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

AGRIS/CARIS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

REPORT ON THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL CONSULTATION

4 - 6 NOVEMBER 1996

BOGOR, INDONESIA

List of Acronyms

[Chapter 1]
Recommendation

[Chapter 2]
FAO, WAICENT, AGRIS, CARIS Forestry Information Services for the 21st Century

[Chapter 3]
Activities of the Forestry Department of FAO in Relation to Research and Information

[Chapter 4]
Principles of Abstracting and Indexing as applied by CAB International

[Chapter 5]
Can We See the Forest for the Trees?

[Chapter 6]
Improving Access to Forestry Information: the Experience of FORSPA

[Chapter 7]
IUFRO and Collaboration Possibilities of Enhancing with AGRIS/CARIS

Country Reports:

Bangladesh

China

India

Indonesia

Japan

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Philippines

Phillippines 2

SEAMEO

South Korea

Thailand

Vietnam

Western Samoa

[Appendix 1]
List of Participants

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE AGRIS PROJECT

IN JAPAN

Noriko Kotobuki

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Information Center, Tsukuba, Japan

CO-OPERATION WITH THE AGRIS PROJECT

Japan joined the AGRIS project, and has been co-operating with this project at the national level, from the beginning of the production of AGRINDEX (experimental issue) in 1973. We have been collecting and inputting literature related to agricultural science in Japan, and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council Secretariat has been in charge of this project.

Japan has been able to co-operate with AGRIS from the beginning because it has been publishing the Japanese Agricultural Science Index since 1970, selecting and treating papers and articles carried in about 500 journals (about 10 000 items per year) including agricultural science and its peripheral fields. It has been captured in databases since 1981.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Information Center is in charge of collection and selection of literature as the input centre and input work is done by out-sourcing.

COLLECTION, PROCESSING AND TREATMENT OF INFORMATION

Forestry literature comprises 3.8% of the total AGRIS database. Over the last 5 years about 3% of the inputted data has been on forestry related material.

The number of records input to the database has declined slightly in recent years because of the increase in labour costs. The level since 1993 has been between 7000 and 8000 records.

Data was originally mailed to FAO in the form of a magnetic tape, but since 1996 Japan has sent data by FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and electronic mail. This method operates very smoothly.

SUPPLY AND USE OF AGRIS DATABASE

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Information Center constructs the AGRIS database based on the magnetic tape returned from FAO and supplies the contents for use.

The staff members of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries can carry out on-line retrieval through MAFFIN (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Network) and can output retrieved results. Other users can retrieve AGRIS from DIALOG. The use of on-line retrieval is more popular than the printed product or CD-ROM form in Japan. In addition to these conventional methods, we have had access to AGRIS through the Internet since 1995.

Further increases in use from various fields is expected in the future.

FUTURE PROBLEMS

Under the present budget conditions in Japan, we are unable to increase the number of inputs because of the increase in labour costs. An increased budget in line with the increasing output of agricultural literature would solve this problem. A trial to use a scanner to input abstracts is still experiencing problems.