agriculture-related material esp. proceedings. They should present development in the field of international agricultural information transfer to the general library and information community in their respective countries and thus make their national position more visible. They might also exert themselves in performing regular bibliometric analyses based on classified and indexed agricultural documents and publish such analyses in national agriculture- or library and documentation- related publications. The above activities have been carried out successfully by the Slovenian National AGRIS Centre. 1 INTRODUCTION Information has been playing key role in the evolution of human professional and scientific creativity. Historically, such information has been organized rather formally into primary and secondary data. Information professionals, librarians and documentalists respectively, have been striving to muster as many relevant documents as possible and to consequently analyze and synthesize them for later retrieval purposes in a secondary form. Computer applications triggered an incredibly swift development of retrieval systems and thus quickly rendering paper indexes to scientific literature obsolete. Computer databases which emerged with the event of computer and commercial online services offered quick and sophisticated searching possibilities. However, online services were then not yet universally available. CD-ROM versions of the same databases, which followed soon, empowered also institutions without online facilities with new high-quality searching engines. This development was incredibly stepped up with the occurrence of the Internet. a Author's self-archived manuscript 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 The Internet seems to somehow blur distinction between primary and secondary data. All the data can simply be attained via the same online tool. Bibliographic, factual numeric or full-text data are now more difficult to delimit so the future utility of classic library-information systems that we have known has become unclear. It is therefore rather difficult to predict long-scale development of information services especially as far as technology is concerned. However, sheer quantity of electronic as well as analog data will demand maintaining of effective classification systems to enable retrieval of such data. Sysnthesized information with its complex browsing and search possibilities may remain a quick and effective pointer towards more complex data for quite some time to come. AGRIS has played an important role in the process of international transfer of agricultural bibliographic information for more than two decades. It has been one of the first global computerized systems of its kind. It has been set-up on cooperative principles so we believe AGRIS can be enhanced by vast improvement in online services even more than other global information systems. AGRIS community widely dispersed throughout the world has thus obtained a powerful tool to benefit from. In our paper we wish to point out some characteristics of present state of AGRIS in Europe. Further we will discuss some possible prospects in the future development. We will also try to outline some utilities we believe AGRIS along with its national centres could offer to the scientific or professional community. This utilities have been successfully implemented by the Slovenian National AGRIS Centre. 2 PRESENT STATE OF AGRIS AGRIS (International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology) together with CARIS (Current Agricultural Research Information system) is the largest cooperative information system in the world. It links some 150 national and 25 regional and international centres. The system was set up in the 1970s. It is coordinated by FAO in Rome and by central AGRIS Processing Unit (APU) in Vienna. AGRIS database has so far compiled more than bibliographic records and has been growing by some documents a year. AGRIS and CARIS are constituents of FAOSIS component of WAICENT (World Agricultural Information Centre) which was initiated at the FAO in 1989 and is made up of three complementary and interactive components: FAOSTAT, FAOINFO and FAOSIS. FAOSTAT contains data on demography, agriculture, fisheries and forestry and covers some 210 countries and territories. Statistical data is supplied by each country and intergovernmental organization and then merged into one database by FAO. FAOINFO covers hypermedia information and serves as FAO s communication gateway via the Internet. It also includes the Virtual Library Project and project SGML (standardized mark up language) with the aim to convert word-processed documents to organize them in a variety of formats. FAOSIS comprises maintenance of specialized information systems and databases such as AGRIS and CARIS. AGRIS database is being compiled cooperatively. Each center has a responsibility to collect, analyze and synthesize national data and to transfer data to the APU for further central processing. National data are transferred mostly via FTP or attachments.

3 An AGRIS-Input discussion group has been set up on the Internet with an end to discuss problems in AGRIS such as input rules, bibliographic description, subject categorization, indexing, etc., thus enhancing quality and global data consistency in the database. 3 AGRIS IN EUROPE Majority of European countries have been contributing data to the system since the beginnings of AGRIS in the mid 1970s. The database was then printed as AGRINDEX which, however, is no longer published due to much better online or CD-ROM searching possibilities. European countries now contribute almost half of all the references in the database. We performed an analysis of cumulative input as from 1993 onwards. We used the AGRIS database on compact discs for the period between 1993 and November There are newer documents available online, however as the CD-ROMs remain major form of access to this database we believe them to be good enough an approximation to be used for comparison of different countries. The results show that Europe has accounted for of all new records in that period, and USA for We analyzed input by each individual European country that is active in the system. We present results for all the countries sorted alphabetically in table 1. For comparison we include also the United States of America, Japan and China as three other major contributors to AGRIS. In tables 2 and 3 we also present ten European countries with most input in that period and ten countries with most per capita input. Table 1: Number of new records in the AGRIS database between /1996 by European countries, USA, China and Japan Albania 12 Austria 596 Belarus 263 Belgium 4133 Bulgaria 1964 Cyprus 59 Czech R Denmark 4781 Estonia 403 Finland 489 France Germany Greece 32 Hungary 985 Italy 7876 Latvia 557 Lithuania 23 Moldova 318 Netherlands Norway 706 Poland 2674 Portugal 1025 Romania 399 Russian F Slovakia 1114 Slovenia 1009 Spain 7147 Sweden 7395 Switzerland 1608 UK Ukraine 162 Yugoslavia 1624 U.S China Japan 10194

4 Table 2: Ten European countries by most new records in the AGRIS database between /1996 UK Germany France Netherlands Italy 7876 Sweden 7395 Spain 7147 Denmark 4781 Belgium 4133 Czech R Table 3: Ten European countries by most new records per inhabitants in the AGRIS database between /1996, Netherlands 101 Denmark 92 Sweden 85 UK 80 Slovenia 51 Belgium 41 Czech R. 38 Germany 36 France 35 Estonia 25

5 We can see that a vast majority of European countries participate in the system. However, results in the table 3 show that countries differ significantly in per capita contribution. The numbers alone are not indicative of either input or document quality. National centres have sole discretion to choose relevant national documents and some centres may be much more selective than the others. Also, the results show those documents which were published in the respective country so they are not indicative of overall national scientific production in the field of agriculture in the country in question. Certain researchers publish their research mostly in international scientific publications and some of these might not be present in AGRIS. However, such production could be to a certain extent additionally estimated with the help of Author s Address field. UK input of more than records for that period, for example, comprises as many as documents produced by researchers from other countries than UK and who published these documents in UK journals. This is even more so the case with the publications from the Netherlands. A number of international prestigious journals is namely published also in the Netherlands. Also, researchers frequently publish their papers in neighbouring countries due to linguistic or agricultural structure similarities. This is e.g. the case with Austria, Germany and Switzerland. We chose the period from 1993 onwards because starting with this and the next year some new European democracies actively joined AGRIS. AGRIS thus offers new possibilities of global visibility of research in these countries. 4 FUTURE PROSPECTS Swift development in the area of data transfer will demand some transformation and adaptation on the part of AGRIS and other similar information services. If employed to the full Internet can prove a new extraordinary tool to the AGRIS community. discussion has just began with the view of improving input. This can tremendously contribute to the quality of indexing and thus to the consistency of the database. Employment of some Internet utilities have already proven invaluable in the transfer of data. has become indispensable in getting help from the APU in Vienna whenever some questions may arise in local centres. APU and FAO in Rome can thus in the future offer even more central support to the participating centres. Future will probably see an unheard-off expansion of online possibilities linked to the Internet. Here it has been argued whether standard information services will then be needed at all. We believe that due to expansion of electronic data necessity will be constantly present to keep these data organized in an easily searchable form. Existing databases can already serve as a good example of classifying information according to some principles, be it formal like author, title and publication year or more informal and subjective but still controlled, such as subject indices. However, there will surely appear new challenges. Source field as has been known in the databases is already becoming unclear. There is an expansion of electronic newspapers which will somehow have to be included. Moreover, there is an increasing number of documents which appear ad-hoc on the Internet and which might then soon disappear and may not be retrieved again. So Internet has added much a new meaning to the notion of unconventional documents what will pose constant challenge to the information professionals who want to record information to be retrieved and used as a citation later. In the future AGRIS as well as other database providers will possibly have to adapt to the new demands such as accessibility of the data via the Internet what will set new challenges. Bibliographic databases in all scientific or professional fields have during the last two decades become pretty similar. They have followed patterns of previous printed indexes and have simply

6 employed some new opportunities offered by computers. Also, retrieval systems have become rather standardized. Software providers such as Silver Platter managed to assemble dozens of major databases from all scientific fields. These data became accessible by uniform principles and users could independently browse many different databases with the help of the same searching software. Now there is a chance that database providers might try to catch up with new development independently and introduce new systems with new data fields what might eventually lead towards disintegration of previously well organized information systems. 5 SOME GENERAL POSSIBILITIES With the view of increasingly new information utilities there should be some international coordination among the largest agricultural database producers as to the future development of data processing. All the three major agricultural information providers AGRICOLA/NAL, AGRIS/FAO and CABI should be careful to strengthen their cooperation rather than introduce some changes which would eventually lead towards mutual alienation of the three systems. Some mutual agreement should be reached on which general structure to maintain in the future and which fields to keep or to introduce anew. In any event the database providers should be careful to merely upgrade the present structure with possible new data and not to alter it. There should thus remain continuity and firm common links between the past, present and future data. The strength of AGRIS lies especially in connecting less conventional national data which might not be available elsewhere. As there are ambitions to present more and more national documents also on the Internet some steps could be taken into the direction of preparing or helping prepare national online full-text output. AGRIS might perhaps arrange some common guidelines for such an enterprise so the documents from several countries could be organized in a similar way. Full-text could be linked to the bibliographic database by hyperlinks and would thus become more easily retrievable. In this event the utility of the bibliographic database might remain very much alive and conveniently accessible for quick online browsing or searching, and at the same time become infinitely enriched by full-text possibilities. The English language bibliographic database would thus remain a central backbone and a common denominator for a myriad of national documents written either in English or in other languages. Copy-right question should certainly be addressed but might easier be resolved on a level of national documents as some authors, or editors for that matter, will certainly gladly accept to be present on the Internet. Meanwhile, AGRIS can already improve its role of an effective who-is-who in the global agriculture. Instructions can be set-up on how to include address in the Author s Address field. AGRIS could thus facilitate communication between authors which might otherwise never get in touch. 6 SOME LOCAL POSSIBILITIES AS EXPERIENCED IN SLOVENIA All the changes take some time and some of the above may turn out differently. Local (national) AGRIS professionals could in the meantime assert their presence in several other ways. In the case of AGRIS, where input depends on local centres it is very important for these centres to present their activities locally and thus gain recognition nationally. Some local persuasion will always be necessary if AGRIS is to expand its activity. New information professionals may be needed in the future what will in turn rise local costs. This may meet with obstacles so AGRIS should make itself better known to facilitate such persuasion.

7 There is much to be proud about in contributing local documents into the global virtual agricultural library. The role of AGRIS can be made even more conspicuous in smaller countries where it is easier to summarize national production. Slovenian experiences in this matter are quite positive. AGRIS professionals may serve as advisers to publishers on how to provide bibliographic layout of publications. There is an increasing number of new congresses so AGRIS can help locally with instructions. AGRIS can here present standards for writing of informative abstracts. There is also a possibility, so far seemingly much too neglected, that AGRIS, and for this sake also other agriculture-library information professionals make themselves visible by publishing professional or even research papers in national agricultural publications. Browsing through the AGRIS database shows that there are not enough agricultural-information- or AGRIS-related articles published in national journals. Or, if they are, they are not put into in the database by the very centres that maintain this database. Such papers are then nowhere to be found what reduces possibilities of sharing experiences amongst agricultural information and documentation specialists. AGRIS, like other bibliographic databases of this kind, offers well structured fields which can be used for bibliometric analyses. There is an exceptional possibility to carry out an examination of the structure of the national agricultural publishing with the aid of Category Codes or AGROVOC descriptors. Also, indexer-assigned as well as computer-assigned descriptor compilations may be published in a form of an article dedicated to a specific category of national research. Such an article may serve as a reference to domestic authors who may not be completely fluent in English and who seek standard vocabulary when writing English-language articles or abstracts. AGRIS centres may also prepare yearly subject indexes for selected national publications. Such indexes may serve as an additional promotion for the centres. AGRIS professionals should also be more active in promoting their activities in the field of agricultural information at some general library or documentation meetings in their respective countries. They should juxtapose development of the agricultural information systems to those of other fields in order to present and emphasize sophistication of cooperation in the field of international agricultural information. AGRIS professionals should in the future especially assert their familiarity with subject categorization. Competent categorization or classification schemes will remain an indispensable element of efficient information retrieval systems so AGRIS professionals should not fail to stress their own expertize in this field. All of the above has been successfully realized by the Slovenian National AGRIS Centre which is as an example of a centre that serves a rather small scientific community. An advantage of smaller country lies in a better opportunity to track most of the relevant information sources or documents produced in such a country. We collect almost all Slovenian agricultural documents as we subscribe of course to all national agricultural periodicals. Also, our activity is known well enough so we receive journals and conference proceedings directly from editors who, prior to publication, frequently consult us also on such matters as the most appropriate bibliographic layout of proceedings to be published. We are asked to prepare yearly AGRIS-based subject indexes for certain publications. On the national library-information level we are vocal in presenting international information networking in the field of agriculture and Slovenian participation in such networking. We thus successfully enhance position of agriculture when confronted with our nonagricultural colleagues at some national library-information meetings. AGRIS serves as an ideal basis to better present and explain our activities. To enhance information transfer of Slovenian documents, in addition to synthesizing these documents for AGRIS, we also send most of these documents to many major international information providers such as CABI, US National Agricultural Library or FAO s David Lubin

8 Memorial Library in order for these documents to be included also in other databases or simply to be available in prestigious foreign libraries and via their catalogues. 7 CONCLUSIONS We have shown that European countries remain essential contributors to AGRIS. They account for almost half of all recent records. AGRIS thus remains a major source for agricultural information in Europe and has become an expansive European agricultural bibliography and a who-is-who-inagriculture utility. There are namely still many unconventional documents which are only available via AGRIS and AGRIS thus serves as the only international indicator of such documents. AGRIS has recently been joined by new countries which are very much active in contributing national data. AGRIS can thus effectively serve as a catalysts for the transfer of agricultural information. However, we maintain that an efficient local centre will not only enhance the general database, but should also be able to effectively promote its own role as a national agricultural information service. Slovenian experiences show that there is a wide scope of activities where national centres can successfully assert their roles. It is rather difficult to predict the future of information systems in the age of the Internet. Changes are swift and today s prophecy might tomorrow turn fallacious. That is why we abstain from any fixed conclusions. AGRIS has become a large cooperative global system which has been sustained mostly locally. It is locally that the vast majority of data is processed. All the modifications must therefore be quickly premeditated so as not to scare off less privileged national centres with fewer technical possibilities or staff skills. However, some changes are imminent so national AGRIS centres will inevitably have to prepare for such an eventuality. Global AGRIS may in the future transcend its initial role. Internet utilities such as and FTP have already proven very helpful in the exchange of ideas and instructions and have thus already enhanced consistency and quality of information transfer in AGRIS. Future utilities may improve compilation of data and perhaps add new links to the existing data. So, we believe that AGRIS community could take creative attitude towards future challenges. AGRIS has been for more than two decades organized as an international cooperative system, even though it has had to rely on analog contacts. There is no reason why AGRIS as a global community with long-time experiences, and as such ideally assisted by online services, should not make the best of the new development in the field of communications. 8 REFERENCES 1. AGRIS/CARIS - Twentieth anniversary celebration. Proceedings, FAO, Rome, 8 Jun 1994, 48 p. 2. Bartol, T: Bibliometric analysis of Slovenian documents covered by AGRIS database between Research Reports of the Biotechnical Faculty - Agricultural Issue (Zootechnica), no. 64, 1994, p Bartol, T: Subject category-based analysis of descriptors of Slovenian plant science documents in the AGRIS database in the period Research Reports of the Biotechnical Faculty - Agricultural Issue, no. 67, 1996, p Electronic data exchange via the Internet. AGRIS Technical Note 30, AGRIS Processing Unit, Vienna, 17 Mar 1997, 4 p.

9 5. Johnson, A; Fotonhi, F: Adaptive clustering of hypermedia documents. Information Systems, 21 (1996) 6, p Judy, JR: FAO, WAICENT, AGRIS, CARIS - Forestry information services for the 21st century. Paper at the ASIA/PACIFIC Regional Consultation: Forestry Information and AGRIS/CARIS. CIFOR/FAO, 4-6 November 1996, Bogor, Indonesia 7. Morgan, EL: Using World Wide Web and WAIS technologies to create electronic information systems. Journal of Agricultural & Food Information, 3 (1995) 2, Notess, GR: The Internet as an online service: Bibliographic databases on the net. Database, 19 (1996) 4, p Schamber, L: What is a documents? Rethinking the concept in uneasy times. Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 47 (1996) 9, p Schmid, H; Ziegler, W.: AGRIS and the Internet. Quarterly Bulletin of the IAALD, 41 (1996) 2, p Ward, ML: The future of the human indexer. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 28 (1996) 4, p