Development Blogs.com

The NAL blog announced that Peter Young has moved on after 6 years as NAL Director. The comments on the posting show that he will be missed by the US AgInfo community.He will also be missed by his international colleagues - in IAALD and beyond. His lively and light approach to meeting facilitation, as experienced in Kentucky in 2005 and at the Rome e-agriculture meetings in 2007, were particular characteristics we will miss... NAL Deputy Eleanor Frierson - also a long-term internationalist - has been named Acting Director.Peter has re-joined the Library of...

October 24th is United Nations Day. It marks the day when the UN Charter went into force in 1945. The following UN information resources have recently been made available: Yearbook of the United Nations [access] - The complete collection of yearbooks, from 1946-2005, are now online in full-text. The yearbook reports on the organization's activities in the areas of international peace and...

The Refugee Studies Centre library and the UEL Refugee Council Archives have both circulated accessions lists for the July-September 2008 period. View them here and here. Posted in...

The Medical Library Association’s Veterinary Medical Libraries Section is compiling an international directory of Veterinary Medical and Related Libraries (and librarians).Launched in May, the directory has contact information for hundreds of information services serving veterinary medicine and animal health. The new site is the result of sterling efforts by a group of volunteers.The editors recognize they have some international gaps to fill; some countries are missing or have incomplete information. If you are working with animal health information, please get in contact with Vicki Croft at Washington State University, Susanne Whitaker at Cornell University, or the VMLS...

The Refugee Studies Centre library has posted its latest Accessions List covering materials added to the collection between January and March 2008. Browse the PDF or HTML version. The Refugee Archives at UEL has issued its list of new additions to the library for the first quarter of 2008. Browse the PDF version. Posted in...

At USAIN's 2008 conference, Peter Young and colleagues gave an update on recent developments at the National Agricultural Library.He introduced 'Blueprint for Success: The National Agricultural Library 2008-2012' - a staff discussion paper that, according to Young explains "what it is that NAL's programmes are about." It responds to the question "what do you [the NAL] need ..." to revitalize and sustain the library and its services into the future. The paper is "meant to stimulate discussion, evoke critical comment and spark debate about NAL’s future."The starting premise of the team writing the report is that "information consumers, whether USDA staff worldwide or the Nation’s citizens, now expect easy and seamless access to digital content and personalized services. They demand...

Colleagues at Wageningen UR library are getting excited about the potential to link their library catalogue to full text books in Google. Wouter Gerritsma explains how they got over some of the problems.Wouter is a regular 'library 2.0' - and much more - blogger. Well worth visiting to see what's on the agenda at the largest Dutch 'agricultural' library. His colleague Peter van Boheemen also blogs about library applications they develop in...

Many visitors to Wageningen in the Netherlands will recall their visits to the Jan Kopshuis - site of the Wageningen University Library. On 21 February, the new library space was opened with a special congress held in the Forum building.NAL Director Peter Young was keynote speaker at the congress - talking on 'Transforming Knowledge Services for the Digital Age : Redefining the Research Library.' Wageningen library's own blogger Wouter Gerritisma reports on Young's presentation, he also covered the other presentations (in Dutch).Peter Young's conclusion on web 2.0 - that we need to "focus on the library in the user environment rather than the user in the library environment" was picked up by several of the bloggers at the meeting (download Young's powerpoint.Tags: agricultural information...

In February 2008, some 30 members of the Agricultural Librarians Association of the Philippines (ALAP) joined an FAO-supported Seminar-Workshop on Enhancing the Capacity of Information Professionals for Effective Agricultural Information Management, Sharing and Dissemination. IRRI librarians were among the resource persons.Also check out the ALAP blogTags: agricultural information...

Asylum Law and Female Genital Mutilation: Recent Developments (Congressional Research Service, Feb. 2008) [text] Iraqi Asylum Seekers in Jordan: A Report of the ICMC-USCCB Mission to Assess the Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum Seekers in Jordan (International Catholic Migration Commission, Dec. 2007) [text] The Meeting Room: Libraries as Community Centers for Culturally Diverse Populations...

The following lists provide updates on the latest acquisitions to several library collections: "Recent acquisitions in the RDC library," The Researcher, vol. 2, no. 4, Dec. 2007, p. 21 [text] Refugee Council Archive at UEL, Accessions List, Nov. - Dec. 2007 [text] Refugee Studies Centre Library, Accessions List, Oct. - Dec. 2007 [text] UNHCR Library Highligts, Dec. 2007 [text] Posted in...

I've posted previously about "library programs and services designed specifically to target refugee and/or immigrant populations." Just recently, UNHCR published a working paper entitled "Refugees and asylum seekers in the Caribbean region: library service implications," which includes a useful breakdown of the kind of typical information needs refugees often have. A few of the online...

Three new blogs have recently been launched by UK-based groups: 1. Forced Migration Online's Blog aims to "better inform users about our plans for FMO and flag current issues we think interesting, important and perhaps worthy of wider discussion." 2. The rationale for the Refugee Council's Poliblog is to keep readers "up to date with the reflections, insights and musings of those who spend...

A UK program called "Welcome to Your Library: Connecting Public Libraries and Refugee Communities" recently won the Libraries Change Lives award. The objective of the program is to "improve access to and quality of public library services for everyone" by sharing information about good practice, planning guidance, training opportunities, and other resources that can help libraries deliver...

The Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC) Annual Meeting was recently held at Mississippi State University May 10 - 11, 2007 with the theme "Charting a New Course". This year, there were over 40 participants representing 28 states, Washington DC, Canada, Italy, the Philippines, and Costa Rica. Additional information may be found on the AgNIC web site - presentations, notes, and other...

Aquatic and marine science librarians and information specialists will meet in Florida for the 33rd IAMSLIC Conference. Topics on the agenda include: Digital archiving, repositories and technology Author’s rights, open access publishing and open data Grey literature Web 2.0, a catch phrase or a new phase for your library? Natural disasters: is there any way to be ready? Geographic Information...

The 2008 USAIN conference will be held in Wooster, OH from April 27 to 30. The theme of the conference is Tradition in Transition: Information Fueling the Future of Agbiosciences. A brochure can be downloaded at www.usain.org/Conferences/2008conf/usain_ohio.pdf Tags: agricultural information usa...

The Belarus Agricultural Library (BelAL) is the national information centre for agriculture, food and forestry in Belarus. The library aims to provide every citizen of Belarus with the opportunity to freely access and use information on agriculture, forestry and food. The library's aims to provide country-wide access to the world's information resources on agriculture, forestry and food; to deliver highly qualified information service for the Library users; to integrate national agricultural information into the world information space and create a national information space; and secure the Belarusian document memory in the field of agriculture and organize free access to it. BelAL has direct access to basic international, foreign and national databases; it possesses the most...

The Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) is an academic unit of the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania. Having a central role in the university’s mission of teaching, research and public services, its vision is to become a center of excellence in the provision of agricultural information in Tanzania by meeting the information needs of its end-users in the most efficient and effective way possible. SNAL was established by the Act of Parliament of 1991, which elevated the former university library to a national agricultural library. Therefore SNAL serves both the university community as well as others, including farmers in need of information in agriculture and related fields in the country. It is a single largest agricultural library in the country and has a...

Un grupo de 25 bibliotecólogos de bibliotecas del sector agrario se reúnen en Temuco para asistir al primer taller de gestión de información agraria que los capacitará en “Gestión de Documentos Electrónicos”, gracias a una iniciativa de la FAO y REDAGROCHILE, con el apoyo de la Universidad Católica de Temuco y la Fundación para la Innovación Agraria. El programa incluye capacitación en procesos para la creación, adquisición y almacenamiento de documentos electrónicos, formatos para documentos electrónicos e imágenes, normas de metadatos e indización temática y producción y manejo de documentos electrónicos. Al finalizar el curso, los beneficiarios del taller serán capaces de crear, gestionar y distribuir documentos eficazmente en un ámbito electrónico. Tags:...

The International Water and Sanitation Centre recently publishied updated guidelines on 'organising local documentation services for the water and sanitation sector.' The guidelines aim to help people understand how to organise collections of documents in their institutions in such a way as to be able to find information quickly and easily, without the help of a professional librarian or documentalist. Reviewed by Julie Fisher in January 2006, the book " takes the reader right back to basics (such as ensuring staff washing facilities), and goes on to more complex managerial and technical issues, presenting theory along with practice, while still retaining a wonderful clarity of style." Available to download as full text, the guidelines include discussion of 'Essentials of information...

In January this year the AGNIC Leadership Council for Agricultural Information and Outreach begin the development of a visioning process for a National Digital Library for Agriculture. Using MindManager brainstorming software, the group considered the following proposition:"Imagine that you return to work and find a transformed agricultural information system, built around a National Digital Library for Agriculture. Everything works well. It is a high-performing, customer-focused, comprehensive system. It blends its service mission and its leadership role in perfect resonance with the needs and aspirations of the community. Its value and contribution are well known, openly appreciated and frequently celebrated."The group came up with a 'Draft Strategic Plan for the National Digital...

Users and partners of the US National Agricultural Library are invited to give their feedback on its services though an online user needs survey. Tags: agricultural information libraries usa...

The US National Agricultural Library Digital Repository (NALDR) was recently made available to the public. It provides access to publications either digitized by NAL or through NAL’s partnerships with other institutions. It mainly contains publications of the USDA; the first project completed in February 2006 was the Rural Development Publication Digitizing Project.Included in the repository are some early reports on the USDA library. Even then it seems the issue of impact was important - in 1896 the librarian wrote that "the influence of the Library of the Department on the general welfare of the farming community may at first glance seem very slight, yet, on more careful investigation it will become evident that this influence, although indirect, is greater than might be supposed."...

IAALD Executive Committee member, Barbara Hutchinson, accompanied by her daughter, Sydney, as translator, recently visited a number of libraries in the Dominican Republic. In the country’s historic and thriving capital, Santo Domingo, they saw not only the New World’s first church, hospital, university and the Museo de Hombre Dominicana which documents the early and extensive Taino Indian civilization, but the beautiful and highly electronic new library at the Universidad de Autonomia de Santo Domingo which will officially open in 2006. Visiting IICA They met with Teresa Romero, of the IICA Santo Domingo library, along with Senior Juan Freddy Armando, Director General of the Biblioteca Republica Dominicana. In addition, they met with the staff of the Information and...

It looks as if the US National Agricultural Library is the first agriculturalk library to featuree in the wikipedia. Tags: agricultural information usa libraries...

The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows. From BBC, 12/15/05 The full story can be found......