(77) A well-run and adequately stocked library with a strong Documentation Centre is essential at FRI Headquarters for successful implementation of the research, training and extension programmes. The two clearly defined objectives of the FRI library and documentation system are:
(78) The specific functions of the Documentation Centre will be:
(79) At present there is no facility for documentation of fisheries research findings in the country. FRI has two libraries (at FARS and RFRS), but they are not run adequately. Those libraries have to be reorganized and provided with modern facilities.
(80) Due to lack of documentation, important research findings and data-base reports on fisheries are not available in the country. The FRI Documentation Centre will record, document and preserve all important research findings and related information, and will provide information ad documentation services to professionals who are engaged in fisheries research, training, teaching, planning, policy making, and extension. The benefits of such services are high: proper dissemination of information facilitates transfer of know-how and avoids duplication of research.
To provide these services one good Library and Documentation Centre has to be established at the FRI Headquarters (and FARS), Mymensingh. The other Research Stations (RFRS, BFRS and MFRS) will have specialized hand libraries, directed towards and based upon their research programmes; these branch libraries will have strong organizational ties with the Library and Documentation Centre at the Headquarters.
(81) For a standard library at the Headquarters the following facilities should be created:
Space: an appropriate area of 7000 sq. ft. will be required initially, of which about 1000 sq. ft. for the Documentation Centre. But, as the library itself is a growing institution, there should be provision for future expansion. The area should be airconditioned and humidity controlled. The present library space at FARS is inadequate. Stack and reading areas should be open to allow relocation and exchange of space. In order to support loaded book stacks/shelves and documentation equipment, the building/room must be engineered to support 150 pounds of weight per sq. ft. The open space will be utilized for shelves, reading and display tables, catalogue cabinets, and staff furniture.
Capacity: an eventual collection of 10,000 volumes and seating/reading facilities for 30 users/readers at a time are assumed.
Staff: the staff will amount to four, with some redundancy of staff space to accomodate staff members at different work assignments.
Furniture: the presently available useable furniture should be used and the following items, in requisite quantity, must be purchased for future accomodation of books and periodicals, equipment and reading facilities:
(82) At RFRS, BFRS and MFRS there should be a library with reading capacity of 20 – 25 persons. An approximate space provision of 2000 sq. ft. be reserved for each station library and accordingly furnished as per requirements stated earlier. For a seating/reading facility of 20 – 25 trainees at a time, two large tables with a partition at the centre will minimize space requirements.
(83) The books and periodicals needed for research, training and extension purposes at a station will only be kept in its library. For example, the BFRS library will procure only those books, periodicals, reports and other documents that are needed to conduct its research, training and extension programmes, and all those documents will be kept in the library itself or lended out from there. Those materials, however, particularly the foreign books and periodicals, will be purchased centrally by the Headquarters library. The station library will select necessary materials in consultation with researchers and technical staff, and send a request/demand note to the central librarian.
(84) The present collection of books and periodicals in station libraries, particularly that in RFRS, should be reviewed, and those books that have outlived their usefulness be discarded. From the remaining books and periodicals those necessary for RFRS activities should be re-catalogued and kept for its library, and the rest should be sent to the central library for distribution over all libraries.
(85) In addition to books, periodicals, reports, reprints and charts, each station library should have other facilities, such as a photocopier, a microfilm and microfiche reader, and cyclostyle, typing, and audiovisual aids, like projectors. Budget needs will be shown in section 5.9.
(86) The central library should procure all necessary books, periodicals and other reading materials and documents, particularly of foreign origin, and subscribe to all current fisheries journals for the central as well as station libraries, according to their requirements. The central library will also feed the station libraries by providing:
The station librarians should maintain regular contact with the central librarian to optimize the use of service available from the central library.
(87) Procurement would include all those books and periodicals on fisheries and aquatic sciences, that are necessary for the research, training and extension programmes of FRI, including textbooks, reference books (encyclopedia, dictionaries, handbooks, monographs, bibliographies, etc.) and other periodicals (journals current contents, proceedings, abstracts, and indexes). Initially about 1000 volumes of books in approximately 400 titles might be purchased for the first year, with a target of 3000 books in 3 years for the central and the 3 station libraries. Of reference books for the central library single copies might suffice, and chapters or parts of the books may be photocopied when necessary. About 100 periodicals should be regularly subscribed to, and backfiles (5 years recommended) of the 20 most important journals should be purchased, depending on research needs. The entire set of FAO publications and documents on fisheries and allied subjects, in original and microfiche copy, must be procured. FAO should be approached for that.
(88) Expensive books (more than $ 75 each) and periodicals (like Biological and Chemical Abstracts) which are available in the BAU-library need not to be purchased. Reading, lending and copying facilities of that library should be utilized.
(89) The books, periodicals and other materials (particularly of foreign origin) must be purchased centrally by the Senior librarian. He should, therefore, made acquainted to procurement procedures. Selection and purchase will be decided on the basis of prior Demand notes from the station libraries, that, in turn, are based on requests from researchers. A list of literature that can assist in finding books and periodicals is provided in Annex C.
(90) FRI should subscribe regularly to as many research journals on fisheries and allied subjects (both national and international) as possible, to facilitate active documentation services. It should also acquire scientific and technical papers and reports of international meetings, conferences and training courses in fisheries and aquatic sciences, to keep up-to-date information on new developments in research and technology in those fields. Advisory leaflets and annual reports of fisheries institutes in neighbouring countries should be acquired and, where possible, backnumbers should also be procured.
(91) All books should be classified and catalogued by author, title and subject. Journals and other serial items should be recorded on Kardex files. Each book should have its place on the shelves, and removal from the library and whereabouts should be properly recorded. A detailed index should be built up and the users be taught to use it. For classification the Dewey Decimal System, the Fish and Wildlife System, or any other internationally used and recognized indexing system should be used. The FAO published Fisheries Abstracts provide an excellent basis for an indexing system. The catalogued cards must be stowed in a wooden (teak) cabinet.
(92) Librarians should ensure that the contents of each book and periodical procured is suitably indexed and circulated. This makes it possible for the researchers to both practice and teach information retrieval. This should be an essential part of every training course and the participants must be taught to use bibliographies and indexes.
(93) A budget provision should be made for an estimated allocation of US$ 2,08,530.- (90 % of the purchase costs) and Taka 8,10,950.- (10 % of the purchase costs, for local purchases) for three years (1987 –89) purchase of books and subscriptions to periodicals. The detailed estimates for the first year are presented in Table 6. Each year thereafter the recurring annual budgets must keep a provision for a 10 % increase in actual costs. The allocation for backfiles may partially be used to replace damaged and lost documents. Thus the second and third years' estimated budgets will be:
Table 6 - Cost estimates for purchase of documents (per Year)
| - | Books (1000 copies @ $ 50, incl. processing): | US$ 50,000 |
| - | Current subscriptions to 100 periodicals @ $ 100: | US$ 10,000 |
| - | Backfiles (5 years) for 20 periodicals: | US$ 10,000 |
| Total: | US$ 70,000 | |
| - | Minus 10 % for local purchases (= Tk 2,45,000): | US$ 7,000 |
| Total for foreign purchases: | US$ 63,000 |
(94) Next to this budget for purchase of books and periodicals, the earlier mentionad library requirements (personnel, equipment, furniture, maintenance, etc.) should be reflected in the general FRI budget. A separate budget for documentation services is presented in section 5.9.1 (Table 7).
(95) For the central library recruitment of a well qualified (masters degree in library science), well trained and experienced Senior librarian (SSO-equivalent), a trained Assistant librarian (SO-equivalent), a skilled Cataloguer, a Sorter and an Attendant will be needed initially. For each station library, appointment of a trained Librarian (SO level) and an Attendent is the minimum requirement. As the present Assistant librarian in Chandpur has no training and library background, and since the Librarian in Mymensingh was reported to have service and technical difficulties, new recruitment may be needed here.
(96) The duties of the staff should be clearly defined. In the proposed infrastructure (Table 3) the SSO and SO of the Publication and Documentation unit should be responsible for documentation services. The Senior librarian will be also responsible for procurement, management and logistics, in addition to his regular library duties. The obvious regular duties of all library personnel are selection, order preparation, shipment, receipt and invoice authorization (i.e. procurement), catalogueing, shelving, indexing, repair and storing, and operation/handling of equipment. It belongs also to their responsibilities to assure that appropriate materials are acquired and that they are also used.
To carry out the identified duties the library staff members should be qualified for their work by education and training. It is recommended, that the Senior librarian and Librarians must have masters degree in library science, with preferable background or specialized training in fisheries/agriculture. They should have knowledge of financial library management, selection and acquisition procedures, bibliographic work and instructions, reference and documentation services, automated data-base searching, interlibrary loan and exchange procedures, binding and mending procedures, and catalogueing.
A training programme for the senior library staff should be taken up. Suggested are:
Junior staff members should attend in-country training programmes. The support staff should be literate and receive training in typing and in handling of audio-visual equipment. One month work (or training) in NALDOC and/or BANSDOC will help to learn procedures and practices of library operation and handling of documentation equipment.
(97) The use of the FRI library resources will fall in three general areas: Documentation services, Reference services, and User instruction programmes.
(98) FRI documentation work will involve collection and storage, classification and selection, dissemination and utilization of information on fisheries research, training and extension achievements, and development of a scientific system of information retrieval as a support to FRI's programmes.
(99) The services of the documentation work can be listed as follows:
To get computerized data-base information a terminal should be installed at the FRI central Library and Documentation Centre in Mymensingh, for services from NALDOC. To be able to use these services the FRI library will have to be a member of the Bangladesh Agricultural Information Network (BAIN).
(100) The FRI Library and Documentation Centre should seek as much as possible co-operation with existing fisheries documentation centres in the regio (SEAFDEC, NACA, INFO-FISH), and adapt to the retrieval, data-base and catalogueing systems there in use. In that way optimum exchange of information with minimum costs will be achieved.
(101) For rendering the services mentioned above, the Centre should at least have the following equipment at its disposal:
(102) Table 7 summarizes the costs of the equipment mentioned above. The total amount is estimated at Tk 15,45,000. - for first purchase and without the computer terminal, of which the cost can be anywhere between Tk 50,000.- and 2,50,000.-, dependent on the possibilities of the central computer. Maintenance of the equipment generally amounts to 5 % of the purchase sum per year, whereas most items will have to be replaced within 10 years. To the budget of Table 7 costs for materials (paper, film, toner, ribbon, lamps, etc.) and for repair and maintenance will have to be added.
(103) The Centre will provide reference services by:
(104) The Centre should prepare a programme of instruction, which will include a review of the Centre's collection and facilities, an introduction to catalogues, indexes and documentation practices, and a summary of rules and regulations. This programme of instruction should be presented to all regular users.
Table 7 - Cost of equipment for documentation services
| ITEM | NUMBER (HQ + STNS) | ESTIMATED COST |
| - photocopy machine | 2 + 3 | 6,00,000.- |
| - microfiche/film reader | 2 + 3 | 95,000.- |
| - photographic camera (35 mm), with accesories | 1 + 3 | 1,00,000.- |
| - photomicrographic set | 1 + 2 | 1,80,000.- |
| - electronic memory typewriter | 1 + 0 | 80,000.- |
| - cyclostyle machine | 1 + 3 | 80,000.- |
| - slide projector | 1 + 2 | 60,000.- |
| - overhead projector | 0 + 2 | 30,000.- |
| - video system | 1 + 0 | 60,000.- |
| - Kardex cabinet | 1 + 3 | 50,000.- |
| - microfiche cabinet | 1 + 3 | 50,000.- |
| - book carts | 1 + 3 | 20,000.- |
| - binding equipment | 1 + 0 | 40,000.- |
| - miscellaneous supplies and spares | 1,00,000.- | |
| Total: | Tk 15,45,000.- |
