Report on
Discussion Forum on Information Services in the Asia-Pacific
and
AGRIS/CARIS in the 21st Century
an Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation

Edited by Michael Ibach and Yvonne Byron

DISCUSSION FORUM ON INFORMATION SERVICES

IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC

Becky Skidmore

ASEAN Forest Tree Seed Centre Project, Ottawa, Canada
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List of Acronyms

[Chapter 1]
Introduction

[Chapter 2]
Forestry Information Initiatives

[Chapter 3]
Collaboration

[Chapter 4]
The Survey

[Chapter 5]
The Discussion Forum

[Chapter 6]
Final Action Plans

[Chapter 7]
Keynote Papers

[Chapter 8]
Conclusions

[References]

[Appendix 1]
Survey Questionnaire

[Appendix 2]
Forestry Information Services in the Asia-Pacific Region

[Appendix 3]
The Future for Scientific Publishing and Information in the Asia-Pacific Region

[Appendix 4]
Information Services at IUFRO

[Appendix 5]
Sources of Forestry Information

[Appendix 6]
List of Participants

 FORESTRY INFORMATION INITIATIVES

In an effort to improve access to and utilisation of forestry information, many forestry projects operating in the region include information exchange as part of their mandate. Initiatives of these projects include such things as assistance in the writing, publishing and dissemination of scientific and technical literature; creation of viable information centres, literature search facilities and document supply services; development of electronic information networks; provision of technical equipment, resources (e.g., journals, CD-ROMs) and training; and CD-ROM production. CABI has been operating a forestry CD-ROM Sponsorship Programme in the region which uses funding from international and bi-lateral development agencies to provide CD-ROM workstations, TREE-CD, training and back-up document delivery to needy organisations. A similar initiative in China for agricultural information included the provision of 34 workstations, 42 sets of agricultural databases on CD-ROM (CABCD, VETCD, FSTA and AGRIS), primary and abstract journals from CABI for 1992-94, computer peripherals and an extensive local and overseas training programme (Zhang et al. 1996).