Information and Library Managers from the CGIAR centers and CGIAR Secretariat, with Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy (fourth from right, front row), ICARDA Director General.

Information and Library Managers from 14 of the 15 CG centres, and the CG Secretariat, met on 2-6 October 2005 at ICARDA, Aleppo. The agenda included: plans for the joint virtual library and progress to date; discussions on joint journal subscriptions and inter-center document sharing; updates on open access archiving, institutional repositories and emerging information dissemination strategies; discussions with AGNIC, FAO and IAALD on potential partnerships; and general sharing of news, experiences and interesting information management initiatives across the CGIAR.

After two years of planning and testing, the new CGIAR virtual library services will be launched at AGM05 in Marrakech, Morocco in December 2005. The new service will allow researchers from the CGIAR and the wider agricultural research community to quickly search the information resources across all the centres in one mouse click, pulling in results from more than 30 bibliographic and full-text databases. As well as giving access to the full-text publication repositories of the 15 centers and the CGIAR Secretariat, users will be directed to other information resources held by a number of CGIAR partners and major information providers serving agriculture. A customized 'application profile' will allow for precision searching across the different databases (and data types) as well as for easy exchange with other information systems such as AGRIS. Consortium members also reviewed their subscriptions and document delivery guidelines, noting the massive savings to the system as a whole that resulted from their collective buying and negotiating efforts, as well as from efficient inter-library assistance in obtaining documents. Together, these efforts add up to a 'next generation' CGIAR-wide library platform, to provide a range of joint services that build on the capacities distributed across the network.

The presentations and discussions also highlighted the information, experimentation and activities in individual centres, as well as close collaboration in training and resource sharing with national and regional networks and partners, document repositories, image libraries, support for knowledge networking and e-discussions, and exploration of inter-centre collaboration in designing and delivering additional information services. Despite these individual and joint efforts, there is some concern that the collective visibility of these activities is often poor. Individual libraries are struggling to balance old and new demands (collecting and organizing information versus connecting and networking knowledge) and to address pressures to reduce staffing levels. At the same time, they are also seeking to manage change, evolving and adapting to take advantage of emerging scientific communication thinking and tools.

For more information contact: Dr Nihad Maliha