ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (FAO, Rome, Italy, 18-21 June 2002)
Meeting REPORT
CONTENTS
2. Administrative Arrangements
3. Election of Chairperson and Rapporteurs
5. Adoption of the Summary Report of the 2001 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
6.1 Report on the Inter-sessional Activities of ASFA Partners
6.2 New and Potential ASFA Partners
7. ASFA Scope, Coverage and Monitoring and Timeliness
8.3 Public Relations Activities, Marketing
8.5 Increasing Distribution of ASFA Information Products and Services
9. Progress with Machine Readable Input
10. Report on ASFA Training activities
11. Status of ASFIS Reference Series Publications
12. Expanded language capability in ASFA
13.2 Proposals in progress, completed or pending further discussion
15. Place and Date of Next Meeting
(Annexes (Only selected Annexes, 1, 2, 41, 47 are included with this Report)
Annex-41 ASFA Trust Fund Status
Annex-47 Decisions (suggestions) and Actions Agreed by Participants ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
The Annual Meeting of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) Advisory Board was hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), located in Rome, Italy, during 18 to 21 June 2002.
The Meeting was attended by 37 participants from: 18 National ASFA Partners, 1 Collaborating ASFA Partner, 2 UN Co-sponsoring ASFA Partners, 3 International ASFA Partners, the ASFA Publishing Partner, and 4 observers. The names and addresses of the Participants are listed in (Annex-1).
Mr Grainger, Chief of FAO Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI), opened the meeting and Mr Ichiro Nomura, Assistant Director-General of the FAO Fisheries Department, delivered the opening speech. He welcomed participants to FAO and to the 32nd annual ASFA Advisory Board Meeting and gave a special welcome to the 2 new ASFA Partners, Belgium and Uruguay. He mentioned that during the past 10 years the total number of ASFA Partners increased from 19 to 46 and noted that this increase, together with the high attendance at the annual ASFA Meetings, is a reflection of both the importance given to aquatic science information by the institutes and also to the relevance and success of ASFA as a vehicle for collecting and disseminating such information. Reference was made to the unique partnership among the participating countries, the commercial publisher in the private sector, and the UN agency partners charged with promoting developing country participation in and access to ASFA. This partnership has proven to be a sound basis for the development of the ASFA database and its products. He assured Partners that FAO is committed, despite its limited resources, to continue supporting ASFA by providing the Secretariat, as it has done since the beginning, and also mentioned his pleasure that the FAO Fisheries Department is involved as the Secretariat to such a successful program. He assured Partners that he would actively support the ASFA program as a continuing priority within the Fisheries Department.
2. ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTSMr Pepe (FAO) presented this Agenda Item.
3. ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON AND RAPPORTEURSMs Beattie (NOAA) was elected Chairperson of the Board Meeting. Ms Wibley (FAO) was appointed Rapporteur and Mr Pepe (FAO) as assistant Rapporteur.
Mr Pepe conveyed to the Meeting the apologies received from the Partners not able to attend the Meeting. Ms Beattie made particular mention of Ms Cameron (DFO) who regretted not being able to attend this Meeting, which would have been her last Meeting and final farewell to the Partners.
The Agenda was adopted by the Board as it appears in (Annex-2).
A list of the documents presented at this Meeting is attached as (Annex-2a).
The abbreviations used in the Report are listed in (Annex-2b).
5. ADOPTION OF THE SUMMARY REPORT OF 2001 ASFA ADVISORY BOARD MEETINGThe Report of the 2001 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (Plouzane, France) was adopted by the Board.
5.1 Matters Arising from the last (2001) ASFA Advisory Board MeetingThe Chair introduced this Agenda item referring to document "Decisions and Actions agreed by Participants (Annex 42 of 2001 ASFA Board Report)
The follow-up taken by Partners on last year's "action items" is reported under the appropriate Agenda items.
(see Annex-38 for a full list of ASFA Partners with addresses)
6.1 Report on Intersessional Activities of the ASFA PartnersEach ASFA Partner presented a summary report of its intersessional activities. The FAO ASFA Secretariat summarized the major points or concerns contained in the Reports of the Partners not attending the Meeting. In most cases, only the highlights, comments and discussions regarding the Reports are recorded below, as the full text of the Reports can be consulted in the Annexes.
6.1.1 United Nations Co-sponsors
6.1.1.1 FAO Report
(Annex-3) Mr Grainger presented the Report of the ASFA Secretariat. He mentioned that it was a very busy intersessional period for the Secretariat, and referred to the major accomplishments which included: the finalizing of the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, the training course for Latin America and Caribbean, and the revision of the ASFA Guidelines for data entry. He expressed his appreciation for the efforts made by the ASFA Staff members regarding the development of the new software and input manuals.6.1.1.2 IOC Report
(Annex-4) Mr Odido presented the IOC Report.6.1.1.3 UN/DOALOS Report
(Annex-5).The FAO ASFA Secretariat presented the UN/DOALOS Report, and highlighted the fact that UN/DOALOS had participated in the beta-testing of the www-ISIS-ASFA software and had submitted useful suggestions/comments to the FAO ASFA Secretariat for consideration in preparing the final release of the software.6.1.1.4 UNEP
- (not present, no Report submitted)The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that discussions had continued with UNEP staff during the inter-sessional period regarding the renewal of UNEP�s active participation in ASFA. UNEP has agreed to meet a representative from the FAO ASFA Secretariat to discuss the issue following this Board Meeting.
6.1.2 ASFA Partners
6.1.2.
1 ADRIAMED (Annex-6) Ms Milone presented the ADRIAMED report. She mentioned the problem of slow and incomplete coverage when preparing input for some of the serials published in the countries participating in AdriaMed when they are available only in the national languages.6.1.2.2 ICCAT
(not present, Annex-7) The FAO ASFA Secretariat briefly summarised this Report, and mentioned ICCAT�s position on inter-sessional voting which was that: "NOT casting a vote" should be counted as an abstention rather than as a vote in favour.6.1.2.3 ICES
(Annex-8) Ms Ovens presented the ICES Report6.1.2.4
ICLARM (Annex-9) Ms Kamsiah presented the ICLARM Report. She mentioned that NIO (India) was, on behalf of ICLARM, carrying out ASFA data input for the ICLARM publications from 1999-2001. She reported that ICLARM�s Information Services Manager will attend the ASFA Training Course the week following the Board Meeting after which ICLARM would be responsible once again for its own input.6.1.2.5
IUCN (not present, Annex-10) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that IUCN had resumed active participation in ASFA, after a few years of inactivity.6.1.2.6 PIMRIS
(not present, Annex-11) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that PIMRIS had had problems during 2001 regarding lack of funds and staff, but they had begun submitting input. The ASFA Trust Fund Project is still pending, and PIMRIS reiterated their commitment.6.1.2.7 Argentina (INIDEP)
(not present, Annex-12) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that INIDEP, in cooperation with IFOP (Chile) had prepared an ASFA Trust Fund Proposal (see Agenda Item-13.3)6.1.2.8 Australia (CSIRO)
(not present, Annex-13). The ASFA Secretariat presented the CSIRO Report.6.1.2.9 Belgium (VLIZ)
No report required for new Partner, but Mr Haspeslagh gave a brief description of the institute and the work it carries out. He expressed his thanks to Mr Pepe, Ms Lombardi and CSA for their help in the admission of the institute as a new ASFA Partner.6.1.2.10 Brazil (USP)
(not present, Annex-14) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that Brazil had submitted a Report even though not yet an active Partner, and that they participated in the South American Training Course. He mentioned their enthusiasm regarding participation in ASFA.6.1.2.11 Bulgaria (MAFAR)
(not present, no Report required)6.1.2.12 Canada (NRC)
(not present, no Report) The Board expressed their thanks to the active participation that Ms. Cameron had always made over the past years.6.1.2.13 Chile (IFOP)
(not present, Annex-15). The FAO ASFA Secretariat mentioned that Chile were co-sponsors with Argentina regarding an ASFA Trust Fund project to be discussed under Agenda Item 13.3.6.1.2.14 China (NMDIS)
(Annex-16) Mr Yang Ying presented the NMDIS Report. He mentioned two ASFA Trust Fund Projects in which NIMDIS was involved. The first, "The Addition of 45,000 abstracts to the 1975-1977 ASFA Bibliographic Database File", was completed in October 2001, and the second, "The Conversion of ASFA printed journals into machine-readable format � 1972", is scheduled to be completed before December 2002.6.1.2.15
Cote d�Ivoire (not present, no Report)6.1.2.16
Cuba (CIP) (Annex-17) Ms Hernandez Ceballos presented the CIP Report6.1.2.17 Estonia (EMI)
(Annex-18) Ms Kalenchits presented the Report for EMI6.1.2.18 France (IFREMER)
(Annex-19) Ms Prod'homme presented the IFREMER Report. She briefly mentioned the changes that had taken place regarding input staff at IFREMER and the recruitment of two new collaborating centres. Various analytical studies carried out on the ASFA database were mentioned6.1.2.19 Germany (BF)
(Annex-20) Mr Kühnhold presented the BF Report. He mentioned some changes in staff and in particular the retirement of Mr Ulrich Brüll. The Board expressed their thanks to Mr Brüll for his many years of dedicated service to ASFA. Reference was also made to the BF Trust Fund Project "Improvement of the ASFA Database: standardization of descriptor fields", which was now complete. The Report contains recommendations, which include a further field cleaning project and the extension of the Baltic Seaweb GIS search tools to all oceans.6.1.2.20 Greece (NCMR.)
(Annex-21) Ms Goulala presented the NCMR Report.6.1.2.21 India (NIO/NICMAS)
(not present, Annex-22) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that NIO started the Trust Fund Proposal for the Conversion of ASFA 1971 journals into machine-readable format.6.1.2.22 Italy (SIBM)
(not present, no Report) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that SIBM had just become active and had sent some input to FAO for checking.6.1.2.23 Japan (FRA)
(Report Annex-23) Mr Takayanagi presented the FRA Report.6.1.2.24 Kenya (KMFRI)
(Annex-24) Mr Macharia presented the KMFRI Report.6.1.2.25
Korea (KORDI)
(Annex-25) Mr Han presented the KORDI Report.6.1.2.26 Lithuania
(Ichthyobank) (not present, no Report).Regarding the action item-3 contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"3.
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that they would follow up to see what the situation was regarding the Lithuanian ASFA Partner."(reported follow-up)- The ASFA Secretariat reported that ICHTHYOBANK did not submit any input for 2000, 2001 and 2002. They were contacted and Mr Volskis replied explaining that he had requested the transfer of the ASFA activities to the Ministry of Education. FAO agreed to continue follow-up.
6.1.2.27 Mexico (UNAM/DGB)
(Annex-26) Mr Montes presented the UNAM/DGB Report.6.1.2.28 Morocco (INRH)
(not present, no Report required)6.1.2.29 Norway (IMR)
(not present, Annex-27) The FAO ASFA Secretariat presented the IMR Report.6.1.2.30
Peru (IMARPE)
(not present, no Report required)6.1.2.31 Poland (SFI)
(Annex-28) Ms Fey presented the SFI report6.1.2.32 Portugal (IPIMAR)
(not present, no Report) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that it was in contact with IPIMAR, and IPIMAR was still interested in resuming its active participation in ASFA.6.1.2.33 Russia (VNIRO)
(Annex-29) Mr Kotenev presented the VNIRO report.6.1.2.34 Spain (IEO)
(not present, Annex-30) The ASFA Secretariat presented the report on behalf of IEO6.1.2.35 Sweden (IMR)
(Annex-31) Ms Frohlund presented the IMR Report. She mentioned the "serial titles match search" carried out between the IMR reference database CODREF and ASFA-1. The 7 journals found not covered by ASFA are listed.6.1.2.36 Tunisia (INSTM)
(not present, Annex-32) The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that Tunisia had just become active and had sent some ASFA input to FAO for checking.6.1.2.37 Ukraine (YugNIRO)
(Annex-33) Mr Romanov presented the YugNIRO Report. He mentioned the new collaborating ASFA partner, KMTI. He also presented the FAO ASFA Secretariat with the finalized Russian-English version of "ASFIS-2, ASFIS Subject Categories and Scope Descriptors", which had been prepared under an ASFA Trust Fund Proposal.6.1.2.38 United Kingdom (PML)
(Annex-34) Ms Noble presented the PML Report, and mentioned the loss of collaborating centres, limited staff resources and lack of funds.6.1.2.39 USA (NOAA)
(Annex-35)- Ms Beattie presented the NOAA Report.6.1.2.40 Vietnam (FICen)
(Annex-36) Mr Duong Long Tri presented the FICen Report. He briefly described the Centre. He reported that one staff member and himself would participate in the ASFA Training Course following the Meeting, and he hoped that FICen would soon be preparing ASFA input.6.1.3
ASFA Partner-Publisher (CSA)- (Annex-37) Mr Emerson presented the CSA Report. He notified Partners that CSA was now ready to receive ASFA input prepared with the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, but reminded Partners that, when sending input to CSA, they should indicate which software they have used. Some of the new features of IDS were mentioned (e.g. the linking to full-text documents). Mr Emerson referred to IDS usage reports which provide information as to who is using the ASFA Database and what is being searched. FAO requested access to this information, in order to have a general indication of the areas being searched on the database. CSA replied that it was not possible to pass on such information in detail, but some general indication could be provided.6.1.4 NISC
Ms Lawrie explained the �cooperation� between NISC, CSA and ASFA and referred to the two products: "Aquatic Biology, Aquaculture & Fisheries Resources" (ABAFR) (a combination of 14 different aquatic science related databases together with relevant portions of the ASFA 1 database) available as CD-ROM and on-line; and, "Marine, Oceanographic & Freshwater Resources" (MOFR) (a combination of 15 different aquatic science related databases together with relevant portions of the ASFA 2&3 database) available as CD-ROM and on-line. She mentioned NISC's publicizing of the ASFA products at various conferences held in South Africa and in Europe.
6.2 New and Potential ASFA Partners6.2.1 Admission of New Partners
The Board welcomed two new Partners into the ASFA Partnership: 1) The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Belgium; and 2) the Universidad de la Republica, Instituto de Investigaciones Pesqueras (IIP), Uruguay. See FAO Report (Annex-3) for the full names of the Institutes.
Regarding action item (5) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
(5) "The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to officially communicating the acceptance of Brazil and Vietnam into the ASFA Partnership by the ASFA Advisory Board, but also reminding them that entitlements and listing in the title pages of the journals will only commence with the submission of input for inclusion in the ASFA database. "
(reported follow-up)-
The ASFA Secretariat reported that this was done for last year�s new Partners.The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to officially communicate the acceptance of the new Partners (VLIZ and IIP) into the ASFA Partnership by the ASFA Advisory Board.
6.2.2. Consideration of Potential Partners
Regarding the following action item (7) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
(7) "
BF agreed to follow-up with Egypt regarding a potential ASFA partner."(reported follow-up) - The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that the German ASFA Partner (BF) had contacted the ASFA Secretariat regarding possible new Partners in Egypt and Turkey and BF had offered to continue with the follow up.
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported co-operation between the ASFA Secretariat and the AGRIS/GIL group as regards sharing of expertise and exchanging ideas regarding the
www-ISIS-ASFA software. He mentioned that the user-friendly guidelines, compiled by the ASFA Secretariat for the installation of the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, has been adopted/adapted by GIL for installation of the AGRIS www-ISIS input/retrieval software.During the inter-sessional period, an Information Systems Analyst assisted the ASFA Secretariat in the ASFA Training Session in Latin America.
A representative of GIL was invited to this Meeting to assist in the presentation of the FIGIS-ASFA Trust Fund Project.
The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to continue cooperation with GILW.
6.4 ASFA Partnership AgreementRegarding the following action item contained in the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"
The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to put on the ASFA homepage the criteria reflecting loss of entitlements and dismissal from Partnership.(reported follow-up) - Mr Pepe (FAO) showed the text of the ASFA Partnership Agreement and the "Criteria (or procedures) for removal of Existing Partners not fulfilling ASFA responsibilities" on the ASFA homepage (http://www.fao.org/fi/asfa/asfa.asp).
In addition, Mr Pepe briefly demonstrated some of the other information contained in the site such as: the "Frequently Asked Questions" (e.g. "What is ASFA", "Why and How" to become a Partner, and the "Objective of ASFA" etc. ), the ASFA Thesaurus, and the ASFA FTP site (where the ASFA Monitoring List, the ASFA Thesaurus and various guidelines/manuals may be downloaded).
The ASFA Secretariat reported that the present Publishing Agreement covers the period 1 Jan. 2000 to 31 Dec. 2003, and that no amendments were proposed during the inter-sessional period by either the FAO ASFA Secretariat or CSA.
Partners were shown Article 5 of the Publishing Agreement on the ASFA homepage at
http://www.fao.org/fi/asfa/agreemt.asp#Entit) which contains a list of the Partner Entitlements.On behalf of the ASFA Board, the Chairperson thanked the FAO ASFA Secretariat for all the hard work involved in maintaining the ASFA Homepage.
7. ASFA SCOPE, COVERAGE, MONITORING AND TIMELINESSRegarding the following action items. (11-13) contained in the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"11. The Representative of CSA agreed to provide interested Partners with a list of the Serial Titles currently covered by CSA. It was suggested that all Partners review this list to identify any titles that they would be prepared to take on monitoring responsibility. All transfers of Serial monitoring responsibility should be reported to FAO. "
(reported follow-up)- Mr Emerson (CSA) reported this as done and that CSA had often exchanged journals with other ASFA Partners.
"12. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to modify the Thesis section of the Bibliographic Guidelines providing instructions to include information as to the availability of the thesis in the Notes field."
(reported follow-up)
- The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported this as done."13. The Representative of Greece agreed to post information via ASFA Board-L regarding Ariel software (which facilitates document delivery) so as to facilitate the multiple buying of the software with special discounts."
(reported follow-up) - Ms Goulala (NCMR) reported this as done.
Ms Kamsiah (ICLARM) brought up the question of using the ASFA Trust Fund to buy the Ariel software for ASFA Partners to help them in transmitting documents.
Ms Kamsiah (ICLARM) agreed that she would check prices and inform FAO.
Regarding the following action items (15 and 23) contained in 2001 the ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"15. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to investigate the possibility of entering more than one URL address by making the appropriate field in the www-ASFA-ISIS software repeatable."
(reported follow-up) -
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported this as done."23. The Representative of BF agreed to prepare a rough list of book publishers, (commercial, academic etc.) which regularly publish titles within the subject scope of ASFA. This would serve as a check that the main publishers are being monitored. Each Partner, once receiving the list, would then contact the publisher to request that they be added to their mailing lists of catalogues and/or to receive complimentary review copies of new books so that they could be cited in the ASFA database."
(reported follow-up) - Mr Kühnhold (BF) reported this as done and agreed to send the list via E-mail to the ASFA Board.
Mr Kühnhold mentioned that the list was not complete (i.e. not all publisher�s addresses were complete). CSA mentioned their "Books in print" database as a possible source of assistance in completing the missing addresses. Mr Kühnhold (BF) and Mr Emerson (CSA) agreed to work together to complete the list, which could then also be put on the ASFA homepage. Partners could use the list to contact publishers in order to obtain complimentary copies of books (for input of the references into ASFA). In addition, Publishers might be motivated to providing books to the ASFA Partners if they saw their names on the list.
Timeliness
Mr Emerson (CSA) started the discussion of timeliness (defining it as the time lag between publication date of a document and the actual appearance of its reference on the ASFA database). He reported that CSA had received some complaints from users regarding timeliness. He suggested several ways to increase timeliness: 1) documents with an equivalent web version could be identified and then the key parts (e.g. the abstract) copied into the ASFA worksheet (using "Cut and Paste" function); 2) Partners could prioritise their input covering core journals first; 3) Partners could send their input to CSA regularly in smaller batches, rather than one batch once a year; 4) Abstracts could be scanned, rather than keyed in, to save time.
It was suggested that Partners investigate within their own institutes regarding the acquisition of good OCR scanning software. Mr. Romanov (YugNIRO) mentioned satisfaction using the software "Fine-Reader".
Mr Emerson (CSA) agreed to provide the ASFA Partners with a list of journals which they are currently receiving in electronic format and monitoring for their CSA databases. If a partner recognizes a publication from their own Monitoring List, they might wish to exchange monitoring responsibilities with CSA, as CSA could process the document quicker in electronic format.
Document delivery
Mr Emerson (CSA) started the discussion of document delivery by questioning the utility of preparing input for a document for which no full text was available was discussed (in particular regarding grey literature).
Partners were again reminded of the importance of including "availability" information in the ASFA record: if information indicating the availability of the document is not already present as part of the bibliographic description (e.g. author affiliation, corporate author, publisher etc.) such information should be entered in the Notes field during preparation of input.
Mr Emerson (CSA) brought up the possibility of extending coverage backwards, i.e. Partners going back with input preparation to include the first volume/issue of journals which are on their Monitoring List. Since all earlier material is still very important, CSA suggested the possible use of the ASFA Trust Fund.
A considerable amount of discussion followed regarding the Discussion Paper "Utility of Converting ASFA Predecessor Journals into Machine Readable Format for Addition to ASFA Database" (Annex-46). In general, The Board agreed as to the usefulness of going backwards in time regarding input of data. Such information increases the value of ASFA for the Scientific Community, and there is a growing interest in time series information to look at changes that have occurred over the years in ecosystems.
Ms Levashova (VNIRO) stated that they were prepared to go back and search the Russian literature for records prior to 1971 and prepare ASFA input. Ms Levashova (VNIRO) agreed to investigate the extent of the work involved (for literature prior to 1971), and to decide whether they were capable of carrying out the work and then prepare a Trust Fund Proposal for the future.
Strategy for future expansion of ASFA PartnershipRegarding the action item (19) contained in the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"19. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to prepare a paper on strategy and tabled a draft Terms of Reference for the task. See (Annex-52). "
(reported follow-up) -
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that the draft strategy "Strategy for priority-setting for future expansion of ASFA Partnership" had been circulated to the Partners during the inter-sessional period for comments, and that comments had only been received from UN-DOALOS. The final version of the paper was presented at this Meeting (Annex-42). The discussions are reported below.Mr Pepe (FAO) gave a brief outline of the above mentioned paper, by summarizing the "Executive Summary", and then opened the floor for discussion.
Mr Montes (UNAM), referring to "decentralization" as mentioned in para 12 of the Executive Summary, reported on the success of the ASFA Training Course that was held in Chile in March 2002, and how it gave the opportunity to the different institutes in the different South American countries to cooperate. They are now working together to create a South American network of ASFA Partners, and looking for new Partners in other countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia. Mr Montes stressed the importance of the formal support from FAO in helping the new Partners in starting their participation in ASFA.
Mr Grainger (FAO) pointed out that the current approach to finding new Partners was rather ad hoc, and that not all past recruitment has been successful. He referred to a few Partners, which after many years, were still not operational. He stressed the need for a more systematic approach with specific guidelines to be followed.
Mr Emerson (CSA) suggested the use of the ASFA Trust Fund to assist the FAO ASFA Secretariat, perhaps in recruiting new personnel or hiring assistance. The Secretariat mentioned that it would be re-presenting for renewal its Trust Fund Proposal for assistance to the ASFA Secretariat (Annex-3a).
Mr Haspeslagh (VLIZ) brought up the topic of "motivation", suggesting that scientists would provide their information if they see a return, i.e. the ASFA database, and mentioned the importance of Metadata. Mr Pepe (FAO) suggested that CSA's IDS provided good motivation. Mr Emerson (CSA) mentioned the various improvements made by CSA to the IDS (e.g. linking to other web sites). Ms Beattie (NOAA) reminded Partners that the Board has always tried to anticipate needs and incorporate new technologies.
Mr Romanov (YugNIRO) noted the document's mention of the ASFA partnership being concentrated mainly in N. America and Europe, and enquired as to the possibility of investigating how much aquatic sciences literature is published in developing countries. Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that past studies have shown that most core journals were being covered adequately by ASFA, and some difficulty with grey literature.
Following the suggestion of Mr Kühnhold (BF) that the points listed in paragraph-44 of the document be taken as the main criteria to follow, the Chairperson requested the Board to examine the criteria listed in paragraph-44 and also the countries listed in paragraph-39.
The Board agreed to the criteria listed in paragraph-44 of the document "Strategy for priority-setting for future expansion of ASFA Partnership" as a general and flexible guide in the recruitment of new Partner with the following amendments and considerations: 1) the first point was changed to read "....aquatic sciences and/or fisheries literature"), 2) in the fourth point "institutional sustainability" should be understood as being "in good faith and in the best of our availability to make good judgment", 3) with the full understanding that the criteria was not a check-list. Therefore the final paragraph-44 reads as follows:
44 A Criteria for recruitment and approval of new ASFA partners and removal of existing partners are spelled out in the Minutes of ASFA Board Meeting held in Rome, 9-12 June 1998. To ensure sustainability and assess the institutional capacity and their willingness to become an ASFA partner, careful consideration should be given to such factors as:
- Mandates and programmes of the institution (and the parent institution), e.g. the institution must have the mandate to collect, organize and provide access to aquatic sciences and/or fisheries literature;
- Existing activities in ASFA related areas such as collection of literature in ASFA scope, compilation of bibliographic records and creation and maintenance of bibliographic databases;
- Ability to allocate resources, including human resources, to ASFA activity;
- Institutional sustainability; and, Institutional and staff commitment to ASFA.
In addition, the Board agreed to considering as potential Partners the countries listed in paragraph-39 of the document "Strategy for Priority-Setting for Future Expansion of the ASFA Partnership" (e.g. Philippines, Thailand, Netherlands, South Africa, Israel, New Zealand, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Tanzania, Sri Lanka).
Furthermore as regards identification of potential partners, the Board agreed to give priority to the aspects listed in paragraph-36 of the document "Strategy for Priority-Setting for Future Expansion of the ASFA Partnership":
Volume of national literature outputs in the fields of aquatic sciences and fisheries;
- Contribution of aquatic sciences and fisheries to national development, i.e., the role and importance of exploitation of aquatic and fishery resource in national food security and economy;
- Contribution to the world fish and fishery production*;
- Benefit to the country by participating in ASFA, e.g., national capacity building, promoting networking and benefits from access to world literature on aquatic sciences and fisheries; and
- Willingness and capacity to become an ASFA partner.
*(Note, however, several partners questioned the validity of point 3 (i.e. that fish catch statistics was always an indicator of volume of national literature).
A number of Partners showed willingness to assist the ASFA Secretariat in the identification of potential partners. Mr Odido (IOC) mentioned the new project "Ocean Data and Information Network in the Caribbean and South America" and a meeting that was to be held the week before IAMSLIC, both of which could be an opportunity to identify new Partners. Mr Montes (UNAM) reported that the ASFA Partner from Argentina would be attending the upcoming IAMSLIC meeting and perhaps a small workshop could be arranged. Ms Kamsiah (ICLARM) suggested that she could approach some national libraries in the Southeast Asia region.
Mr. Haspeslagh (VLIZ) agreed to investigate a potential new ASFA Partner in the Netherlands, with the assistance of the FAO ASFA Secretariat
Ms Kamsiah (ICLARM) agreed to investigate the possibility of contacting the Philippines and Thailand for new ASFA Partners.
Mr Romanov (YugNIRO) reported on his contact with someone in the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries interested in ASFA, and who could perhaps provide information regarding a potential ASFA Partner in New Zealand. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to contact this person.
Mr Romanov (YugNIRO) reported on his contact with IATTC, and suggested collaboration between CSA and IATTC regarding the preparation of ASFA input for IATTC publications. Mr Romanov YugNIRO agreed to contact IATTC suggesting that they send missing publications to CSA for ASFA input. Mr Emerson (CSA) agreed to input the missing publications - if IATTC were able to send them the publications.
Ms. Goulala (NCMR) requested that a formal letter be prepared by the FAO ASFA Secretariat which could be utilized by ASFA Partners when trying to recruit new partners. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to draft such a general letter of invitation.
Mr Pepe (FAO) noted that the literature coverage in ASFA participating countries was not always complete, and therefore reminded Partners of the importance of National Partners in trying to identify and work together with cooperating centres in order to increase coverage.
Continuity of ASFA: Ms Beattie (NOAA) reminded Partners that they should try to ensure the continued participation of their Institutes in ASFA, especially when people involved in ASFA activities leave or retire.
The importance of passing on the ASFA tradition internally for sustainability was stressed, and Mr Pepe (FAO) mentioned the importance of preparing an ASFA information package to assist in passing on the ASFA tradition to upper management, when a Partner leaves/retires. He also suggested the use of the ASFA Trust Fund for the training aspects regarding ASFA input preparation.
Regarding the action item (24) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
24. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to send a reminder to all ASFA Partners that when they send input to CSA they should ALWAYS send an E-mail to CSA giving details as to the range of TRNs and the number of records that the ISO file should contain. This will facilitate CSA�s retrieval of the records, should later any of the records appear to be missing from the database.
(reported follow-up) -
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that this as done.Considerable discussion followed regarding the quality of the input of ASFA Partners.
Mr Emerson (CSA) reported that CSA does inform Partners of systematic errors that are noted in their input.
Mr Pepe (FAO) emphasized that quality control was very important, and that considerable time was spent by the FAO ASFA Secretariat in training new ASFA Partners and in checking their input (up to 1 year after training). He reminded Partners that while preparing input they should take their time and also proof read the work carefully, on paper if possible, before sending the input to CSA. He also pointed out that validation routines have been included in the software to reduce the possibility of errors.
Multiple author affiliations: The possibility of including multiple author affiliations in ASFA records was brought up by Ms Prod�homme (IFREMER), and much discussion followed as to the feasibility and utility of entering such additional bibliographic information on the ASFA database.
Mr Rybinski (ICIE) said that AGRIS had this feature and that the new www-ISIS-ASFA software could be modified to accept multiple author affiliations by making the author field and affiliation field repeatable as a group, but he pointed out that it would change the compatibility between the different versions of the software. It was suggested that should this feature be incorporated in a future version of the software, it should not be mandatory for all Partners to enter such information.
The question was then raised as to the utility of this feature.
Mr Emerson (CSA) noted said that it would take time for the necessary modifications to be made to the various output programmes, should this feature be added.
Ms Prod�homme (IFREMER) agreed to look at the AGRIS interface and then discuss the feasibility of this feature at the next ASFA Board Meeting.
IDS feature: Ms Prod�homme mentioned some of the improved features made by CSA to their IDS and mentioned IFREMER�s appreciation for these changes. She requested the possibility of improving the sort functions so as to be able to sort by author and by input centre. Mr Emerson (CSA) reported that a new version of the IDS with new features would be implemented in September 2002, but that they would need more time to add more features to improve the sorting and browsing functions.
Regarding the action item (25) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report
"25. The Representative of CSA agreed that they would check the IDS re-loads for eventual missing Partner�s records and try to fix the problem."
(reported follow-up) - Mr Emerson (CSA) reported that Ms Soto (CSA) had implemented a procedure to check all input counts before and after such re-loads and missing records could then be tracked down. He asked Partners to contact CSA should they notice any discrepancies in the figures.
Cleaning up of the descriptor fields: Mr Kühnhold (BF) mentioned the cleaning up of the descriptor fields that they had carried out last year and stressed the importance of good quality in the database. He mentioned the importance of having the right descriptors in the right fields in order to be able to carry out a good search.
The matter of non-ASFA thesaurus terms appearing on the ASFA database (in the subject descriptor field) came up for discussion. Mr Emerson (CSA) explained that if ASFA records were not unique to ASFA, i.e. they were also indexed by other CSA databases, then it was possible that terms from the other CSA thesauri would be included for that record.
CSA, ICES and BF agreed to work together to investigate the matter of incorrect ASFA subject descriptors.
Typesetting codes for italics, subscripts and superscripts: Mr Emerson (CSA) asked the ASFA Partners whether it was thought really necessary to distinguish: italics, subscripts and superscripts (and subsequently the need for the relative coding). It was generally agreed that although the use of special typesetting does improve the look of the database, it is not really important in some cases (such as to indicate italics or to indicate some common chemical formulae such as H2O, or CO2). On the other hand, it did matter in other cases were the subscripts/superscripts might be fundamental to the meaning, such as 106.
The Partners agreed to examine the use of these typesetting codes with respect to how the database looks with or without them, and then discuss the matter further next year to make a decision as to whether to continue to use the italics, sub and superscript HTML coding in the
www-ISIS-ASFA software.Diacritical characters: The importance of having the correct version of the diacritical character in names of authors or geographic places was stressed, but it was also noted that major problems occurred when carrying out searches with authors names having diacritical characters.
Mr Pepe (FAO) suggested looking at other major databases to see how they dealt with diacritical characters.
The Board agreed to establish "a Diacritic and Transliteration Committee". EMI, BF, YugNIRO and CSA volunteered to participate in the committee.
Ms Frohlund (IMR) mentioned that they encountered problems when downloading ASFA records into EndNote. Ms Noble (NMBL) said that the UK also had come across some problems related to inconsistencies in the source field and agreed to help the Swedish Partner regarding this matter.
Alternative levels of indexing of records: Mr Emerson (CSA) introduced this topic stating that the immense volume of ASFA-relevant literature published each year is beyond the capacity of any and all ASFA partners to acquire, key and index. Although the peer-reviewed, serial publications on the ASFA monitoring list must be indexed, there are many relevant monographs, proceedings and grey-literature publications which cannot be input into the database. If the cost/effort of indexing these records prohibits their entry (rather than acquisition or keying costs), then the ASFA Board should consider alternative levels of indexing for these publications, thereby allowing their entry into the database. Considerations of a 'hierarchy of indexing' might include: 1) not indexing these records at all, or 2) the application of machine-aided indexing in conjunction with human review.
Mr Kühnhold (BF) stressed the importance of the use of the descriptor fields for good quality searches.
However, Mr Emerson (CSA) noted that there are records currently in the database which are not indexed.
To avoid the perception of a lower-quality database, the hierarchy of indexing could be used in conjunction with alternative search displays via the Internet Database Service. And rather than being incorporated into the main ASFA database, these records could be added to a companion database that would be searched automatically, much like the Web Resources Database and the Recent References Database.
Mr Emerson (CSA) agreed to investigate this possibility further and said that CSA would provide a Power Point Presentation to demonstrate such a �non-indexed companion database� at next years Meeting.
Mr Pepe (FAO) mentioned automatic indexing software and some discussion followed. CSA reported that it has considered the matter, but that it would take considerable resources (time and money) to create the rules for making such software ASFA specific. Eventually, a system of automatic indexing could be employed, but a person would still have to fine tune the indexing to comply it with ASFA style.
It was suggested that the Board reviewed the situation at next years meeting.
8.1.1 ASFA Journals, CD-ROM and Database
(see Annex-39 for list of ASFA products and prices)Regarding the action items contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"30. The Representative of IMR(Sweden) agreed that the serial titles and other reference titles collected for the Cod bibliography, which do not appear in ASFA, would be communicated to the ASFA Partners, so that they can be eventually added to the ASFA monitoring responsibility. This would be done in autumn this year. "
(reported follow-up) -
Ms Frohlund (IMR) reported that this had been done and referred to the 7 journal titles listed as not being covered by ASFA. She also mentioned that some papers on cod published in the Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., were missing and not found on the ASFA Database.Ms Milone (AdriaMed) reported that one of the journal titles on the list has been under their responsibility since 1999 and pointed out that records from this journal had been covered and were on the ASFA database (both the Silver Platter CD-ROM and the IDS).
Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed to investigate the missing cod papers.
It was suggested that the representative of IMR work together with Ms Lombardi (FAO) in order to determine whether the journal titles listed as being missing were actually included on the ASFA Monitoring List.
Late receipt of the quarterly updates of the Silver Platter CD-ROM: The FAO ASFA Secretariat brought up the matter concerning the very late receipt of the Silver Platter CD-ROM quarterly updates, and mentioned that they had received numerous complaints from several partners, in particular NIO (India).
Mr Emerson (CSA) said that Silver Platter had been having problems and some CD-ROMs are going missing when sent by mail to some countries. CSA agreed to follow-up this matter with Silver Platter and the FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to investigate the possibility of forwarding the quarterly updates of the CD-ROM to ASFA Partners in the specific countries having problems.
non-ASFA Thesaurus terms: Ms Ovens (ICES) requested clarification from CSA regarding the appearance of non-ASFA Thesaurus terms on the ASFA database. Mr Emerson (CSA) explained that when a record was not unique to ASFA (i.e. also relevant to another of CSA's abstract journals) it may also contain indexing terms assigned from another CSA thesaurus, but the ASFA thesaurus terms were also always present in the record.
Regarding the action item (29) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"29. Regarding new functionalities on the CSA/IDS, the Representative of CSA agreed to investigate:
- increasing the "save, print or e-mail" function to 500,
- increasing the number of sorting columns.
- saving of search strategies/searches (Search History/Alerts) for more than 6 months,
-improving and extending Boolean searches, with the "and/not" operators."
(reported follow-up)-
Mr Emerson (CSA) reported the first 3 of the items done, and the last pending.
8.3 Public Relations Activities and MarketingRegarding the action items (31-32) contained in the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"31. The Representative of CSA agreed to provide Partners with pamphlets describing the searching of the IDS � .
(reported follow-up)-
- Mr Emerson (CSA) reported that they had received requests from many Partners and had sent them the pamphlets."32. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to supply the ASFA PowerPoint presentation (in English, French or Spanish) to those Partners who requested it. "
(reported follow-up)- Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that the ASFA PowerPoint presentation was updated and -agreed to include it on a CD-ROM containing other key ASFA information documents. The CD will be sent to Partners.
Ms Beattie (NOAA) reported that NOAA regularly carries out training, on "how to search the ASFA database". She noted that usage of the database often goes up after such "training" and that their agency then receives increased requests for documents. Therefore she encouraged other ASFA Partners to train users to search the ASFA database.
8.4 Partner
Regarding the action item (33) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"33. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to contact those Partners no longer fulfilling their input responsibility and to remind them of their ASFA responsibilities."
(reported follow-up) -
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that a number of Partners were notified regarding their input responsibilities. Mr Romanov (YugNIRO) noted that Lithuania and Portugal have not produced input for the past 2/3 years. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to follow up with these ASFA Partners and get a concrete statement within the year.Ms Lawrie (NISC) mentioned the possibility of supplying the NISC CD-ROMs to ASFA Partners at a reduced cost, if CSA were willing to consider waiving their costs. Ms Lawrie agreed to prepare more information regarding this and would inform the ASFA Partners as soon as possible. Mr. Emerson (CSA) mentioned that this NISC suggestion could be incorporated into the ASFA Publishing Agreement. At the request of Mr Haspeslagh (VLIZ), Ms Lawrie gave a brief explanation of NISC and their products.
8.5 Increasing Distribution of ASFA Information Products and ServicesRegarding the action item (34) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"34. The Representative of CSA agreed to contact Wolters Kluwer regarding the continuation of the project to increase the distribution of ASFA information products to LIFDC countries worldwide for a further two years. Worldwide the number of LIFDC countries is 83. "
(reported follow-up) -
Mr Pepe (FAO) gave a brief historical account of the project, and presented the Report of the project (Annex-43). A total of 26 institutions in Africa currently receive ASFA CD-ROMs (either Silver Platter or NISC) under this initiative. The project was extended to IDS access, although this was more difficult due to Internet Access Problems in LIFDC countries. From the feedback obtained this initiative would appear to have been a success and the ASFA Secretariat would like renewal of the initiative including expansion to Latin America and Asia, but there has been no news from Silver Platter regarding this.Mr McGinty (CSA) believe that Silver Platter would continue this project and Mr McGinty (CSA) agreed to follow-up the matter with Silver Platter.
Mr McGinty (CSA) suggested mentioning to Silver Platter the fact the NISC had gone ahead with extending the initiative. Mr McGinty (CSA) agreed to look into the sustainability of the project and, while giving Silver Platter another few more months, they would investigate the possibility if they could create their own CD.
The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to provide a letter of support to CSA for forwarding to Silver Platter regarding the extension of the project.
Some discussion followed regarding Internet access in Africa. Mr Odido (IOC) explained that although in some countries (and their major cities) access is good, the costs are high. In addition, most fisheries/marine science institutions are located outside the major cites where the Internet access is not good. Therefore, the CD-ROMs are of more use to the institutions, and this most probably will be so for the next 4 or 5 years. He noted that the provision of IDS access in several countries participating in the ODINAFRICA project provides an opportunity to assess the potential for IDS usage in Africa, and Mr Odido (IOC) agreed to report on this during the next Board Meeting. Ms J. Collins (FAO) stated that, although the technology is moving ahead quite fast it is very expensive, so the major problems facing most of the institutions were the costs involved.
Ms Lawrie said that any institution currently receiving the NISC CD-ROM under this initiative could contact NISC for assistance if they had any problems in using the CD-ROMs rather than contact FAO. Mr Pepe (FAO) agreed to investigate this.
Ms Kamsiah (ICLARM) asked whether this initiative duplicated in any way the INASP project in Africa. Mr. Odido (IOC) explained that INASP provided access to electronic journals and currently covered mainly the areas of health and agriculture. He mentioned that IOC was discussing the inclusion of marine science institutions in Africa in the INASP activities, and agreed to report on progress during the next Board Meeting.
.
9. PROGRESS WITH MACHINE READABLE INPUTMr Pepe (FAO) reported that, if necessary, Partners could continue to use the DOS ASFISIS software indefinitely, even after the new software is issued.
Mr Rybinski (ICIE) gave a short PowerPoint Presentation entitled �Mission Possible� which briefly explained the www-ISIS-ASFA Architecture and the functioning of the software. He explained that the software had been developed always bearing in mind that �Things should be as simple as possible but not simpler�.
He then presented a Demo version of www-ISIS-ASFA, explaining briefly the Data Entry and Searching Interfaces. The software was well received by the ASFA Partners, and many questions were asked regarding the functioning and application of the software.
In particular, it was mentioned that the software could be integrated with other databases.
Mr Emerson (CSA) reported that CSA was now ready to receive ASFA input prepared with the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, but reminded Partners that, when sending the input to CSA, they should always indicate which software they have used to prepare the input (i.e. www-ISIS-ASFA or DOS ASFISIS)
The use of diacritical characters and HTML coding was discussed in detail. The use of national keyboards could partly overcome problems in the data entry of diacritical characters, although it was pointed out that searching could still be a problem.
Mr Emerson (CSA) pointed out that CSA accept records containing diacritical characters, but they are transliterated before inclusion in the database or printed journals.
Regarding the action item (37) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"37. The Representative of PIMRIS suggested the format "Complete" be the default rather than "Temporary" to avoid the possibility of exported incomplete records. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to communicate this to Dr. Rybinski.
(reported follow-up)-- The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that the www-ISIS-ASFA software had been
modified to make the format "Complete" the default value.
10. REPORT ON ASFA TRAINING ACTIVITIESThe FAO ASFA Secretariat carried out an international training session for Latin America during the inter-sessional period. A full report is contained in the FAO Report (Annex-3). Mr Pepe mentioned that a one day familiarization course for experienced ASFA Partners was held the day before this Board Meeting, and also that a 5-day course will be held for new ASFA Partners, following the Board Meeting.
10.1 Future ASFA Training Sessions
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that the ASFA Secretariat believes the experienced ASFA Partners will be able to make the change over to the www-ISIS-ASFA software smoothly, with little or no need for special training. Extensive help notes have been prepared and the various input manuals have been updated.
Mr. Pepe said that the ASFA Secretariat will direct unspent Trust Fund proposal money towards future training activities, as required, since there were left-over funds unspent for some of the proposals (e.g. the "training course in Latin America" and "support to the ASFA Secretariat during 2000-2002").
Regarding the installation of the new software, there is the probability that some Partners will experience problems during installation (especially in the network environment due to the infinite number of computer environments and configurations that may exist). To deal with this, the ASFA Secretariat has already proposed a Trust Fund proposal (approved at the last Board Meeting - see section 13.3.3 of 2001 Report) whereby the software developers (ICIE) will provide an online "Help Desk" for one year after the distribution of the software. That Trust Fund proposal will include ongoing maintenance of the software.
11. STATUS OF ASFIS REFERENCE SERIES PUBLICATIONS11.1 ASFIS-1, Serials Monitored for the ASFIS Bibliographic Database
ASFIS-1, Serials Monitored for the ASFIS Bibliographic Database
(commonly called Monitoring List) continues to be available via the ASFA Homepage (http://fao.org.fi/asfa/asfa.htm) in two versions: 1) a text file, and 2) an ISO2709 file for downloading and importing into the ASFISIS (release-3) software.The latest update (ISO2709 file) was put on the ASFA homepage for downloading 29 May 2002, and that will be the update contained also in the new www-ISIS-ASFA software when released.
The FAO ASFA Secretariat continues to maintain the Monitoring List master file, and as always requests all Partners to notify FAO (attention: Ms. Lombardi) of any changes or additions or deletions to their lists, and to reply as quickly as possible to any FAO queries regarding the List.
Regarding the action item (43) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"43. Regarding the five new fields added to the Monitoring list master file,�.. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to send the individual lists out to all Partners for inclusion of the data required.
(reported follow-up)-
As requested by the Board at the 2000 ASFA Board Meeting and reported by Mr Pepe, the five new fields were added to the Monitoring list master file:1) one field to identify "electronic ISSN numbers",
2) one field to identify "core journals",
3) three fields to identify "monitoring status":
a) "begin ASFA coverage" which indicates the DATE in which the ASFA Partner started to monitor a journal (including Volume and Issue numbers);
b) "ceased ASFA coverage" which indicates the DATE in which the ASFA Partner ceased to monitor the journal (including Volume and Issue numbers); and
c) "ceased publication" which indicates that the journal is NO longer published.
Following last year's Board Meeting, the ASFA Secretariat began to include the information regarding the additional fields into the Monitoring List master file, but this was only for the titles which have been changed/added ever since. For the update of the remaining titles (about 2,500) Ms Lombardi (FAO) agreed to send precise instructions to the ASFA Partners as soon as the FAO ASFA Secretariat finds sufficient time to carry out the task. However, Partners should continue to send the information related to the additional fields whenever amendments to titles on their monitoring list are notified to FAO.
11.2 ASFIS-2, Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that no modifications were made to this publication during the inter-sessional period. It is available in print and on the FAO ASFA Homepage FTP site (
/fishery/docs/asfa/). This publication requires no modification for use with the new www-ISIS-ASFA software.The Ukraine ASFA Partner completed the translation of these Guidelines into Russian as part of the Trust Fund proposal approved at the 2000 Board Meeting, and a copy was tabled at the Meeting.
11.3 ASFIS-3, Guidelines for Bibliographic Description
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that these Guidelines (in Press) were revised by Ms Lombardi (FAO) for use with the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, and a series of "Help Notes" (based on the Guidelines) were prepared for inclusion in the www-ISIS-ASFA software (i.e. linked to the fields appearing in the data entry worksheets). The "Help Notes" have/are also being translated into French/Spanish.
The Guidelines for use with the current DOS ASFISIS software remain ASFIS-3 (Rev.2), Guidelines for Bibliographic Description, which was issued in 1998. It is available in English and Russian on the ASFA Homepage FTP site (
/fishery/docs/asfa/).11.4 ASFIS-4, Guidelines for Abstracting and
11.5 ASFIS-5, Guidelines for Indexing
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that he had revised both these Guidelines for use with the new www-ISIS-ASFA software. They are in the final phase of completion and will be published in the near future. Also shortened versions of the "full" Guidelines (called "Synopsis") were prepared for day-to-day use.
In addition, a series of "Help Notes" (based on these Guidelines) were prepared for inclusion in the www-ISIS-ASFA software. The "Help Notes" have/are also being translated into French/Spanish.
The Abstracting Guidelines for use with the current DOS ASFISIS software are ASFIS-4 (Rev.1), Abstracting Guidelines which was issued in 1998 and revised in 2001. It is available in English and Russian on the ASFA Homepage FTP site (
/fishery/docs/asfa/).The Indexing Guidelines for use with the current DOS ASFISIS software remain ASFIS-5 (Rev.1), Guidelines for Indexing (Provisional Draft), which was issued in 1998. It is available in English and Russian on the ASFA Homepage FTP site (
/fishery/docs/asfa/).11.6 ASFIS-6, Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that the ASFA Thesaurus is currently available in three formats (all provisional): 1) a printed publication called Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus (ASFIS-6, rev.2 Draft copy), 2) an online Internet version, for viewing by general public, which is available on the FAO ASFA Homepage at
http://www4.fao.org/asfa/nons_en.htm, and 3) a text file (English only), which is available on the ASFA Homepage FTP site (/fishery/docs/asfa/ ).The draft version of the Thesaurus has been in the hands of Partners for testing (addition/deletion of terms) for quite some time. The FAO ASFA Secretariat received a few suggestions. Then it was supposed to have consolidated the suggested terms and have circulated them to the Thesaurus committee (FAO, BF, CSA, Canada, IFREMER, PIMRIS) for approval and final printing before last year's Meeting. This was not done due to late receipt of the suggested terms from Partners and insufficient time at the FAO ASFA Secretariat to carry out the task.
The task is still pending. Lack of time is still a factor, but there is also the start up of a large FAO initiative to improve all existing indexing/searching vocabularies used throughout FAO's collection of information. This may affect (improve) the Thesaurus maintenance procedures. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to provide a report regarding the Ontology project to keep the Board updated regarding the situation.
Mexico has joined the Thesaurus Committee, following the retirement of Ms. Cameron (Canada)
Regarding the action items (44, 45) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"44. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to provide a list of spelling mistakes in the ASFA thesaurus and distribute it on the ASFA-Board-L. Dr. Rybinski pointed out the possible use of the www -ISIS-ASFA software to maintain electronically thesaurus terms. Changes could be made on-line and then easily downloaded onto the software. "
(reported follow-up)-
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported this as done."45. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to send a list of approved terms (after review and "weeding" by the Thesaurus Committee) to Ms. Cameron (Canada). She and Ms. Hudson would provide a cost estimate for structuring the terms, incorporating them in the MTM software, and formatting the print version. "
(reported follow-up)- The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that due to insufficient time, this is still pending.
11.7 ASFIS-7, Geographic Authority List
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that an updated version of the Geographic Authority List was sent to Mr Rybinski (ICIE) for inclusion in the new www-ISIS-ASFA software.
Mr Romanov (YugNIRO) noted that there were many discrepancies regarding the terms included in this new list, and suggested that it be checked and cleaned up. Mr Emerson (CSA) explained that the list was derived from download from the ASFA database, and agreed that there were many inconsistencies. Whenever input is received, CSA checks geographic terms against the current geographic authority list. If the error is clear, it is corrected. If the geographic term (a) appears to follow the original rules regarding indexing, and (b) is pertinent to the input centre's geographic area, then it is assumed that the term is correct and it is added to the authority file. That is, it is assumed that an input centre will know best how to assign geographic terms for their own country.
The question as to who has the final responsibility in deciding upon the terms was raised. Mr Taconet (FAO) mentioned that there was a UNGI Working Group which was dealing with standardizing names. This authority checks the geographical information with National Mapping Agencies in individual countries.
It was suggested that the GAL Committee should get together and re-write some guidelines to assist in constructing geographic terms in a consistent matter.
Mr Emerson (CSA) agreed to send (via ASFA-Board-L) the list of geographic terms to Partners who would check and clean up the terms on their areas.
11.8 ASFIS-8, Taxonomic Authority List
The Taxonomic list only exists as an online file of approx. 10,300 record file which can be downloaded from the FAO Fisheries Web page site (
http://www.fao.org/fi/statist/fisoft/asfis/asfis.asp) in .txt format for easy importing into Excel or Access software. It will soon be published in a printed format.As mentioned at 2000 Board Meeting, this file has been incorporated as a data entry pick-list in the new www-ISIS-ASFA software.
Mr Emerson (CSA) mentioned that they have an authority file of about 200,000 names, and suggested that it could be integrated with that in the www-ISIS-ASFA software.
Regarding the action item (48) contained in 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report:
"48. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to follow up on the request by the Representative of CSA regarding the possibility with the new www-ASFA-ISIS software to enter the Latin name in the Taxonomic descriptor field and simultaneously enter the common name in the Identifier field. Dr Rybinski replied that this would be possible. "
(reported follow-up)-
Mr Emerson (CSA) reported that they were now doing this automatically.11.9 ASFIS-9, Database User Guide -
Nothing to report.11.10 ASFIS-10, Authority List for Corporate Names
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that the most recent edition of this list sent to Partners remains that of 13 December 1999. An updated version was also sent to Mr Rybinski (ICIE) from CSA for inclusion in the www-ISIS-ASFA software.
This list is maintained by CSA who said that it was only updated when requested to.
The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to send CSA a list of new Corporate Author names identified during its ASFA input preparation so that it could be incorporated by CSA into an updated version of the List.
11.11 ASFIS-11, Magnetic Tape Specifications and Record Format - Nothing to report
11.12 ASFIS-12, International Directory of Serial Publications in Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries
Nothing to report.
11.13 ASFIS-13, ASFIS Database Indexing and User Guide (Chinese) -
Nothing to report11.14 ASFIS-14, ASFISIS (Release-3 User Manual)
Mr Pepe (FAO) reported that the most recent version of this publication, which refers to the DOS ASFISIS software, remains that issued in 1998. It is available in English and Russian on the ASFA Homepage FTP site (/fishery/docs/asfa/).
12. EXPANDED LANGUAGE CAPABILITY IN ASFA
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that the carrier language of ASFA was established as English at the beginning of ASFA in 1970. However over the years, the ASFA Secretariat has been trying to expand the language capability of ASFA.
Some of the steps that have been taken to expand the language capability in ASFA were described as:
- inclusion of original language titles in bibliographic references (since the very beginning of ASFA)
- inclusion of non-English abstracts in bibliographic references (started with the release of ASFISIS software in September 1998)
- carrying-out of some ASFA training courses in languages other than English (Spanish, French, Italian)
- carrying-out some of the correspondence with new Partners (i.e. regarding their problems in
- input preparation) in Spanish, French, Italian (special credit for this goes to Ms. Lombardi)
- translation of the extensive "Help Notes" that will accompany the new www-ISIS-ASFA software
- into Spanish (completed) and French
- increasing the language skills of some ASFA Secretariat staff through attendance at language
- training courses
The FAO ASFA Secretariat envisages translation of the ASFA Manuals for data input: Thesaurus; Subject categories, the Bibliographic, Indexing and Abstracting guidelines etc. with the possible assistance of the ASFA Partners using the ASFA Trust Fund.
13. ASFA TRUST FUND
13.1 Status of the ASFA Trust Fund
The balance in the Trust Fund account is US$ 220,726.50. CSA deposited US$155,668.79 in royalties for 2001 and BF deposited US$59.87. Annex-40 provides a partial breakdown of the calculation of CSA Royalty payment, and Annex-41 provides details on the status of all past and present Trust Fund proposals.
13.2 Proposals in Progress, Completed or Pending Further Discussion13.2.1 Support to attend the 2002 Annual ASFA Board Meeting (US$25,000)
(completed) Ten ASFA Partners received full or partial assistance to attend this years 2002 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting from: 1) China, 2) Cuba, 3) Korea, 4) Estonia, 5) Kenya (with funding from IOC), 6) Mexico, 7) Poland, 8) Russia, 9) Ukraine, and 10) Vietnam.
This is proposal is ongoing, therefore it requires updating of the funds to be made available for the Meeting in 2003. See Item 13.3.1. below
13.2.2 Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat (for year Jan -Dec 2002) ($30,000)
(underway)
This proposal is to assist the FAO ASFA Secretariat with work/initiatives that are for the collective benefit of the ASFA Partnership. For the period January to December 2002, US$8,800 has so far been committed on assistance to the FAO ASFA Secretariat in ASFA input preparation. This is an ongoing proposal. See Item 13.3.2 below.13.2.3 Support to the Development of Web based interface to ASFISIS together with GILW/AGRIS ($10,000 from Trust Fund ($11.045 from FAO Regular Program).
(completed) The final version of the software has been completed. A report of the work done by ICIE is contained in (Annex-45).
13.2.4 Support to implementation of www-ISIS-ASFA interface (US$10,000.00) (including the necessary funds for Mr Rybinski to attend 2002 ASFA Board Meeting)
(pending)
This proposal is still technically pending. The proposal was approved at last year's Board Meeting in order to assist Partners with the implementation/installation of the new www-ISIS-ASFA software and for its maintenance for a period of one year. The proposal will begin when the new software is actually distributed to Partners.13.2.5 Conversion of ASFA Printed Journal into machine-readable format -1972 journal ($15,000)
(underway)
The proposal to convert the 1972 ASFA journals was agreed at the 2000 Board Meeting. NMDIS requested to begin after June 2001.13.2.6 Conversion of ASFA Printed Journal into machine-readable format - 1971 journal ($8,500)
(underway)
The proposal to convert 1971 journals was agreed by the Board during the inter-sessional period for implementation by India (NIO). The work has begun.13.2.7 Provision of ASFA Centres in former USSR with reference materials for input (ASFIS-2 Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions) (YugNIRO) ($1,500)
(completed)
The translation of this document was handed to the FAO ASFA Secretariat at this Meeting.13.2.8 Improvement of the ASFA Bibliographic Database (USS15,000)
(completed)
Information on the work done was presented in Annex-20 of the 2001 Board Report. At the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting, BF proposed a second "Improvement" or cleaning proposal, as a follow up to the first one (the second proposal appears in Annex 20a of the 2001 Board Meeting Report). See Item 13.3.3.below13.2.9 Workshops for familiarisation (training) in ASFA Input (US$28,800)
(completed)
For a full report of the Latin American and Caribbean training, see Annex-5 of FAO Report contained in Annex-3 of this Report. Unspent funds (US$ 8,102) will go towards further training.13.2.10 Support to attend annual 2001 ASFA Advisory Board Meetings
($15,000+$4,629 unspent year 2000)(completed)
The following 7 ASFA Partners were provided with full or partial assistance to attend the 2001 Meeting: 1) Kenya (KMFRI) (also with IOC funding), 2) Russia (VNIRO), 3) Ukraine (YugNIRO), 4) Cuba (CIP), 5) Poland (SFI), 6) Cote d'Ivoire (CRO), 7) Argentina (INIDEP).13.2.11 Staff support to FAO ASFA Secretariat (FAO) $31,460 (for period Jan-Dec 2001)
(completed)
The funds spent during this period were US$21,627. Unspent funds moved to same proposal in year Jan-Dec 2002.13.2.12 Conversion of ASFA Printed Journals into machine readable format -1973 journal ($15,000)
(completed)
The records have been added by KMFRI to the ASFA database (IDS and CD-ROM versions).13.2.13 Addition of 45,000 abstracts to 1975-77 ASFA database
(China-NMDIS & BF collaboration ($17,000)(completed)
The records have been added to the ASFA database (IDS and CD-ROM versions). Mr Yang Ying requested BF to supply the bibliographic data regarding 173 records that were found missing, so that the addition of the abstracts could be completed. BF agreed.ASFA-FIGIS Interaction Project (US$20,000) Regarding the action item (58) contained in the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting Report
(58)The Board agreed in principle to support the proposal (to develop a map-based query facility (GIS) to ASFA, but confirmation will be subject to final approval, by correspondence, following agreement on implementation details with CSA and FAO. The Representative of FAO said that once something more definite was determined, it would be circulated via the ASFA -Board �L for consent.
(reported follow-up)- This project was submitted at the last Board Meeting and approved in principle by the Board (see Annex-40 and section 13.3.5 of 2001 Board Meeting Report). Final consent was withheld pending further details on the implementation, which are presented in (Annex-3b).
Mr Taconet (FAO) introduced the project and Mr Keizer (FAO) gave a Power Point presentation. Brief mention was made of the different information systems (ASFA, FIGIS, Onefish and AGROVOC) showing their different structures. Mr Keizer explained that the project aimed to make each of these different systems compatible in order to be able to merge information access. He mentioned the 3 components involved in searching: species taxonomy, geographic terms, and non-geographic terms (which require much support from the ontology project).
The demonstration was well received by the Board. BF mentioned the Baltic SeaWeb and its possible interaction with this application.
Mr Emerson (CSA) agreed that they would take the lead regarding the Geographic terms
The Board agreed to support the project.
13.2.15 Convert 500 Records from PIMRIS database into ASFISIS format. Pending PIMRIS since 1997.
Procedures for voting on inter-sessional ASFA Trust Fund Proposals
Mr Pepe presented a Discussion Paper (Annex-44) which describes the current terms and procedures used in the administration of the ASFA Trust Fund. The Board was requested to review the information contained in the document and discuss any eventual need for clarification or change.
Considerable discussion was held regarding the various procedures involved in the Approval process.
The Board agreed on the following procedure for voting on inter-sessional Trust Fund proposals:
1) There will be a 2 week (14 day) period of time to vote
2) No reply will be counted as abstention
3) There must be a minimum quorum of one third
4) There will be no limit to the amount of money involved in the inter-sessional proposal
5) The vote will not be secret
The Board agreed that requests for Trust Fund proposals from non-ASFA Partners will not be accepted and that attendance to Meetings other that the ASFA Board Meeting will not be supported.
Voting during the Board Meeting: There was also much discussion concerning "open" voting or "secret" voting during Board Meetings. The Board agreed to review this matter at next year�s Board Meeting.
Supporting attendance to Board Meeting (for year 2003) This is an ongoing proposal reviewed each year by the Board to update the amount of allocated funds. The original proposal (by NOAA) was agreed by Partners at the 1997 ASFA Board Meeting with $6000 being allocated for attendance to the 1998 Meeting. At the 1998 Meeting, the sum was increased to $10,000; then at the 1999 Meeting to $15,000. At the 2000 Meeting the sum was not increased (i.e., it remained at $15,000). At the 2001 Meeting the sum was raised to $25,000).
The Board agreed to increase the sum allocated for the 2003 Meeting to US$30,000 (including any carry-over form this year).
Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat (for year Jan -Dec 2003) ($30,000) This proposal is to assist the FAO ASFA Secretariat in carrying out work/initiatives that are for the collective benefit of the ASFA Partnership. FAO proposed this as an ongoing proposal, which the Board requested be discussed each year before renewal. Mr Grainger (FAO) pointed out that the funds are used to supplement the work carried out by the FAO ASFA Secretariat; the presence of these funds do not result in ASFA being allocated less funds from the FAO regular program budget - this should be clearly understood.
The Board agreed to the Trust Fund Proposal �Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat�
13.3.3 Draft Concept for a project Correction the ASFA Database Descriptor Fields.
At the last Meeting (see section 13.3.6 and Annex-20a of 2001 Board Meeting Report) the Board agreed in principle to proceeding with cleaning the identifier field (and further cleaning to finer level of the subject and geographic fields). The initial proposal sum was US$19,800 subject to further negotiation (i.e. additional costs occurring at BF and Zadi on one side and on the other side some downsizing to possibilities of BF). BF said they would present final cost calculations to the Board via FAO/ASFA Secretariat for approval.
In order to put the "2nd cleaning proposal" into perspective before presenting it to the Board Members, Mr Kühnhold (BF) began by showing (PowerPoint) some of the details (from the 1st cleaning proposal) as regards the various errors that were found with the descriptors. This included a quick review of statistical data showing the frequencies of errors. Some 172,000 terms were found that should be moved to their correct fields. Considerable discussion followed as to how these corrections could be
made to the ASFA database. Mr Emerson (CSA) pointed out that for records prior to 1998, due to the different structure of these records, it would not be possible to REPLACE the incorrect or unwanted terms with the desired terms, but instead the correct terms must be APPENDED to the records � together with the unwanted terms. For the more recent records, i.e. 1999 onwards, corrections would be easier to implement.
Mr Emerson (CSA) suggested separating the types of errors and doing a trial run with just 100 records to see how things would work.
Mr Emerson (CSA) and Mr Kühnhold (BF) agreed to work together to clarify certain aspects/technical problems related to the exercise, and the proposal would be put forward again after clarification was made.
13.3.4 Marine Bibliographic Information from the Latin American and Caribbean Region Processed for the ASFA Database, Twenty Five Years of Scientific Research (1955-1980). First Stage: South America: Argentina and Chile. See Annex-12a
In this Trust Fund Proposal, approximately 4000 documents would be covered and ASFA input would be prepared by INIDEP and IFOP, who would have access to the documents.
This was believed to be a very valuable source of information and valid proposal, but in view of the fact that the Partners involved had yet to start work on the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, and that there was a backlog of input from their own current Monitoring List, it was suggested that the Partners first start fulfilling their input responsibilities as regards their own current monitoring lists.
The proposal was not approved, however the Board agreed that the proposal to be put forward next year.
Other ASFA Partners Proposals
Belgium � Mr Haspeslagh mentioned that VLIZ has a substantial collection of African marine literature (from the RECOSCIX project) for which ASFA input needs to be prepared. He would like to prepare a future Trust Fund Proposal to transfer this literature to Africa where ASFA input could be done. Mr Haspeslagh and Mr Odido agreed to work together to investigate this possibility.
Mr Haspeslagh (VLIZ) mentioned the substantial historical collection of Belgian/Netherlands marine science literature at VLIZ, and that he would like to prepare another future Trust Fund Proposal to prepare ASFA input for this.
Mexico � Mr Montes noted his interest in assisting the ASFA Secretariat in translating eventually required Guidelines into Spanish. If necessary, he would prepare a future trust fund proposal.
ICLARM � Ms Kamsiah mentioned that ICLARM was maintaining a tropical fisheries database. She will investigate the possibility of converting its Southeast Asian records into www-ISIS-ASFA format under a future Trust Fund Proposal.
Mr Cort (FAO) made a brief appearance to say farewell to the members of the ASFA Board, since he was leaving FAO. The Chairperson gave thanks to Mr Cort on behalf of the Board for all the work that he carried out during his period with the ASFA team at FAO regarding the recruitment of new ASFA Partners and the Training Course carried out in Latin America during March 2002.
The Board agreed to set up a Development Committee which is composed of the representatives from BF, FAO, IOC, YugNIRO and CSA.
15. PLACE AND DATE OF NEXT MEETINGThe Board agreed to hold the next Meeting at CIP in Cuba in June or July 2003 (the dates to be confirmed at a later time).
The Board agreed to hold the 2004 Meeting at VLIZ in Belgium.
See Annex-47 for a list of all the Decisions (suggestions) and Actions agreed by the Board in this Report.
LIST OF PARTICIPANTSUN CO-SPONSORING ASFA PARTNERS
FAO
Dr Richard Grainger
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Fisheries Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (06) 570 54828 / Fax: (39) (06) 570 52476
E-mail: [email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
Mr Johannes Keizer
Waicent/FAOINFO Dissemination Management Branch(GILW)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (06) 570 52729/ Fax: (39) (06) 570 52729 / E-mail: [email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
Ms Luciana Lombardi
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Fisheries Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (06) 570 56472 Fax: (39) (06) 570 52476 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
Mr Richard Pepe
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Fisheries Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (6) 570 56380 / Fax: (39) (6) 570 52476 / E-mail: [email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
Ms AnnaMaria Rossi
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Fisheries Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (6) 570 56472 Fax: (39) (6) 570 56140 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
Mr Marc Taconet
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Fisheries Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (6) 570 53799/ Fax: (39) (6) 570 52476 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fiMs Helen Wibley
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Fisheries Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (6) 570 56331 Fax: (39) (6) 570 52476 / E-mail: [email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
IOC
Mr Mika Odido
ODINAFRIC/IOCINCWIO Project Office
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
P.O.Box 95832
Mombasa, Kenya
Tel: (254) (11) 47 25 27 / Fax: (254) (11) 475157 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://ioc.unesco.orgINTERNATIONAL ASFA PARTNERS
ADRIAMED
Ms Nicoletta Milone
Scientific Cooperation to Support Responsible
Fisheries in the Adriatic Sea
Corso Umberto I, 30
86039 Termoli (CB), Italy
Tel: (+39) 0875 708252 / Fax: (+39) 0875 720065
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.faoadriamed.org
ICES
Ms Michala Ovens
International Council for the Exploration
of the Sea (ICES)
Palaegade 2-4
DK 1261 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Tel: (+45)33 15 42 25 / Fax: (+45) 33 93 42 15 / Telex 22498 ices dk
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.ices.dk
ICLARM
Ms Kamsiah Mohd Ali
ICLARM - The World Fish Center
Jalan Batu Maung, Batu Maung
11960 Bayan Lepas
Penang, Malaysia
Tel: (+60 4) 626 1606 / Fax: (+60 4) 626 5543 / E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] URL: http://www.iclarm.org
NATIONAL ASFA PARTNERS
BELGIUM
Mr Jan Haspeslagh
VLIZ Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee vzw
Flanders Marine Institute
Vismijn
Pakhuizen 45-52
B-8400 Oostende, Belgium
Tel. +32-(0)59-34 21 30 / Fax +32-(0)59-34 21 31 / E-mail : [email protected] / URL: http://www.vliz.be
CHINA, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF
Mr Xu Chengde / Mr Yang Ying
National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS)
State Oceanic Administration of China (SOA)
93 Liuwei Road, Hedong District
Tianjin 300171, People's Republic of China
Tel: (86) (22) 2401 0802 / (86) (22) 2401 0827 / Fax: (86) (22) 2401 0926
E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.coi.gov.cnCUBA
Ms Marisela Hernandez Ceballos
Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras (CIP)
Ministerio de la Industria Pesquera (MIP)
5TA, Avenida y 246 Barlovento, Santa Fe'
Cuidada de la Habana, Cuba
Tel: (537) 2098966 / (537) 2097875 / Fax: (537) 20 498 27
E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www1.cubamar.cu/cip/cip.htmESTONIA
Ms Maria Kalenchits
Estonian Marine Institute (MEI)
Library
Viljandi Rd. 18b
11216 Tallinn, Estonia
Tel.: +372 6 281 561 / Fax: +372 6 281 563 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.sea.eeFRANCE
Ms Jacqueline Prod'homme
Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)
Service de la Documentation et des Bibliothèques (SDB)
Centre de Brest, B.P. 70
29280 Plouzane, France
Tel: +33 2 98 22 4019 / Fax: +33 2 98 22 45 86
E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.ifremer.frGERMANY
Dr Walter Kühnhold
Bundesforschungsanstalt fuer Fisherei (BF)
Informations- und Dokumentationsstelle
Palmaille 9
22767 Hamburg, Germany
Tel: (+40) 38 90 51 13 / Fax: (+40) 38 90 52 61
E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.bfa-fisch.deGREECE
Ms Sofia Goulala
National Centre for Marine Research (NCMR)
Library, Documentation and Information Centre
Agios Kosmas, GR. 16604 Elliniko
Athens, Greece
Tel: +30 1 96 53 520-21 / Fax: +30 1 96 53 522 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://atlantis.fl.ncmr.grJAPAN
Mr Kazufumi Takayanagi
Fisheries Agency
1-2-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-8907, Japan
Tel: (81) 3 3502 8111 / Fax: (81) 3 3591 5314 / E-mail:
[email protected]
Mr Sei Mizobuchi
Fisheries Research Agency (FRA)
2-12-4 Fukuura
Yokohama 236-8648, Japan
Tel: (81)45 788 7524 / Fax: (81)45 788 5006 / E-mail: [email protected]
KENYA
Mr James Macharia
Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI)
RECOSCIX-WIO
P.O. Box 81651
Mombasa, Kenya
Tel: 254 11 47 11 29 / 254 11 47 25 27 / Fax: 254 11 47 51 57
E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.recoscix.orgKOREA REPUBLIC OF
Mr Jong-Yup Han
Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI)
Ansan P.O. Box 29
Seoul 425-600, Korea
Tel.: (82-31) 400-6460 / Fax: (82-31) 409-0325
E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.kordi.re.kr / http://library.kordi.re.krMEXICO
Mr Marco Montes
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Edificio Anexo de la Dirección General de Bibliotecas (DGB)
Subdirección de Servicios Especializados
Ciudad Universitaria
Apartado Postal 70-392
México City 04510, México
Tel: (52) 55 5622-3958 / 5622-3959 / Fax: (52) 55 5616 1436 / (52) 55 5622 4001
E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.dgbiblio.unam.mxPOLAND
Ms Iwona Fey
Sea Fisheries Institute (SFI)
Kollataja Street 1
81-332 Gdynia, Poland
Tel: +48 58 620 17 28 278 (Library) / + 48 58 620 2825 (Director) / Fax: +48 58 620-28-31 / Telx: 054348 mir pl
E-mail:
[email protected] /i http://www.mir.gdynia.pl
Ms Margaret Romanowska
Institute of Oceanology
Polish Academy of Sciences (JOPAS)
Powstancow Warszawy 55
81-712 Sopot, Poland
Tel: +48 58 551 72 83 / Fax: +48 58 551 21 30 / E-mail:
[email protected]RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Mr Boris Kotenev / Ms Sophy Levashova
Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO)
17, V. Krasnoselskaya
Moscow, 107140, Russia
Tel: (095) 264 00 89 / Fax: (095) 264 91 87 / E-mail:
[email protected]SWEDEN
Ms Karin Frohlund
National Board of Fisheries
Institute of Marine Research (IMR)
P.O. Box 4
45321 Lysekil, Sweden
Tel: +46 523-187 14 / Fax: +46 523-139 77
E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] / URL: http://www.fiskeriverket.seUKRAINE
Dr Eugeny Romanov
Southern Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (YugNIRO)
Chief, World Ocean Fishery Resources Department
2 Sverdlov Street 98300
Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine
Tel: (380) (6561) 21065 / Fax: (380) (6561) 21572 / E-mail:
[email protected]UNITED KINGDOM
Ms Linda Noble
Marine Biological Association
National Marine Biological Library
Library and Information Services
Plymouth PL1 2PB, United Kingdom
Tel: (44) (1752) 633 266 / Fax: (44) (1752) 633 102 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.pml.ac.uk/nmblUSA
Ms Janice Beattie
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Library and Information Services Division
NOAA Central Library (SSMC3, 2nd floor),
1315 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, USA
Tel: (1) 301 713 2607 ext 139 / Fax: (1) 301 713 45 98 / E-mail:
[email protected] / URL: http://www.lib.noaa.govVIET NAM
Mr Duong Long Tri
Ministry of Fisheries
Fisheries Information Centre (FICen)
10 Nguyen Cong Hoan, Ba Dinh
Hanoi, Viet Nam
Tel: (84.4) 8343182 / Fax: (84.4) 7.716578 / E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] / URL:http://www.fistenet.gov.vn
PUBLISHING ASFA PARTNER
CSA
Mr Jim McGinty / Dr Craig Emerson
CSA
7200 Wisconsin Ave.
Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA
Tel: 1-800-843-7751 / Fax: 1-301 961 6740 / E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected] /URL: http://www.csa.comOBSERVERS
Dr Henryk Rybinski
Institute for Computer and Information Engineering (ICIE)
Srodziemnomorska 21,
Warsaw, Poland
E-mail: [email protected]
Ms Sarah Lawrie
NISC South Africa
PO Box 377
22 Somerset Street
Grahamstown
6140, South Africa
Tel: +27 46 622 9698 / Fax: +27 46 622 9550 / E-mail:
[email protected] / [email protected]
Mr Robert Gruszka
United Nations Secretariat
Division for Ocean Affairs and
The Law of The Sea (UN/DOALOS)
Office of Legal Affairs, Room DC2-414
2 U.N. Plaza
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: (1) (212) 963 3926 / Fax: (1) (212) 963 5847 / E-mail: [email protected] / URL: http://www.un.org/Depts.los
Ms Jean Collins
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
General Affairs and Information Department (GI)
David Lubin Memorial Library (GILB)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) (6) 570 54742 / Fax: (39) (6) 570 52476 / E-mail: [email protected] / URL: http://www.fao.org/fi
AGENDAASFA Advisory Board Meeting
FAO, Rome, Italy, 18 - 21 June 2002
1. Opening of the Meeting
2. Administrative Arrangements
3. Election of Chairperson and Rapporteurs
4. Adoption of the Agenda
5. Adoption of the Summary Report of the 2001 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
5.1 Matters Arising
6. Status of ASFA Partnership
6.1 Report on the Inter-sessional Activities of ASFA Partners
6.1.1 United Nations Co-sponsors
6.1.2 ASFA Partners
6.1.3 ASFA Publisher (CSA)
6.2 New and Potential ASFA Partners
6.2.1 Admission of new partners
6.2.2 Consideration of potential partners
6.3 Co-operation with AGRIS
6.4 ASFA Partnership Agreement
6.5 ASFA Publishing Agreement
7. ASFA Scope, Coverage and Monitoring and Timeliness
7.1 Strategy for future expansion of ASFA Partnership
8. ASFA Products and Services
8.1 Quality of Outputs
8.1.1 ASFA Journals, CD-ROM and Database
8.2 New Outputs and Services
8.3 Public Relations Activities, Marketing
8.4 Entitlements
8.5 Increasing Distribution of ASFA Information Products and Services
9. Progress with Machine Readable Input
9.1 ASFISIS
9.2
10. Report on ASFA Training activities
11. Status of ASFIS Reference Series Publications
12. Expanded language capability in ASFA
13. ASFA Trust Fund
13.1 Status of the Trust Fund
13.2 Proposals in progress, completed or pending further discussion
13.2 New Proposals
14. Other Business
15. Place and Date of Next Meeting
ANNEX-41
(ASFA/2002/51)
(as of 5 June 2002)
PART- 1
Status of Trust Fund (balance)
sections
1.1
CSA Royalty Payments
pg. 1
1.2
BF Royalty Payments
pg. 1
1.3
Balance
pg. 1
PART- 2
:Proposals
2.1
In progress
.pg. 2
2.2
Completed in intersession
pg. 3
2.3
Pending
p
g. 42.4
Summary list of all proposals
pg. 5
PART- 3
NEW Proposals
pg. 7
PART-1: Status of Trust Fund (balance)
1.1 CSA Royalty Payments
Year
US$
deposit date
2001
$155,668.79
deposited 6/2002
2000
$127,846.27
deposited 5/2001
1999
$ 85,412.46
deposited 5/2000
1998
$ 80,003.75
deposited 4/1999
1997
$ 70,315.76
deposited 4/1998
1996
$ 64,596.00
deposited 4/1997
1995
$ 61,543.51
deposited 5/1996
1994
$ 34,473.77
deposited 4/1995
1.2 BF Royalty Payments
Year
DM/US$
(1US$=2.12452DM / 1Euro=.92US$)
deposit date
2001
DM 110.83+� 8,30 / $59.87
deposited 2001
2000
DM 134,05 / $63.00
deposited 2000
1999
DM 151,23 / $71.08
deposited 1999
1998
DM 190,65 / $89.73
deposited 1998
1997
DM 204,43 / $96.22
deposited 1998
1996
DM 122,21 / $57.52
deposited 1996
1995
DM 241,72 / $113.77
deposited 1995
1.3 TOTAL AND BALANCE
TOTAL deposited in Trust Fund to date (sum of sections 1
TOTAL deposited in Trust Fund to date (sum of sections 1.1 and 1.2 above)
(+) $ 680,411.5
Committed funds (sum of all proposals under Part 2, section 2.4)
(-) $ 480,420.00
Committed funds returned to balance unspent (see items numbered:31, 39 under section 4.2)
(+) $ 22,935.00
Overspent (see item numbered 32 under section 4.2)
(-) $ 2,200.00
Balance
(+) US$ 220,726.5
(two hundred and fifteen thousand and fifty-seven dollars and seventy one cents)
PART-2: Proposals
"In progress", "Completed in intersession" or "pending" (also includes a summary listing of all present ands past proposals)
Proposals IN PROGRESS PART-2:
2.1
2.2 Proposals COMPLETED in Intersessional Period
2.3 Proposals PENDING
2.4 Summary Listing of ALL proposals (past & present)
2.1 Proposals IN PROGRESS
FAO proposal(s)
2.1.2 Supporting attendance to Annual ASFA Board Meetings
(current year 2002 Meeting)At the 2001 Board Meeting, US$25,000 was allocated to support attendance at the year 2002 Meeting. The total amount disbursed is not available at this writing.
This proposal is "in progress" at the writing of this Report. It will be "completed" when the participants have returned home from this year's Meeting. Eleven ASFA Partners will receive full or partial assistance to attend this years 2002 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting from: 1) China, 2) Cuba, 3) Korea, 4) Estonia, 5) Kenya (with funding from IOC), 6) India, 7) Mexico, 8) Poland, 9) Russia, 10) Ukraine, and 11) Vietnam.
(This is an ongoing proposal, therefore it requires updating with regard to the cost for 2003. Updating to be discussed under New Proposals)
2.1.2 Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat
(for year Jan -Dec 2002) ($30,000)This proposal is to assist the FAO ASFA Secretariat with work/initiatives that are for the collective benefit of the ASFA Partnership. FAO proposed this as an ongoing proposal, which the Board requested be discussed each year before renewal.
For the period January to December 2002, US$8,800 has so far been committed on assistance to the FAO ASFA Secretariat in ASFA input preparation.
(This is an ongoing proposal, therefore it requires updating with regard to the cost for 2003. Updating to be discussed under New Proposals)
2.1.3 Support to the Development of Web based interface to ASFISIS together with GILW/AGRIS group. $10,000 from Trust Fund ($11.045 from FAO Regular Program).
At this writing, the proposal is "in progress", but the final version of the software will be "completed" by the time the Board meets. A report of the work done by ICIE is contained in ASFA/2002/56 (ANNEX-45).
Histort of project: Agreed in principle at 2000 Board Meeting, the proposal (by ICIE, Dr Rybinski) was circulated to the ASFISIS working Group for comments. Only positive replies were received, so FAO proceeded with drawing up the Letter of Agreement with ICIE. Work began by ICIE, FAO and the ASFISIS working Group. Dr Rybinski presented a prototype software to the 2001 Board Meeting.
2.1.4 Support to implementation of www-ASFA-ISIS interface (US$10,000.00) (including the necessary funds for Dr Rybinski to attend 2002 ASFA Board Meeting)*
This proposal is technically "pending", but will most likely be "in progress" when this Report is presented to the Board Meeting.
The proposal was approved at last year's Board Meeting in order to assist Partners with the implementation/installation of the new www-ASFA-ISIS software (when issued), and for its maintenance (updates to internal pick-lists and debugging) for a period of one year.
The proposal (contract to do the work) will actually begin when the new software is actually distributed to Partners. The software is for all intents and purposes completed, however the technical go ahead from the ASFA publisher is still pending.
*
(for administrative reasons the travel/per diem costs for Dr Rybinski to attend this Meeting cannot be included in the above proposal contract - so it will be charged separately against the Trust Fund.
NMDIS (China) proposal(s)
2.1.5 Conversion of ASFA Printed Journ. into mach. readable format -
1972 journal ($15,000)The proposal to convert the 1972 ASFA journals was agreed at the 2000 Board Meeting. NMDIS requested to begin after June 2001. The project is now "in progress".
NIO (India) proposal(s)
2.1.6 Conversion of ASFA Printed Journ. into mach. readable format - 1971 journal ($8,500)
The proposal to convert 1971 journals was agreed by the Board during the intersessional period for implementation by India (NIO). The correspondence regarding the approval of this proposal is contained in E-mails to ASFA-Board-L: (e-mail dated 27/11/2001 contained the proposal and e-mail 04/12/2001 the results of the voting). The project is "in progress".
YugNIRO (Ukraine) proposal(s)
2.1.7 Provision of ASFA Centres in former USSR with reference materials for input (ASFIS-2 Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions) (YugNIRO) ($1,500).
The project is "in progress". Four other translations under this project are completed (Indexing, Bibliographic, and Abstracting Guidelines and ASFISIS User Manual).
________________________________________________________________
2.2 Proposals COMPLETED (in Intersessional period 2001-2002)
BF (Germany) proposal(s)
2.2.1 Improvement of the ASFA Bibliographic Database (USS15,000).
Completed. See E-mail from Wulf Kircher to all Partners (via ASFA-Board-L) dated 24 April 2002 where he offers to send the full Report of the work to ASFA Partners requesting it. Information on the work done is also presented in: Annex-20 of the 2001 Board Report, and in his e-mail of 29 December 2000. At the 2001 ASFA Board Meeting, BF proposed a second "Improvement" proposal, as a follow up to the first one (the second proposal appears in Annex 20a of the 2001 Board Meeting Report). At this Meeting BF should present final cost calculations for the second proposal. See section "Proposals pending"
FAO proposal(s)
2.2.2 Workhops for familiarisation (training) in ASFA Input (US$28,800)
Completed. See Annex-5 of FAO Report (ASFA/2002/3) for full report of training session in Latin America. The remaining unspent funds US$ 8,102 from this proposal will go towards training activities for other Partners.
2.2.3 Support to attend annual 2001 ASFA Advisory Board Meetings ($15,000 + $4,629 unspent from last year's allocation)
Completed, The following 7 ASFA Partners were provided with full or partial assistance to attend the 2001 Board Meeting: 1) Kenya KMFRI-ODINEA/RECOSCIX-WIO (also with IOC funding), 2) Russia, 3) (VNIRO), 4) Ukraine (YugNiro), 5) Cuba (CIP), 6) Poland (SFI), 7) Cote d'Ivoire (CRO), 8) Argentina (INIDEP). This proposal is ongoing therefore it will require updating of the funds to be made available for the Meeting in the year 2002.
2.2.4 Staff support to FAO ASFA Secretariat (FAO) $31,460 (for period Jan-Dec 2001).
Completed Agreed at 2000 Board Meeting. The funds spent during this period were US$21,627. Unspent funds moved to same proposal in year Jan-Dec 2002.
KMFRI (Kenya) proposal(s)
2.2.5 Conversion of ASFA Printed Journals into machine readable format -
1973 journal ($15,000)Completed.The records have been added to the ASFA database (IDS and CD-ROM versions).
NMDIS (China) proposal(s)
2.2.6 Addition of 45,000 abstracts to 1975-77 ASFA database (China-NMDIS) with initial BFcollaboration ($17,000). Completed
Completed. The records have been added to the ASFA database (IDS and CD-ROM versions).
2.3 Proposals PENDING
(pending further discussion and/or action)2.3.1 Draft Concept for a project Correction the ASFA Database Descriptor Fields.
At the last Meeting (see section 13.3.6 and Annex-20a of 2001 Board Meeting Report) the Board agreed in principle to proceeded with cleaning the identifier field (and further cleaning to finer level of the subject and geographic fields). The initial proposal sum was US$19,800 subject to further negotiation (i.e. additional costs occurring at BF and Zadi on one side and on the other side some downsizing to possibilities of BF). BF was suppose to present final cost calculations to the Board via FAO/ASFA Secretariat for approval.
2.3.2 ASFA-FIGIS Interaction Project (US$20,000)
This project was submitted at the last Board Meeting and approved in principle by the Board (see Annex-40 and section 13.3.5 of 2001 Board Meeting Report). Final consent was withheld pending further details on the implemenation, which are now presented in ASFA/2002/3b.
(This proposal requires final consent to begin)
2.3.3 Convert 500 Records from PIMRIS database into ASFISIS format.
Pending PIMRIS since 1997.
2.4 SUMMARY LISTING
(of all proposals ongoing and completed)
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
2001- 2002 Intersessional proposal
1.
Funding to attend IAMSLIC Meeting (one person)
$ 2,500
.$__,__
(Meeting in Oct 2002)
2.
Conversion of 1971 ASFA Journals (NIO)
$ 8,500
$ 2,500
underway
(1stpayment made)
2001 Proposals
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
3.
Support to attend annual (2002) ASFA Board Meetings
(plus extra $671 unspent from 2001 allocation, see item-8)
$25,000
$ __,_
(sum not available
at writing)
4.
Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat
(for year 2002) (plus extra $9833 for disbursal from unspent Jan-Dec 2001 allocation, see item-9, and extra $800 unspent from item 16)$30,000
$ 8,800
.(
underway,Milone $8,800)
5.
Support to implementation of www -ASFA-ISIS interface
$10,000*
$ __,___
(begins when
software is distributed
*
(plusfunds to attend2002 Board Meeting
approx. $1500)
6.
ASFA-FIGIS Interaction
$20,000
$ 3,540
(Pending further
discussion)
7.
Correction of the ASFA Descriptors fields
$19,800*
$ __,___
(Pending further
discussion)
*(subject to negotiation) **(extension of project to other Partners)
.......$ 5000**
$ __,___
2000 Proposals
(COMMITTED
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES
8.
Support to attend annual (2001) ASFA Board
Meetings
*(extra $4,629 disbursed from unspent 2000 allocation, item-15) )(and then left over $671
moved to item-3)
$15,000
$18,958*
completed
9.
Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat (for year
2001)
(expenditure for Rybinski to 2001 Meet.$1688,
Cort to L.America $6039, Input support $3900,
CDs to LIFDC $7000, Transl. Help notes ($3000)(unspent $9833 moved to item 4 above)
$31,460
$21,627
completed
10.
Workshops for familiarization (training) in the ASFA
input
(unspent funds to be spent on future training
related to www-ISIS-ASFA)
$28,800
$20,798
completed
11.
Support to the Development of Web based
interface to ASFISIS
$10,000
$10,000
underway/ to complete in 5/02
12.
Provision of ASFA Centres in former USSR with translation
(ASFIS-2, Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions)
$1,500
$ 0
underway
13.
Conversion of ASFA Printed Journals into
machine readable format (1971-1974) - 1973 conversion
$15,000
$15,000
completed
14.
Conversion of ASFA Printed Journals into
machine readable format (1971-1974) - 1972 Conversion
$15,000
$ 5,000
underway (1st payment made)
1999 Proposals
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
15.
Support to attend annual ASFA Advisory Board Meetings
*
(unspent $4,629 moved to support attendance at2001 Meeting, item-8)
$15,000
$10,371
completed
16.
Staff support to ASFA Secretariat (Ms Wibley)
(for the period January 2000 -December 2000) *(unspent $800 moved to item-4)$31,460
$30,660
completed
17.
Improvement of ASFA Database by
Germany (BF)
$15,000
$15,000
completed
18.
Request for training from Kenya (RECOSCIX-WIO)
$3,000
$2,825
completed
19.
Conversion of ASFA printed journals into machine readable
$15,000
$15,000
completed
20.
Addition of 45,000 abstracts to 1975-77
ASFA database(China)
$17,000
$17,000
completed
21.
Formatting ASFA Thesaurus by Julia
Hudson
$2,000
$2,000
completed
1998 Proposals
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
22.
Support to attend annual ASFA Advisory Board Meetings
*(extra $2500 comes from unspent 1997 allocation, item27)
$10,000
$12,500
completed
23.
Staff support to ASFA Secretariat (Ms Wibley) (for the period January 1999 - December 1999)
$25,200
$25,200
completed
24.
A systems analysis specification for a Windows-based data entry software (ASFISIS/Win) (Dr. DeSmet)
$0
$0
cancelled
25.
Extension of ASFA Potential in Lithuania
$2,500
$2,500
completed
26.
Coverage of Fishery Economics and
Related Subjects
$5,000
$5,000
completed
1997 Proposals
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
27.
Support to attend annual ASFA Advisory Board Meetings
($2,500 unspent-to betransferred to 1998 proposal item-22)
$6,000
$3,500
completed
28.
Staff support to ASFA Secretariat (Ms Wibley)
(for the period January 1998 -December 1998)$25,200
$25,200
completed
29.
Extension of ASFA potential in Ukraine (YugNIRO)
$3,000
$3,000
completed
30.
Provision of ASFA Centres in former
USSR with reference material for input (translations) (YugNIRO)
$3,500
$3,500
completed
31.
ASFISIS Maintenance (Dr. DeSmet)
($600 returned to balance due to over budgeting)
$2,000
@1,400
completed
32.
Training for PIMRIS (travel
Mr. Rao)
(disbursed exceeds committed, because
for administrative reasons, FAO could not issue the most economic ticket as per
original estimate)
$3,000
$5,200
completed
33.
Convert 500 Records (
from PIMRISdatabase into ASFISIS format)
$3,500
$0
pending
34.
Analysis of ASFA for Scope and
Coverage with eventual recommendations
for improvement
$6,500
$6,500
completed
1996 Proposals
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
35.
Manual on ASFISIS software and Data
Entry
*
(funds transferred to FAO FIDI budget (because FAOcarried out the work)
$6,000
$6,000
completed*
36.
Logo for ASFA competition
$2500
$0
cancelled
37.
Statistical Analysis of ASFA Database
$7000
$0
(no charge
by CSA)
38.
ASFA User Survey
--
--
(cancelled,
never
budgeted)
1995 Proposals
(COMMITTED)
(DISBURSED)
(NOTES)
39.
Workshops for familiarization with the
ASFA input methodology (ASFA Training Session, 3-7 June 1996, FAO)
*(unspent $22,335 returned to Balance)$34,000
$11,645
completed*
40.
Review of the ASFA Partners Monitoring
of Serials for ASFA (follow-up to 1994
review)
$5,000
$5,000
completed
41.
IOC Study Grant
$8000
$0
cancelled
42.
Chinese proposal sub-project 1,
Identification of ASFA information users
and suppliers in China
$4,000
$4,000
completed
TOTAL
$480,420
$319,224
by (R.Pepe, May 2002)
_________________________________________________________
Full text
of most 1995 to 2001 Trust Fund Proposals are contained in the respective ASFA Advisory Board Meeting Reports (Hamburg, 30 May-2 June 95) (Rome, 28-31 May 96) (Gdynia, 22-25 April 97) (Rome, 9-12 June 98) (NOAA, 25-28 May 99), (NIO/NICMAS 19-22 September 2000) (IFREMER, Brest 19-22 June 2001).
PART-3: NEW Proposals
NEW
PROPOSALS(*) 2002-2003 (submitted as of May 2002)1.1 Supporting attendance to Board Meeting (for year 2003) ($to be decided)
Ongoing proposal - This proposal is reviewed each year by Board to update the amount of allocated funds. The original proposal (by NOAA) was agreed by Partners at the 1997 ASFA Board Meeting with $6000 being allocated for attendance to the 1998 Meeting. At the 1998 Meeting, the sum was increased to $10,000; then at the 1999 Meeting to $15,000. At the 2000 Meeting the sum was not increased (i.e., it remained at $15,000). At the 2001 Meeting the sum was raised to $25,000).
(The Board is requested to confirm and/or update the sum for the 2003 Meeting)
1.2 Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat
(for year Jan -Dec 2003) ($30,000)Ongoing proposal - (see ASFA/2002/ 3a) This proposal is to assist the FAO ASFA Secretariat in carrying out work/initiatives that are for the collective benefit of the ASFA Partnership. FAO proposed this as an ongoing proposal, which the Board requested be discussed each year before renewal.
(At this Meeting, the Board will be asked to further support the proposal for Jan-Dec 2003)
1.3 Marine Bibliographic Information from the Latin American and Caribbean Region Processed for the ASFA Database, Twenty Five Years of Scientific Research (1955-1980). First Stage: South America: Argentina and Chile.
See ASFA/2002/ 13a
(At this Meeting, the Board will be asked to discuss/approve this proposal)
Other ASFA Partners Proposals
See individual ASFA Partners Reports or eventual documents distributed at Meeting
Decisions (suggestions) and Actions Agreed by Participants
ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
Rome, Italy, 18-21 June 2002
Status of ASFA Partnership
- The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to follow-up on the participation of Lithuania in ASFA. (p.3)
- The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to officially communicate the acceptance of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Oostende (Belgium), and the Instituto de Investigaciones Pesqueras (IIP), Uruguay into the ASFA Partnership. (p.4)
Consideration of Potential Partners
- (BF) offered (via an intersessional e-mail from Mr Kirchner) to follow up on the recruitment of two possible new Partners in Egypt and Turkey. (p.4)
Co-operation with AGRIS
- The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to continue cooperation with GILW. (p.4)
ASFA SCOPE, COVERAGE, MONITORING AND TIMELINESS
- Regarding the eventual acquisition (using the ASFA Trust Fund) of Areil software in order to assist ASFA Partners in transmitting documents, Ms. Kamsiah (ICLARM) agreed that she would check prices and inform FAO. (p.5)
- Regarding a list of Publishers in the aquatic sciences which will facilitate ASFA Partners contacting the Publishers (in order to request catalogues, and to request complimentary review copies of new books for input to ASFA).
Mr. Kunhold (BF) agreed to send the list of Publishers (via E-mail) to the ASFA Partners. However, the List is not complete as regards some addresses. Therefore Mr. Kühnhold (BF) and Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed (using the CSA "Books in Print" database) to work together in completing the list as regards addresses. (p.6)
Timeliness
- The following suggestions were made in order to increase timeliness (the time lag between publication date of a document and the actual appearance its reference on the ASFA database):
- Documents with an equivalent web version could be identified and then the key parts of it (e.g. the abstract) could be copied into the ASFA worksheet (using "Cut and Paste" function);
- Partners could prioritise the input to cover core journals first;
- Partners could send their input to CSA more regularly in smaller batches, rather than one batch once a year;
- Abstracts could be scanned, rather than keyed in, to save time. (p.6)
- Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed
to providing the ASFA Partners with a list of journals which they are currently receiving and monitoring for their CSA databases. If a partner recognises a publication from their own Monitoring List, they might wish to exchange monitoring responsibilities with CSA, as CSA could process the document quicker in electronic format. (p.6)Document delivery
- If information indicating the availability of the document is not already present as part of the bibliographic description (e.g. author affiliation, corporate author, publisher etc.) such information should be entered in the Notes field during preparation of input. (p.6)
- The Board agreed in general to extending the coverage of ASFA backwards (i.e. Partners going back to the first volume/issue of journals which are on their Monitoring List). (p.6)
- Ms. Levashova
(VNIRO) agreed to investigate the extent of the work involved, (for Russian literature prior to 1971) and to decide whether they were capable of carrying out the work and then prepare a Trust Fund Proposal for the future. (p.6)Strategy for future expansion of ASFA Partnership
- The Board agreed to the criteria listed in para 44 of the document "Strategy for Priority-Setting for Future Expansion of the ASFA Partnership" as a general and flexible guideline for the recruitment of new Partners. The paragraph as amended and agreed on is as follows:
44. A Criteria for recruitment and approval of new ASFA partners and removal of existing partners are spelled out in the Minutes of ASFA Board Meeting held in Rome, 9-12 June 1998. To ensure sustainability and assess the institutional capacity and their willingness to become an ASFA partner, careful consideration should be given to such factors as:
- Mandates and programmes of the institution (and the parent institution), e.g., the institution must have the mandate to collect, organize and provide access to aquatic sciences and/or fisheries literature;
- Existing activities in ASFA related areas such as collection of literature in ASFA scope, compilation of bibliographic records and creation and maintenance of bibliographic databases;
- Ability to allocate resources, including human resources, to ASFA activity;
- Institutional sustainability; and Institutional and staff commitment to ASFA. (p.7)
The Board agreed to considering the countries listed in paragraph-39 of the document "Strategy for Priority-Setting for Future Expansion of the ASFA Partnership" (Philippines, Thailand, Netherlands, South Africa, Israel, New Zealand, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka see below) as potential Partners, however several partners questioned the validity using FAO statistics on fish catch as an indicator of volume of national literature. (p.7)
- Further more as regards identification of potential partners, the Board agreed to give priority to the aspects listed in paragraph-36 of the document "Strategy for Priority-Setting for Future Expansion of the ASFA Partnership":
- Volume of national literature outputs in the fields of aquatic sciences and fisheries;
- Contribution of aquatic sciences and fisheries to national development, i.e., the role and importance of exploitation of aquatic and fishery resource in national food security and economy;
- Contribution to the world fish and fishery production*;
- Benefit to the country by participating in ASFA, e.g., national capacity building, promoting networking and benefits from access to world literature on aquatic sciences and fisheries; and
- Willingness and capacity to become an ASFA partner.
*(Note, however, several partners questioned the validity of point 3 (i.e. that fish catch statistics was always an indicator of volume of national literature).
- Partners expressed their willingness in assisting in the identification of potential partners.
- Mr. Odido (IOC) suggested the new project (Ocean Data and Information Network in the Caribbean and South America), and the meeting that was to be held the week before IAMSLIC, as opportunities to identify potential Partners.
- Mr. Montes (UNAM-Mexico) stated that since the ASFA Partner from Argentina would be present at the IAMSLIC meeting, perhaps a small workshop could be arranged. (p.8)
9)
- Ms. Kamsiah (ICLARM) suggested that they could approach some of the national libraries in the S.E. Asia region. (p.8)
- Mr. Haspeslagh (VLIZ) agreed to investigate a potential new ASFA Partner in the Netherlands, with the assistance of the FAO ASFA Secretariat. (p.8)
- Ms. Kamsiah (ICLARM) agreed to investigate the possibility of contacting the Philippines and Thailand for new ASFA Partners. (p.8)
- The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to contact the person identified by Mr. Romanov (YugNIRO) in the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries in order to investigate the possibility of recruiting a new ASFA Partner. (p.8)
- The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to draft a general letter to be utilized by ASFA Partners when trying to recruit new partners. (p.8)
- Regarding the preparation of ASFA input from IATTC publication, Mr. Romanov (YugNIRO) agreed to contact IATTC and suggest they send missing publications to CSA for ASFA input. (p.8)
- Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed to do the extra input for the missing publications if IATTC were able to send them the publications. (p.8)
ASFA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Quality of Outputs
- Regarding quality control of input, Partners are reminded that they should take their time and proof read their ASFA input carefully, on paper if possible, before submitting it to CSA. (p.9)
- Regarding the input of multiple author affiliations in ASFA records using the www-ISIS-ASFA software, Ms. Prod'homme (IFREMER) agreed to look at the AGRIS interface and then discuss the feasibility of this feature at the next ASFA Board Meeting. (p.
Mr. Emerson (CSA) reported that a new version of the IDS with new features would be implemented in September 2002. (p. 9)Regarding Partner's input, and eventual missing records (i.e. records submitted to CSA, but not appearing on the database), Partners should contact CSA should they notice any discrepancies in the input figures. (p. 9)Regarding the cleaning up of the descriptor fields (Trust Fund proposal by BF), CSA, ICES and BF agreed to work together to investigate the matter of incorrect ASFA subject descriptors further. Regarding the use of typesetting codes for italics, subscripts and superscripts, the Partners agreed to examine the use of these typesetting codes with respect to how the database looks with or without them, and then further discuss the matter next year to make a decision as to whether to continue to use the italics, sub and superscript HTML coding in the www.ISIS-ASFA software. (p.9)The Board agreed to establish a Diacritic and Transliteration Committee (Estonia, Germany, Ukraine and CSA volunteered). (p.9)Regarding the possibility of adding records to the database without indexing terms, Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed to investigate this possibility further and said that they would provide a Power Point Presentation to demonstrate such a ‘non-indexed companion database’ at next years ASFA Board Meeting. (p.10) Regarding automatic indexing, the Board suggested that the situation be reviewed at next years meeting. (p.10) ASFA Journals, CD-ROM and Database
Regarding the serial titles and other reference titles collected for the Cod bibliography, which do not appear in ASFA, Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed to investigate the missing cod papers. (p.10) It was suggested that Ms. Frohlind (IMR-Sweden) work together with Ms. Lombardi (FAO) to determine whether the journal titles listed missing were actually included on the ASFA Monitoring List. (p.10) Regarding the very late receipt of the quarterly updates of the Silver Platter CD-ROM (to some Partners), CSA agreed to follow-up this matter with SilaverPlatter, and the FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to investigate the possibility of forwarding the quarterly updates of the CD-ROM to ASFA Partners in the specific countries having problems. (p.10) New Outputs and Services
Regarding an updated ASFA PowerPoint presentation, the FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to include an updated version on a CD-ROM which will also contain other key ASFA information documents. This information CD-ROM will most likely be issued together with the new www-ISIS-ASFA software. (p.11) Partner Entitlements
Regarding those Partners no longer fulfilling their input responsibility for the past 2/3 years (e.g. Lithuania and Portugal), the FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to follow up with these ASFA Partners and get a concrete statement within the year. (p.11) Regarding the possibility of supplying the NISC CD-ROMs to ASFA Partners at a reduced cost, if CSA were willing to consider waiving their costs. Ms. Lawrie (NISC) agreed to prepare more information regarding this and would inform the ASFA Partners as soon as possible. (p.11) 36. Increasing Distribution of ASFA Information Products and Services
Regarding the continuation of the project to increase the distribution of ASFA information products to LIFDC countries worldwide for a further two years. Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed to look into the sustainability of the project and, while giving Silver Platter another few more months, they would investigate the possibility if they could do it themselves (i.e. create a CD-ROM)
FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to provide a letter of support to CSA for forwarding to SilverPlatter regarding the extension of the project. (p.12) Ms. Lawrie (NISC) stated that any institution currently receiving the NISC CD-ROM under this project could contact NISC for assistance if they had any problems in using the CD-ROMs rather than contact FAO. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to investigate this. (p.12) Regarding IDS access in several ODINAFRICA projects and the related question of Internet access, Mr. Odido (IOC) agreed to report on this at the next Board Meeting. (p.12) PROGRESS WITH MACHINE READABLE INPUT
ASFISIS (release 3)
The FAO ASFA Secreatriat reported that, if necessary, Partners could continue to use the DOS ASFISIS software even after the new software is issued. (p.12) WWW-ISIS-ASFA
Mr. Emerson (CSA) reported that CSA was ready to receive ASFA input prepared with the new www.ISIS-ASFA software. (p.12)(Important Note: when sending input to CSA, please specify which software you used to prepare the records (e.g. DOS ASFISIS or www-ISIS-ASFA).
FUTURE ASFA TRAINING SESSIONS
The FAO ASFA Secretariat will direct the unspent funds from underspent Trust Fund projects towards future training activities. (p.13) Regarding eventual problems installating the new www-ISIS-ASFA software, the software developers (ICIE) will provide an online "Help Desk" for one year after the distribution of the software. The Trust Fund proposal will also include ongoing maintenance of the software. (p.13) STATUS OF ASFIS REFERENCE SERIES PUBLICATIONS
ASFIS-1, Serials Monitored for the ASFIS Bibliographic Database
The FAO ASFA Secretariat continues to maintain up-to-date the ASFA Monitoring List master file. Partners must notify FAO (attention: Ms Lombardi) of any changes or additions or deletions to their lists, and to reply as quickly as possible to any FAO queries regarding the List. As requested by the Board at the 2000 ASFA Board Meeting five new fields were added to the Monitoring list master file. The inclusion of the information regarding the additional fields has been implemented after the last Board Meeting, but only for the titles which have been changed/added since then. For the update of the remaining titles (about 2,500) FAO (Ms L. Lombardi) agreed to send precise instructions to the ASFA Partners as soon as the FAO ASFA Secretariat finds sufficient time to carry out the task. However, Partners should continue to send the information related to the additional fields whenever amendments to titles on their monitoring list are notified to FAO. (p.13) ASFIS-3 Guidelines for Bibliographic Description The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that these Guidelines were in Press. (p.14) ASFIS-4, Guidelines for Abstracting and
ASFIS-5, Guidelines for Indexing
The FAO ASFA Secretariat reported that these Guidelines will be printed in the near future. ASFIS-6, Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus
Regarding the consolidation of new suggested terms and circulation to the Thesaurus committee (FAO, BF, CSA, Canada, IFREMER, PIMRIS) for approval and final printing, the task is still pending due to lack of time, and the start up of a large FAO initiative (ontology project) to improve all existing indexing/searching vocabularies used throughout FAO's collection of information. The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed will provide a report regarding the Ontogeny project to keep the Board updated regarding the situation. Mr. Montes (UNAM) volunteered to join the Thesaurus Committee, following the retirement of Ms H.Cameron (DFO). (p.14)
The Board suggested that the GAL Committee should get together and re-write some guidelines to assist in constructing geographic terms in a consistent matter. (p.15) Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed to send (via ASFA-Board-L) the list of geographic terms to Partners, who could check and clean up the terms in their areas. (p.15)
ASFIS-8, Taxonomic Authority List
Mr. Emerson (CSA) suggested that the CSA authority file of about 200,000 names could be integrated with that in the www-ISIS-ASFA software. (p.15) ASFIS-10, Authority List for Corporate Names
The FAO ASFA Secretariat agreed to send its list of new Corporate Author names to CSA so that it could be incorporated into CSA's master file. (p.15)
The balance in the ASFA Trust Fund account is US$ 220,726.50. (p.16) Proposals in Progress, Completed or Pending Further Discussion
Addition of 45,000 abstracts to 1975-77 ASFA database (China-NMDIS & BF collaboration )
Mr. Yang Ying (NMDIS) requested Mr. Kühnhold (BF) to supply the bibliographic data regarding the citations of some 173 records that were found missing, so that the addition of the abstracts could be completed. Mr. Kühnhold (BF) agreed. (p.17) ASFA-FIGIS Interaction Project (US$20,000)
Regarding the ASFA-FIGIS proposal (approved in principle at 2002 Meeting) but subject to final approval following agreement on implementation details with CSA and FAO. The Board agreed to support the project. (p.17)
Mr. Emerson (CSA) agreed that they would take the lead regarding the Geographic terms (p.17) New Proposals
Procedures for voting on intersessional ASFA Trust Fund Proposals
The Board agreed on the following procedure for voting on intersessional Trust Fund proposals: 1) There will be a 2 week (14 day) period of time to vote
2) No reply will be counted as abstention
3) There must be a minimum quorum of one third
4) There will be no limit to the amount of money involved in the intersessional proposal
5) The vote will not be secret (p.18)
The Board agreed that Trust Fund requests from non-ASFA Partners will not be accepted. (p.18) The Board agreed that requests for funding to attend Meetings other than the ASFA Board Meeting will not be supported. (Note: this does not apply to Trust Fund proposals previously approved). (p.18) Regarding "open" voting or "secret" voting during the Board Meetings. The Board agreed to review this matter at next years Board Meeting. (p.18) Supporting attendance to Board Meeting (for year 2003) ($to be decided)
The Board agreed to increase the sum allocated for the 2003 Meeting to US$30,000 (including any carry-over from this year). (p.18) Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat (for year Jan -Dec 2003) ($30,000)
The Board agreed to the Trust Fund Proposal ‘Staff Support to the FAO ASFA Secretariat’ (p.18)Draft Concept for a project Correction the ASFA Database Descriptor Fields.
At the last Board Meeting, the Board agreed in principle to proceeding with cleaning the identifier field (and further cleaning to finer level of the subject and geographic fields) subject to further negotiation (i.e. additional costs occurring at BF and Zadi on one side and on the other side some downsizing to possibilities of BF). Mr. Emerson (CSA) pointed out that for records prior to 1998, due to the different structure of these records, it would not be possible to REPLACE the incorrect or unwanted terms with the desired terms, but instead the correct terms must be APPENDED to the records - together with the unwanted terms. For the more recent records, i.e. 1999 onwards, corrections would be easier to manipulate.
Mr. Emerson (CSA) suggested separating the types of errors and doing a trial run with just 100 records to see how things would work.
Mr. Emerson (CSA) and Mr. Kühnhold (BF) agreed to work together to clarify certain aspects/technical problems related to the exercise, and the proposal would be put forward again after clarification was made. (p.19)
Marine Bibliographic Information from the Latin American and Caribbean Region Processed for the ASFA Database, Twenty Five Years of Scientific Research (1955-1980). First Stage: South America: Argentina and Chile. See ASFA/2002/ 13a
Not approved, however the Board agreed that the proposal be put forward again next year. (p.19) Other ASFA Partners Trust Fund Proposals
(possible future Trust Fund proposals)Mr. Haspeslagh (VLIZ) and Mr. Odido (IOC) agreed to work together to investigate the future possibility of transferring a collection of African literature from VLIZ to Africa where ASFA input could be done. (p.19) Mr. Haspeslagh (VLIZ) mentioned that he would investigate the future input of a substantial historical collection of Belgian/Netherlands marine science literature. (p.19) Ms. Kamsiah (ICLARM) will investigate the possibility of preparing ASFA input from its tropical fisheries database. (p.19) OTHER BUSINESS
PLACE AND DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The Board agreed to holding the next (2003) Board Meeting in Cuba. The probable dates being late June or early July. (p.19)