IUFRO 6.03

Roger Mills

Copenhagen 2002

History – 1903-1908

• 4th meeting 1903 (Vienna): ‘compilation of general forest bibliography’ first on agenda

• By 5th meeting 1906 (Stuttgart):• International Committee on Forest Bibliography

formed– Bibliographical system should be that of Melvil

Dewey– A permanent secretariat of forest bibliography

should be established– Swiss Federal Institute of Forest Research

authorised as secretariat 1908

1908-1922

• Subscriptions taken• Card catalogue and ‘quarterly magazine’

planned• Past literature from 1750 to be published

in book form• All stopped by First World War • Discussions resumed 1922

1922-1933

• Forest Bibliography: an International Decimal Classification on the basis of Melvil Dewey’s system published in German 1933, translated into French and English 1936 (‘Flury System’)

• Prepared by Dr Philipp Flury (Birmensdorf) (secretary of the Bibliograpical Committee)

• Chaired by Prof RS Troup (Oxford)

1934-1939

• Imperial Forestry Institute, Oxford began card index and ‘magazine’ Current Monthly Record of Forestry Literature 1934 under Troup’s direction [metadata and indexing in support of networks]

• Imperial Agricultural Bureaux invited to found Forestry Bureau (IFB) at Oxford with IUFRO’s support 1938 (CFB from 1948)

• Forestry Abstracts first published 1939

1939-1953

• Second World War ended plans for international secretariat. Clearing house role adopted by CFB/Oxford

• Classification developed by CFB under F.C. Ford-Robertson

• Bib. Cttee. revived as Joint FAO/IUFRO Committee on Forest Bibliography 1949 (= IUFRO Section 01)

• Revised new classification and after ‘prolonged and earnest deliberations’ finalised Oxford System of Decimal Classification for Forestry, adopted by IUFRO and FAO 1953 and published by CAB

1953-1995

• Joint Committee embarks on publication of multi-lingual terminology

• 1972 IUFRO restructured: Joint Committee becomes S6.03, Information systems and terminology

• 1995 renamed Information services and knowledge organisation with sub-groups– 01 Libraries and Information Services– 02 Trends in forest terminology– 03 Forest Decimal Classification– 04 Latin American systems network

1995-2002

• From 2001:

• 6.03.00 Information services and knowledge organization

• 6.03.01 Bibliographic information and library networks

• 6.03.02 Trends in forest terminology

• 6.03.03 Forest Decimal Classification

• 6.03.04 Latin American and Caribbean information systems network

• http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/iufronet/

In brief

• Words, numbers, people, stuff