AGROVOC

AGROVOC’s Use to Facilitate Agricultural Information Management and Access

FAO/Giulio Napolitano

A use case by Modou Sall, International Development Research Centre

The National School of Agriculture (ENSA), formerly INDR created in 1983, aims at delivering agricultural engineering training in specialities of animal production, plants production, soil sciences, rural equipment and agricultural economics. The library is a vital service to support teaching and research activities by providing relevant information in agriculture  to teachers and students. Aspects of focus will be informational resources, principal services offered to patrons, and the project of library depository for FAO publications, between 1993 and 1997.  They are mainly composed of documents in paper, audiovisual and electronic formats.  

In 1997, systems and tools used by the library for information treatment, storage and dissemination were the following:

  • The thesaurus AGROVOC, used for indexing, in replacement of the RESADOC descriptors list not updated.
  • A local Classification System, based on other tools like AGRIS Plan, to range print resources according to their contents.  
  • One in-house bibliographic database, to help manage, research and access books, monographs, reports, created with CDS-ISIS, software developed by UNESCO.
  • An in-house database (with CDS-ISIS), for easy management and retrieval of thesis and research produced.   

Kumar (2016) reported that “Library and information centers have become the backbone of modern society as it provides the means to the development process of each and every segment of the society”. As we are living in a continuous information explosion, the access to appropriate knowledge is facilitated by dedicated information professionals who are capable of retrieving and evaluating information contents. Such human and material resources are sometimes missing or neglected.  

As a resource centre supporting teaching/research activities and scientific events, the library service of ENSA faced, in the 1990s, the lack of financial resources to enable the acquisition of new informational resources in main areas covered by the institution’s activities. To solve the issue of collection development, due to limited resource availability, I initiated, in early 1990, diverse projects aimed at getting free updated journal articles, accessing online databases, and getting updated information provided by FAO in the agricultural area. Exchanges undertaken with Publications Services from Italy and with the National Representation of FAO in Senegal, led to an agreement between FAO and ENSA, signed in March 1993, permitting the ENSA library to become a depository of FAO publications in the country. 

This project of ENSA depository for FAO publications included some conditions, among which the following:

  • One copy of each FAO publication in French language should be sent to ENSA library for access to information users.
  • ENSA library could use any appropriate system or tool facilitating the management and accessibility of FAO publications, to internal and external agricultural users.
  • ENSA library was encouraged to be in communication with FAO to provide feedback about any question arising on publications’ acquisition and accessibility.
  • ENSA library could collaborate with FAO to help contribute to the promotion of the Yearly World Food Day celebrated on October 16th.       

With this project, one to four hundred new books and monographs on diverse topics related to agriculture and food sciences were received yearly at the library. Feedbacks received from users attested that this project enabled better accessibility of agricultural information throughout Senegal. In addition, the library became an agricultural and food reference centre capable of providing relevant information in diverse disciplines. 

The use of AGROVOC in indexing 

My practical use case is about the utilization of AGROVOC thesaurus in indexing FAO publications, as well as all other resources received, with the final aim of facilitating agricultural information research and access. 

For each publication received, the bibliographic description was made, followed by the extraction of five to fifteen descriptors representing its contents. AGROVOC was helpful to choose significant keywords essential to search and access agricultural information. The definition of indexing with AGROVOC, indexation process, and its main steps will be explored.

Definition of indexing

According to the Library & Information Science Network (2019), Indexing is regarded as the process of describing and identifying documents in terms of their subject contents. Here, The concepts are extracted from documents by the process of analysis, and then transcribed into the elements of the indexing systems, such as thesauri, classification schemes, etc.

Process and steps in indexing with AGROVOC 

The process consists of selecting concepts or keywords representing the document’s contents, and translating those concepts using the language of AGROVOC, as illustrated in the figure below.               

                              

Figure 1. Process of indexing. Source: Documentation et bibliothèques, vol. 59, Issue 4, 2013

 

Selecting main keywords expressing document’s contents

To successfully perform this action, I used to follow the steps as below:

  • Examining the entire publication to get a better comprehension, by reviewing its main contents, including abstract/summary if available, introduction, conclusion, beginnings of chapters/paragraphs, table of contents, illustrations.                       
  • Identifying main keywords/concepts expressing the whole contents in the publication, using significant terms.
  • Selecting which final concepts to choose, based on my knowledge of existing users’ needs.

Translating concepts into descriptors using AGROVOC vocabulary 

In this step, I used to ensure that keywords selected corresponded to the exact terms present in the AGROVOC thesaurus, which is the AGROVOC vocabulary with controlled terms to use in the agriculture field, to avoid any possible misinterpretation. 



The bibliographic description and indexing activities were made for all monographs, books, reports in the bibliographic database, and also for thesis in students’ thesis and research databases.

Benefits of using AGROVOC

My use of AGROVOC, a multilingual thesaurus regularly updated in agriculture and related disciplines, provided many benefits, including the following:

  • Improving my knowledge in agriculture and food terminology, as well as the quality of services provided to users. 
  • Facilitating communication and interaction with library patrons due to a better comprehension of different concepts in agriculture.
  • Choosing more appropriate terms in agriculture to describe contents of publications, and to improve the information management process. 
  • Helping improve research activities for staff and users, with useful relevant keywords to easily and quickly access the needed information.
  • Encouraging the library’s participation in information networks and initiatives aimed at promoting agricultural development. 
  • Contributing to increase the library’s resource use and attracting new latent information users from other organisations and regions. 
  • Building the library’s credibility and facilitating the recognition of its crucial contribution to achieve the organizational goals.
  • Supporting the utilization of AGROVOC as an international tool that can be used in diverse cultural contexts, without misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

The use of a structured and controlled language in indexing is essential to better organize, identify, search and retrieve information, in any system. The access to relevant information is necessary to reach agricultural development and global food security in the world, and AGROVOC thesaurus can help in this perspective.      

  

References

Crozat, Stephane 2016. Presentation on Indexation de documents [online], Ingénierie Documentaire [August 15, 2021]. https://stph.scenari-community.org/doc/ind.pdf.

FAO 2021.  AGROVOC Multilingual Thesaurus [August 14, 2021]. https://agrovoc.fao.org/browse/agrovoc/en/ 

Fuman, M. R. F. Q. 2011. The Indexer The International Journal of Indexing [online]. The Persian Agrovoc in an indexing context. [August 14, 2021]. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233643584_The_Persian_Agrovoc_in_an_indexing_context

Guitard, Laure A. 2013. Archival and Library Subject Indexation: Is There a Difference? [online]  Documentation et bibliothèques, Vol. 59, No. 4 [August 15, 2021].  https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/documentation/2013-v59-n4documentation0890/1019217ar.pdf. 

Library & Information Science Network 2019a. Indexing Process and Principles [online]. [August 15, 2021]. https://www.lisbdnetwork.com/indexing-principles-and-process/. 

Library & Information Science Network 2019b. Subject Indexing [August 15, 2021]. https://www.lisbdnetwork.com/subject-indexing/. 

Mai, Jens-E. 2000.  The Subject Indexing Process: an investigation of problems in knowledge representation [online]. Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Texas at Austin. [August 16, 2021]. http://jenserikmai.info/Papers/2000_PhDdiss.pdf    

Kumar, P.K Suresh 2016. Role of library and information science professionals in the knowledge society [online]. Journal of Information, Vol.2, No.2, pp.10-17. [August 16, 2021].   http://www.conscientiabeam.com/pdf-files/com/104/JI-2016-2(2)-10-17.pdf