Recent Developments in Forestry Information Services Roger Mills Oxford University Library Services May 2003 Including Global Forest Information Service GFIS International Directory of Forestry Information Services FORELISE Why do we need improved services? Earth Summit 1992 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development), Rio Agenda 21, Chapter 40: Existing national and international mechanisms of information processing and exchange, and of related technical assistance, should be strengthened to ensure effective and equitable availability of information generated at the local, provincial, national and international levels Finding a Forum The Intergovernmental Forum on Forests urged international organizations, donor countries and financial institutions to enhance access to forest-related information and...to work with IUFRO in exploring possibilities for a global forest information service. Why IUFRO? Independent Research-oriented World-wide membership Long involvement with information issues Planning a Solution World Forestry Congress 1997 Rovaniemi 1998 ICRIS 1998 International Consultation on Research and Information Systems in Forestry IUFRO Task Force 1999 Ten meetings to date Seeking Examples The Harry Potter Phenomenon Get people talking Get them wanting more Sell on content Repackage for specific audiences Translate widely Send for Harry Challenge the nightmare Power of the individual With a little help from our friends Separate good and bad Get info from library and the Forest of Information Core Group 20 institutions for UK, CAB International and OFIS Working as volunteers Wide-ranging skills Growing appreciation of library & information world methodologies cataloguing and classification What is GFIS? A network of forest-related databases Spatial Statistical Bibliographic A network of people Producers Users Intermediaries What kind of information? Quality information Not censorship, but the means to decide Accessible by anyone anywhere Web-based but with support for non-electronic sources and users Cross-searchable metadata (Cross-)searching within databases GFIS the theory GFIS the reality Two tin cans and a piece of string Needs someone to talk and someone to listen And vice versa Building GFIS IUFRO Secretariat Vienna FAO Rome GFIS-Africa EU funding 5 nodes Prospects for Latin America, SE Asia, Europe, N. America Timescale Proof of Concept IUFRO Congress 2000 (Malaysia) Working Prototype World Forestry Congress 2002 (Quebec) Production service IUFRO Congress 2005 (Brisbane) Related activities Thesauri FAO, CABI, IUFRO Subject gateways: BIOME, NovaGate, AgNIC, Agrigate Virtual Library METLA Digitisation of non-electronic sources Oxford Digital Library for Forestry What next? World Forestry Congress, Quebec, September 2003 Launch of phase 2 working prototype Interoperability meeting Task Force meeting To-do list Money Staff MoUs Content Where you come in Please register and test Tell us what doesnt work Tell us what could be better Enter your metadata if you have any forest-related information resources Spread the word especially to potential funders! Global Forest Information Service GFIS GFIS background 6.03: Developing Forest Information Networks International Directory of Forest Information Services: Libraries, Information Centres and Subject Specialists Registration form Full entry - 1 Full entry - 2 Mailing labels FORELISE PLEASE: if there are trees in your life: Have a look at GFIS Comment Add your content or suggest what youd like to see Register in the Directory Join FORELISE Think what we can do together The URLs GFIS service GFIS background - International Directory bin/wa.exe?A0=FORELISE - FORELISEbin/wa.exe?A0=FORELISE