AGRIS and AGROVOC at the 5° Seminar for librarians, archivists and museologists (BAM) of Panama

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) participated in the Seminar organized by Universidad de Panama and held in Spanish dedicated to the development and innovation of data management in libraries and museums. The event was addressed to professionals working as librarians, archivists and museologists.

Imma Subirats, information management officer (FAO), and Ruth Velia Gómez Centeno, information management specialist (FAO), presented on Wednesday 22 of March the current situation of AGROVOC and AGRIS in Latin America. 

Ms Gómez Centeno highlighted the importance of AGRIS for the promotion of and the access to scientific information in the field of food and agriculture, stressing the improvements of the last years. Statistics about the records of data providers from Central America as well as the challenges to make visible the technical and scientific production of this region in the international information system were also presented.

A short, practical demonstration of how to use the AGRIS database was displayed, with the aim of showing some basic functions that could be useful in teaching and research activities.

Ms Imma Subitarts introduced the importance of controlled vocabularies such as AGROVOC in the field of information management for professionals, journal editors and researchers.Then, the experience of AGROVOC as a tool for information management in the field of food and agriculture was shared together with the challenges related to the language coverage in Latin America and the importance of strengthening data interoperability between databases and knowledge systems.