ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
(NOAA, USA, 25-28 May 1999)Summary Report
- 1. Opening of the Meeting
- 2. Administrative Arrangements
- 3. Election of Chairpersons and Rapporteurs
- 4. Adoption of the Agenda
- 5. Adoption of the Summary Report of the 1998 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
- 5.1 Matters Arising from the last (1998) ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
- 6. Status of the ASFA Partnership
- 6.1 Report on Intersessional Activities of the ASFA Partners
- 6.2 New and Potential ASFA Partners
- 6.3 Co-operation with AGRIS
- 6.4 ASFA Partnership Agreement
- 6.5 ASFA Publishing Agreement
- 7. ASFA Scope, Coverage, Monitoring and Timeliness
- 8. ASFA Products and Services
- 8.1 Quality of Outputs
- 8.2 New Outputs and Services
- 8.3 Public Relations Activities and Marketing
- 8.4 Partner Entitlements
- 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
- 11.1 ASFIS-1, Serials Monitored for the ASFIS Bibliographic Database
- 11.2 ASFIS-2, Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions
- 11.3 ASFIS-3, Guidelines for Bibliographic Description
- 11.4 ASFIS-4, Guidelines for Abstracting
- 11.5 ASFIS-5, Guidelines for Indexing
- 11.6 ASFIS-6, ASFIS Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus
- 11.7 ASFIS-7, Geographic Authority List
- 11.8 ASFIS-8, Taxonomic Authority List
- 11.9 ASFIS-9, Database User Guide
- 11.10 ASFIS-10, Authority List for Corporate Names
- 11.11 ASFIS-11, Magnetic Tape Specifications and Record Format
- 12. Expanded Language Capability in ASFA
- 13. ASFA Trust Fund
- 13.1 Status of the ASFA Trust Fund
- 13.2 New Proposals
- 13.3 Proposal underway, pending further discussion, and completed
- 14. Other Business
- 15. Place and Date of the Next Meeting
ANNEXES
(Only Annexes 1, 1a and 2 are included)1. List of Participants (ASFA/99/1b)
1a. Abbreviations Used in Body of Report
2. Agenda
3. FAO Report (ASFA/99/3)
4. IOC Report (ASFA/99/4)
5. UN/DOALOS Report (ASFA/99/5)
6. ICES Report (ASFA/99/7)
7. ICLARM Report (ASFA/99/8)
8. IUCN Report (ASFA/99/9)
9. PIMRIS Report (ASFA/88/10)
9a. Communication between Ganeshan Rao (PIMRIS Coordinator) and...(NIWA Staff)
10. Argentina (INIDEP) Report (ASFA/99/11)
11. Australia (CSIRO) Report (ASFA/99/12)
12. Canada (Fisheries and Oceans) Report (ASFA/99/14)
13. Chile (IFOP) Report (ASFA/99/15)
14. China, People's Republic (NMDIS) Report (ASFA/99/16)
15. Cuba (CIP) Report (ASFA/99/17)
16. Estonia (EMI) Report (ASFA/99/18)
17. France (IFREMER) Report (ASFA/99/19)
18. Germany (BF) Report (ASFA/99/20)
18a. BF Trust Fund Proposal, Improvement of the ASFA Database
19. Greece (NCMR) Report (ASFA/99/21)
20. India (NIO/NICMAS) Report (ASFA/99/22)
21. Japan (JFRCA) Report (ASFA/99/24)
22. Lithuania (Ichthyobank)Report (ASFA/99/25)
23. Kenya (KMFRI) Report (ASFA/99/26)
24. Mexico (DGB) Report (ASFA/99/27)
25. Norway (IMR) Report (ASFA/99/29)
26. Poland (SFI) Report (ASFA/99/30)
27. Portugal (IPIMAR) Report (ASFA/99/31)
28. Russia (VNIRO) Report (ASFA/99/32)
29. Spain (IE0) Report (ASFA/99/33)
30. Sweden (IMR) Report (ASFA/99/34)
31. Ukraine (YugNIRO) Report (ASFA/99/35)
32. United Kingdom (PML) Report (ASFA/99/36)
33. USA (NOAA) Report (ASFA/99/37)
34. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) Report (ASFA/99/38)
35. Publishing Agreement between FAO and CSA (paragraphs 5, 6 and Exhibit F
36. Report on Follow-up to Review of the Monitoring by Partners...(Ms Wibley). (ASFA/99/41)
37. CSA Calculation of Royalty Payment (ASFA/99/42)
38. ASFA Trust Fund Status (ASFA/99/43)
39. FAO Trust Fund Proposal: Support to FAO ASFA Secretariat (ASFA/99/44)
40. ASFA Information Products and Services (incl.1999 prices) (ASFA/99/45)
41. Increasing Distribution of ASFA Products in Developing Countries (Ms Cochrane)
42. NISC Report to the ASFA Board May 1999 (ASFA/99/47)
43. Locating and Citing Electronic Journals from the Web by CSA (ASFA/99/48)
44. YugNIRO comments concerning Quality of Outputs (ASFA/99/49)
45. List of Past Meeting Places (ASFA/99/50)
46. Decisions and Actions Agreed by Participants1. OPENING OF THE MEETING
The Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) Advisory Board held its annual meeting at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Library and Information Service, NOAA Central Library located in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA from 25 to 28 May 1999.
The Meeting was attended by 26 participants from: 14 National ASFA Partners, 2 International ASFA Partners, 3 UN, ASFA Co-sponsors, the ASFA Publishing Partner, and 1 observer. The names and addresses are listed in Annex-1 (the abbreviations used in the Report are listed in Annex-1a).
Dr K. Schnebele (Deputy Director of NOAA) and Dr J. Everett (Head of NOAA Fisheries publications) opened the Meeting and welcomed the participants to NOAA. The structure of NOAA was described including those services of particular interest to the ASFA Advisory Board such as the Library and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Dr Schnebele mentioned the valuable work performed by the ASFA Partners and wished the Board a successful Meeting. Dr G. Barton (NOAA, Environmental Information Services Office), who was, in the past, responsible for NOAA�s participation in ASFA, explained the many information products and services produced and offered by NOAA.
2. ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS
Ms J. Beattie (NOAA) presented this Agenda Item.
3. ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON AND RAPPORTEURS
Ms H. Cameron (DFO) was elected Chairperson of the Board Meeting. Mr R. Pepe (FAO) was appointed Rapporteur and Mr M. Tapaswi (NIO/NICMAS) as assistant Rapporteur.
4. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
The Agenda adopted by the Board is attached as Annex-2, with the following additions:
- 6.1.4 Standard Report elements (to include in Partners Reports)
- 13.3 Proposals underway, pending further discussion and completed.
5. ADOPTION OF THE SUMMARY REPORT OF THE 1998 ASFA ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
The Report of the 1998 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (Rome) was adopted by the Board.
5.1 Matters Arising from the Last (1998) ASFA Advisory Board Meeting
The "Decisions and Actions" agreed by the Participants at the last (1998) ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (ASFA/99/2) were reviewed by the Chair.
The status or action taken for each item (1-76 below) is reported in bold italics directly after that item. Where appropriate, discussions are referred to the appropriate Agenda item in this Report.
(Note: The page numbers referred to in items 1 to 76 refer to the 1998 Board Meeting Report.)
1-3. No action required.
4. PML agreed to contact Mr. Moulder ... regarding ... the paper "ASFA-Challenges and Opportunities after the First 25 Years" before including it on the FAO or IOC Homepages. (pg.5)
� PML reported that the paper could be included on the FAO Homepage as long as clear recognition of the source was indicated.
5. BF agreed to submit a revised table of the Partner�s database statistics, which it tabled at the Meeting, for inclusion in the final report. (pg.6)
� FAO reported that it received the revised table from BF and included it in the 1998 ASFA Board Meeting Report as Annex-34a.
6. No action required.
7. FAO agreed to pursue the recruitment of ASFA Partners in Spain ... .(pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.1 .
8. PML (UK) and IOC agreed to follow up ... potential contacts in Arab countries ... (pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.2..
9. DGB (Mexico) & NOAA (USA) agreed to follow up ... potential ASFA Partner in Brazil(pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.2.
10. FAO agreed to follow up ... regarding an eventual Partner in Ireland. (pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.2.
11. FAO agreed to follow ... request ... received from the Philippines ... (pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.2.
12. PIMRIS agreed to investigate the possible participation of New Zealand in ASFA. (pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.2.
13. IOC agreed to follow up regarding the status of Portugal�s participation in ASFA. (pg.7) - See Agenda item-6.2.2.
14-16. No action required.
17. The Board agreed to suspend the Australian (CSIRO) ASFA National Partner�s entitlements until such time as it resumes input preparation ... (pg.8).
-FAO reported that this was done. It also reported that the entitlements had been re-instated as the Australian ASFA National Partner had resumed its participation in ASFA.
18. The Board requested FAO to notify CSIRO of this decision. (pg.8). - Same as above.
19. FAO (ASFA) agreed to keep the Board informed of the changes decided for AGRIS.(pg.8) - See Agenda item-6.3..
20. FAO agreed to provide CSA with ... new contact in AGRIS, regarding the aquaculture records provided to CSA by AGRIS. (pg.8)
� FAO reported that this was done.
21. Regarding the Publishing Agreement between FAO and CSA .... (pg.8) - See Agenda item-6.5.
22. The Board agreed to establish a Working Group (IOC (Chair), NOAA, CSA, BF, FAO) to review the ASFA Subject Categories ... (pg.9)�See Agenda item-11.
23. The Board agreed that the importance of Internet as a source of information is growing and that a guideline for including material would be useful. (pg.9) � See next Agenda item-7.
24. CSA and NOAA agreed to investigate ways of locating electronic journals .... (pg.9) � See next Agenda item-7.
25. Regarding some core journals appearing in ASFA without abstracts, CSA agreed to consider the preparation of abstracts for the papers contained in these journals ... (pg.9) � See next Agenda item-7.
26-34. No action required.
35. The Board agreed that CSA should allow records to go into the magnetic tape and IDS versions of ASFA as soon as they are processed. (pg.11) � See Agenda item-8.1.1.
36. The Board agreed that Partners would identify core and non core titles on their monitoring lists ... (pg.11) � See Agenda item-7.
37. No action required.
38. Regarding the difficulty in replacing corrected IOC records sent to CSA .... (pg.11) � See Agenda item-8.1.
39-44. No action required.
45. CSA agreed to provide ... an update on ... diacritical marks as regards the ASFA database vendors (CD-ROM producers) which are not able to handle them). (pg.12) � See Agenda item-12.
46. CSA agreed to review the situation of pricing of the ASFA CD-ROM with SilverPlatter and NISC. � See Agenda item-8.1.1.
47. The Board agreed to YugNIRO�s suggestion ... requesting that the Publishers include a statement on the title page declaring that the journal is indexed by ASFA. (pg.12)
� PML reported that they had done this.
48. CSA agreed to investigate ... a yearly poster describing ASFA for distribution to Partners and other users of the ASFA products and services. (pg.12) � See Agenda item-8.3.
49. NOAA suggested that Partners bring all the papers, search guides, etc., that they have prepared on how to search/use ASFA to the next Board Meeting for exchange. (pg.13) - See Agenda item-8.3.
50. No action required.
51. CSA agreed to the FAO proposal to increase distribution of the ASFA information products and services to Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDC) in Africa ... (pg.13) � See Agenda item-8.5.
52. FAO agree to send the list of LIFDC countries to the Partners. (pg.13) � See Agenda item-8.5.
53. The UN ASFA Partners (present at the meeting) agreed to co-ordinate their efforts regarding the identification of recipient institutions. (pg.13) � See Agenda item-8.5.
54. FAO agreed to seek donor funding (to assist in the dissemination of the ASFA products and in the eventual training to use such products in LIFDC) ... (pg.13) � See Agenda item-8.5.
55. No action required.
56. FAO agreed to put the updated ASFA Monitoring List on the ASFA Homepage ... (pg.13) - See Agenda item- 11.
57. FAO agreed to include the current version of the ASFIS-2, Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions on the ASFA Homepage. (pg.14) � See Agenda item-11.
58. CSA reported that it has produced a list of Geographic terms ... (pg.14) � See Agenda item-11.
59. The Board agreed that if a paper being prepared as input for ASFA mentioned a statistical area (e.g., FAO Fishing Area 01 or NAFO Fishing Area) this information should be included as per the examples in the "Identifier" field. FAO agreed to reflect this decision in the Indexing Guidelines. (pg.14) � See Agenda item-11.
60. Regarding the maintenance of the ASFIS-10, Authority List for Corporate Names ... (pg.15) - See Agenda item-11.
61. No action required.
62. CSA agreed to follow up ... capability to handle diacritical marks ... (pg.15) - See Agenda item-12.
63. The Board agreed to the ASFA Trust Fund proposal A systems analysis specification for a Windows-based data entry software (ASFISIS/WIN) (see Annex-47 of 1998 Report). The results of this Trust Fund proposal will constitute the Terms of Reference for the Consultant/s who will develop ASFISIS/WIN. (pg.15) � See Agenda item-9.2.
64. The Board agreed to increase to $10,000 the total of funds for the proposal Supporting attendance to Board Meeting (see Annex-10 of 1998 Report). (pg.15) � See Agenda item-13.3.
65. The Board agreed to delete mandatory requirement "number 2" contained in the Criteria adopted by FAO for using these funds to support attendance at the Board Meeting (see Annex-10 of 1998 Report). Mandatory requirement number 2 states that: "The same ASFA Partner may not request funding more that once every four years". (pg.15) �
- FAO reported that this was done.
66. The Board agreed that a letter should be sent, with the invitation to the next Board Meeting, reminding Partners that funds are available, according to a "Criteria", to support attendance at the ASFA Board Meeting ... (pg.15) � See Agenda item-13.3.
67. The Board agreed to the proposal Support to ASFA Secretariat for 1999 ... (pg.16) � See Agenda item-13.3.
68. The proposal Maintenance of ASFIS-6 Thesaurus ... was postponed ... (pg.16)�See Agenda item-13.3.
69. Regarding the proposal Conversion of ASFA Printed journals into machine readable format ... (pg.16) � See Agenda item-13.3.
70. Regarding the proposal Creating a master ASFA Database (No written proposal) BF and FAO agreed to finalise the details of this proposal which has been approved in principle by the Board. The proposal would result in a master file (1975 to present) being created by BF .... This file would be made available to the ASFA Partners ... . The ASFA Trust Fund would provide BF with $ 15 000 to buy computer equipment which would assist in the creation of the Master File. (pg.16) � See Agenda item-13.3.
71. The Board agreed to the proposal Extension of ASFA Potential in Lithuania ... (pg.16) � See Agenda item-13.3.
72. The Board agreed to the UK proposal. The Coverage of Fishery Economics and Related Subjects in ASFA ... (see Annex-22 of 1998 Report). (pg.16) � See Agenda item-13.3.
73. NOAA offered to host the next ASFA Advisory Board Meeting in Washington DC (USA) in May 1999.(pg.17) - Done
74. NIO offered to host the Meeting in Goa, India the following year (2000). (pg.17) � See Agenda item-15.
75. France (IFREMER) offered to host the Meeting at Brest in 2001. (pg.17) � No action required.
76. Sweden (IMR) offered to host the Meeting in 2002. (pg.17) � No action required.
6. STATUS OF ASFA PARTNERSHIP
6.1 Report on Intersessional Activities of the ASFA Partners
6.1.1 United Nations Co-sponsors
6.1.1.1 FAO - Dr Grainger presented the FAO Report (Annex-3). He stated that as the number of ASFA Partners grows, the FAO role in ASFA would increasingly favour the development and support aspects of the system rather than the preparation of records. He also mentioned the negotiations between CSA and FAO regarding the new Publishing Agreement and informed the Meeting that FAO would be seeking their adoption, in principle, of the Agreement during this Meeting under Agenda item-6.5.
Aspects of the FAO information system (FIGIS) were clarified, e.g., FIGIS will be available on the Internet, and FIGIS is not a replacement for Globefish.
Dr Cort (FAO) noted that as the Partnership grew in number it created increasing responsibilities and workload for the ASFA Secretariat and requested ideas from the Partnership as to how the Secretariat might deal with the situation.
6.1.1.2 IOC - Mr Pissierssens presented the IOC Report (Annex-4). With regard to the corrected IOC records in the database, Dr Kirchner (BF) noted that such corrected records could not be incorporated retroactively in all of the ASFA products, and this would create a number of "different" ASFA databases.
6.1.1.3 UN/DOALOS - Mr Gruszka presented the UN/DOALOS Report (Annex-5).
6.1.1.4 UNEP - (not present, no Report submitted) � FAO reported that UNEP was restructuring and undergoing staff changes, and therefore contact with UNEP regarding ASFA was interrupted. FAO agreed to follow up on the status of UNEP�s participation in ASFA.
6.1.2 ASFA Partners
6.1.2.1 Argentina (INIDEP) - (not present, Report submitted) (Annex-10).
6.1.2.2 Australia (CSIRO) - (not present, Report submitted) (Annex-11).
6.1.2.3 Canada (NRC) - Ms Cameron presented the DFO Report (Annex-12).
6.1.2.4 Chile (IFOP) - (not present, Report submitted) (Annex-13).
6.1.2.5 China (NMDIS) - Mr Yang Ying presented the NMDIS Report (Annex-14).
6.1.2.6 Cuba (CIP) - Ms Marisela Ceballos presented the report for Cuba and Mr Cort (FAO) provided translation (Annex-15).
6.1.2.7 Estonia (EMI) - Ms Kalenchits presented the Report for EMI (Annex-16).
6.1.2.8 France (IFREMER) - Ms Prod'homme presented the IFREMER Report (Annex-17). The Chair noted the important issues and marked them for further discussion: missing records in database vs CD-ROM (Agenda item-7), ASFA CD-ROMs for publicity purposes (Agenda item-8.4), and Entitlements (8.4).
IFREMER was congratulated on its publicity efforts regarding ASFA in France which also resulted in new subscriptions to the product.
6.1.2.9 Germany (BF) - Dr Kirchner presented the BF Report (Annex-18) and a table of database statistics regarding Partners' input and its appearance on the ASFA database.
CSA noted that the BF statistics did not match their statistics. BF and CSA agreed to investigate the discrepancies.
In reply to BF�s request for an ASFA production quality control system on the Internet, CSA mentioned its "Web Display of ASFA Contributions" which is a means for Partners having Web access to monitor the status of records submitted to CSA (see CSA Report Annex-34).
Although the Baltic or Helcom database may be suspended, the possibilities of using the Baltic Seaweb map to search and/or advertise the ASFA database on the Web was discussed. As an advertising mechanism, the retrieved ASFA records could be made to contain only partial citation information (with pointers to information available in ASFA).
BF emphasized the need for an ASFA database which is timely and accurate and suggested that future ASFA Trust Fund proposals be designed to address specific problems, so as to result in a direct improvement to the ASFA database. In this regard, BF mentioned its $15,000 Trust Fund proposal to clean up the ASFA database (1975 to present) of errors and then to provide to FAO, who is the owner of the ASFA database on behalf of the ASFA Partners, a clean copy of the entire database (for distribution to the ASFA Partners).
6.1.2.10 Greece (NCMR) - Ms Goulala, presented the NCMR Report (Annex-19).
6.1.2.11 ICES � Ms Ovens presented the Report for ICES (Annex-6).
6.1.2.12 ICLARM and IUCN - (not present, Reports submitted) (as Annexes-7 and 8, respectively).
6.1.2.13 India (NIO/NICMAS) - Mr Tapaswi presented the NIO Report (Annex-20). It was noted that the method used by NIO to stop entitlements to one of its sub-centres, which was not providing input, was the same as that for National Partners (see procedure described in last year's Report-page 33 of Annex-2).
Regarding the Indian Ocean bibliography, some Partners queried the overlap with ASFA. NIO reported that although the overlap was inevitable, the database contains unique records as it is not limited chronologically.
6.1.2.14 Japan- (not present, Reports submitted) (Annex-21).
6.1.2.15 Kenya (KMFRI) � Mr Odido presented the KMFRI Report (Annex-23).
6.1.2.16 Lithuania � Ms Kargaudaite presented the Ichthyobank Report (Annex-22).
6.1.2.17 Mexico (DGB) � (not present, Report submitted) (Annex-24).
6.1.2.18 Norway (IMR) � Mr Bjoerke presented the IMR Report (Annex-25).
6.1.2.19 PIMRIS � Mr Rao presented the report for PIMRIS (Annex-9).
6.1.2.20 Poland (SFI) � Ms Brzeska presented the SFI Report (Annex-26).
6.1.2.21 Portugal (IPIMAR) - (not present, Report submitted) (Annex-27).
6.1.2.22 Russia (VNIRO) � (not present, Report submitted) (Annex-28).
6.1.2.23 Spain (IEO) � Mr Cort presented the Report on behalf of IEO (Annex-29).
6.1.2.24 Sweden (IMR) - Dr Oresland presented the IMR Report (Annex-30). He noted that the number of Swedish journals available to IMR for input purposes has decreased because Swedish scientists prefer to publish in foreign journals. IMR is monitoring the Swedish grey literature (Reports, thesis etc.), concentrating its efforts on Doctoral Theses.
6.1.2.25 Ukraine (YugNIRO) - Dr Romanov presented the YugNIRO Report (Annex-31).
6.1.2.26 United Kingdom (PML) - Ms Noble presented the PML Report (Annex-32).
6.1.2.27 USA (NOAA) - Ms Beattie presented the NOAA Report (Annex-33). She noted the high percentage of electronic publications which disappear from the Web after a certain period of time. The Partners recognised this as an issue for discussion under Agenda item-7.
6.1.2.28 ASFA PUBLISHER (CSA) - Ms Hitti presented the CSA Report (Annex-34). She addressed some of the concerns expressed by Partners during the presentation of their Reports. Regarding the problem of timeliness, reference was made to the "Recent References" service available on the CSA Web site, and regarding the problem of logging Partner�s input, the "Web display of Partner's input" was mentioned. Dr Emerson demonstrated this utility to Partners.
6.1.3 Others
6.1.3.1 NISC � Ms Crampton presented a report for NISC (Annex-42). NISC agreed to supply all ASFA Partners (on demand) with a free one month trial subscription to the NISC CD-ROM products containing ASFA and/or the access to the NISC Web site.
6.1.4 Standard Report Elements (to include in Partners' Reports) The Board agreed that the following information should be considered for inclusion, when relevant, in all Partners' Reports:
1. Complete institute name and address information.
2. Board Member and input staff names.
3. Input statistics.
4. Distribution list for complimentary ASFA entitlements.
5. Usefulness of ASFA products to your users (e.g., some user feed back on ASFA products).
6. Changes to monitoring list information (e.g., titles added, deleted, modified).
7. Problems, and
8. ideas for development of and improvements to ASFA, including trust fund proposals.
Reports should be kept to one or two pages. However, Partners with sub-centres, CSA and the ASFA Secretariat (FAO) would probably have longer reports.
6.2 New and Potential ASFA Partners
6.2.1 Admission of New Partners
Four new ASFA Partners, Bulgaria, Italy, Morocco, and Spain were welcomed into the ASFA Partnership.
Spain has been trained in the ASFA input methodology and is already operative (i.e., submitting input). Italy is waiting anxiously to be trained as is Morocco. See FAO Report (Annex-3) for full names of Institutes.6.2.2 Consideration of Potential Partners
a) Arab Countries � at the last Board Meeting: "PML (UK) and IOC agreed to follow up on identifying potential contacts in Arab countries visited by David Moulder". No action.
b) Brazil � at the last Board Meeting: "DGB (Mexico) and NOAA (USA) agreed to follow up on identifying a potential ASFA Partner in Brazil".
- NOAA reported that it had lost the contact but would continue its efforts to identify a potential partner.
c) Ireland � at the last Board Meeting: "FAO agreed to follow up on a contact provided by BF regarding an eventual Partner in Ireland". No action.
d) Philippines � at the last Board Meeting: "FAO agreed to follow up on a request that it received from the Philippines Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development".
- FAO reported that it had discussed the matter with an expert from the Region and decided that the organisation may not be the best suited choice.
e) PIMRIS agreed, at last the Meeting, to investigate the possible participation of New Zealand in ASFA.
- PIMRIS tabled a report (Annex-9a) regarding the possible participation in ASFA of the National Institute of Research and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand. FAO agreed to follow up on this matter.
f) Portugal (existing National Partner) � at the last Board Meeting IOC agreed to follow up on the status of Portugal�s participation in ASFA.
- Both IOC and FAO reported difficulties in establishing contacts with this ASFA Partner. FAO made contact a few months ago and found high interest in resuming participation in ASFA, but there were staff problems and problems in submitting input in machine readable format. FAO offered to convert (key) paper input from Portugal for a short period until they could be trained in ASFISIS input methodology. FAO agreed to continue following up on the status of Portugal�s participation in ASFA.
g) Korea � FAO reported that it had hired a consultant to identify an ASFA input centre in Korea considering that Korea is one of the major fishing nations in the world.
h) CPPS (Permanent South Pacific Commission) � FAO reported that this Commission would be approached as a possible regional ASFA Partner for Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. At any rate, Peru is willing to become a Partner. Discussion will take place with CPPS and Peru to try and find a solution.
i) West Africa � IOC mentioned recent efforts in West Africa (RECOSCIX-CEA) to establish information systems and networks and their eventual adherence to ASFA. One of the centres (Côte d�Ivoire) has already made some first attempts to establish contacts with FAO regarding ASFA.
j) SIPAM (Information System for Promotion of Aquaculture in Mediterranean) - The Regional Centre in Tunisia has hired a documentalist and computer specialist. The documentalist will be trained in the ASFA input methodology in the near future.
Recruitment of New Partners
Considerable discussion followed regarding the need for a strategy for recruiting new ASFA Partners.
IOC suggested identifying the material (e.g., journals, books etc.) missing from ASFA and then recruiting a Partner who could cover such materials. The Partner could be a Regional rather than a National Partner.
The problem of input quality in relation to number of input produced per year was discussed. When a centre produces a small number of records, it is difficult to remember and apply the many ASFA rules and procedures for input preparation. It was suggested that Partners having little input might be made to take on the monitoring of Partners with too much input. The Board agreed that this might be considered but only on a voluntary basis.
The Board agreed on the need for a strategy to increase the coverage of ASFA, but not on the need for a criteria for joining ASFA, because this was already discussed and agreed at the last ASFA Board Meeting. FAO and IOC agreed to work on such a strategy.
6.3 Cooperation with AGRIS
Cooperation between ASFA and AGRIS continued. Regarding the aquaculture records provided to CSA by AGRIS, AGRIS agreed to provide these records under the condition that CSA made them available to users free of charge. The AGRIS aquaculture records will appear as a separate file on CSA�s IDS. NISC continues to include this file on their Aquatic Biology, Aquaculture and Fisheries Resources CD-ROM.
Regarding the development and maintenance of an input and retrieval system to replace the DOS based ASFISIS, ASFA and AGRIS have agreed to investigate the possibility of co-operating in the design of the system and in the sharing of the development costs. See Agenda item-9.
6.4 ASFA Partnership Agreement
FAO noted that the Partnership Agreement (signed by all Partners) and the Publishing Agreement (signed by CSA and FAO) were linked because of the cross references which existed between the two documents. The Partnership Agreement will refer to the new Publishing Agreement as of 1 January 2000.
6.5 ASFA Publishing Agreement
This Agenda item was preceded by a demonstration by Mr McGinty (president of CSA) of the ASFA Internet Database Service (IDS), which is being offered by CSA as a new minimum (and additional entitlement) under the revised Publishing Agreement between CSA and FAO. Mr McGinty showed a number of new features such as: "Recent References", " Web Resources", and "Full Text Linking" (see the CSA Report for details on these features, Annex-34).
The Board thanked Mr McGinty for the demonstration which was very well received.
Dr Grainger (FAO) presented the ASFA Board with background and summary information regarding the negotiations which had taken place between CSA and FAO to renew the ASFA Publishing Agreement (which expires at the end of this year). FAO�s negotiating position was based on obtaining three points: to secure an effective and sustainable mechanism for the dissemination of the ASFA database; to increase the potential of the UN ASFA co-sponsoring Partners to disseminate the database in developing countries; and to increase the Royalties for further development of ASFA. He mentioned offers from other publishers to produce ASFA, and FAO�s decision to develop an improved arrangement with the present publisher.
During the intersessional period, the first draft of the Agreement was reviewed by FAO Legal Counsel, FAO Sales and Marketing Service, and the working group (Ms Cameron, Ms Noble, and Ms Beattie) that was nominated at the last ASFA Board Meeting to assist FAO in negotiating the Agreement.
Dr Grainger noted that the main discussion between CSA and FAO concerned paragraph 5 (Entitlements), paragraph 6 (Royalties) and Distribution rights (i.e., the possibility of FAO becoming a sales outlet for the ASFA products). FAO tabled a document containing paragraphs 5, 6 and Exhibit-F (Annex-35) and requested the Board to accept the Agreement in principle. The changes to the remainder of the Agreement were not substantive and consisted of editorial changes, and updating of outdated parts.
Dr Grainger reviewed the changes in paragraphs 5, 6, and Exhibit-F of the Publishing Agreement that had been negotiated between CSA and FAO.
Entitlements - under the new Publishing Agreement, all of the ASFA Partners will have the right to the following entitlements:
- Basic Minimum Entitlement - All Partners, contributing from 1 to 250 records, will receive:
- One single user SilverPlatter ASFA CD-ROM.
- One set of the ASFA journals (ASFA-1, 2, 3, Aquaculture Abstracts and Marine Biotechnology Abstracts).
- One subscription to the ASFA Internet Database Service (which includes unlimited access to an institution and no simultaneous user restrictions within the Partner's organization).
Note: If a Partner does not have internet connectivity, it may opt for another CD-ROM in place of the Internet Database Service.
- Additional Entitlements begin to accrue after the first 250 records. For the purpose of calculating these additional entitlements, the value of the ASFA products has been defined in terms of numbers of ASFA records (see Exhibit-F of the Publishing Agreement). For example, a full set of the ASFA journals is valued at 165 records and an ASFA CD-ROM is valued at 250 records. This approach to determining entitlements (i.e. linking the number of records to the "purchase price" of products) protects the purchasing power of Partners input.
Referring to paragraph 5.4h and the use of the database by Partners, the terms have not changed with regard to the previous Agreement. However, the UN Co-sponsoring Partners may now use the ASFA database in their systems and on the Internet to provide services to their constituents in developing countries.
Therefore, the basic minimum entitlement represents a substantial gain over the previous Agreement for all Partners, and the "terms for use" of the database by the UN co-sponsoring Partners have broadened.
Royalties
Mr Sutton introduced paragraph 6 of the Publishing Agreement (Royalties). He referred to the principles contained in paragraph 6.1 as the basis of FAO�s negotiating position.
In general, the Royalty paid by CSA (which goes into the ASFA Trust Fund) will increase from 5% to 10%.
For the ASFA CD-ROM, the Royalty will increase from 5% to 10%. Unlike the last Agreement, there will be no reduction in the Royalty for the first US$ 100 000 of sales since CSA has now recouped development costs for the CD-ROM product).
For the ASFA journals the Royalty will increase from 5% to 10 % following the sale of the first 100 of each product. The reason the Royalty starts to accrue after the sale of the first 100 units of each product is because the distribution costs continue to be high.
The charging for online database use is no longer based on connect hour because of the change in charging practices by online vendors. The Royalty is 10% of revenues derived from online services to non-domestic users.
For the Internet Database Service, the Royalty payment is 5% of net revenues for the first
US$ 335 000 (to allow CSA to recoup development costs) and 10% of net revenues derived thereafter.With this new Royalty schedule, contributions to the ASFA Trust Fund are expected to be well in excess of US$ 100 000 for the year 2000 payment compared to this year�s (1998) payment of US$ 80 000).
There was discussion on the following points:
- IOC expressed its appreciation for the flexibility of the Agreement with regard to making ASFA available to developing countries but called on the Partners to use this flexibility in a balanced manner, keeping in mind the sustainability of the product and the Partnership.
- In the Agreement, usage of the ASFA database by the UN Partners makes reference to "developing" and "Low Income Food Deficit Countries". The UN Partners agreed to produce a new Exhibit to the Agreement defining the above terms and establishing a list of countries to which the Agreement may make reference. PIMRIS requested that Independent and Pacific Island Countries be included in the List, since many fall under Low Income Developing Countries, but not necessarily Food Deficit.
Regarding the IDS service as part of the minimum entitlement and the reference to "multiple-simultaneous access" at a "single site", Partners requested clarification on the meaning of the terms "single site" and "organization". In other words, to what extent could a Partner distribute its ASFA database entitlement to units of the same organization via the Intranet. CSA stated that usually a site consisted of one or more buildings in vicinity to each other, however there could be exceptions in which buildings were widely separated, but this would depend on the degree of usage of each of the separate units and/or the economic status of the organization (i.e. located in a developed or developing country). The Partners requested that definition of Organization be inserted in the Agreement. FAO and CSA agreed to follow up.
- Regarding the use of the IDS service in Africa, and the requirement to identify registered users by their IP address, IOC stated that Internet access in many developing countries is through private Internet service providers via dynamic Internet Provider (IP) addresses. In this case, CSA agreed to find a way around this problem such as possibly opening its site to such a user (i.e., without a static IP) from a designated country, based on the country suffix contained in their address.
- Regarding additional entitlements, some Partners requested a mechanism which would allow them to acquire additional entitlements even when they did not have the full required number of records to acquire the entitlement (i.e. by making up the difference through payment). CSA suggested that the Partner make every effort to earn the additional entitlement by completing the required number of records. However, CSA agreed that some negotiation would be possible.
- Regarding Exhibit-F, FAO and CSA agreed to add the missing entitlement line:
" ___ records equals one 1-4 user network SilverPlatter CD-ROM 1988-present" and to correct the typographical error in the second item (ii) which should read: " 1988-present".- Regarding the minimum and additional entitlements, Ms Crampton (NISC) would like to be able to provide "semi-complimentary" copies of the NISC ASFA CD-ROMs as entitlements. Partners would only pay for those records not of ASFA origin. NISC stated that this offer would only be possible if CSA agreed to renounce on the Royalty that it receives from NISC for use of the ASFA database in their CD-ROM. The Board agreed that if there was adequate Partner interest in the NISC product and provided CSA and NISC could reach an agreement on the question of Royalty, then the FAO should proceed in adding the NISC CD-ROM product to the list of minimum entitlements contained in Exhibit-F.
NISC offered free, one month evaluation of the NISC products. Partners are to contact NISC to arrange for receipt of the products directly and to notify the Secretariat by 30 September 1999 of their interest in obtaining NISC discs as entitlements.
The Board voted unanimously to accept in principle the Publishing Agreement between CSA and FAO for 2000-2003 (four years).
7. ASFA SCOPE, COVERAGE, MONITORING AND TIMELINESS
The Chair introduced this Agenda item by referring to action items 24, 25, 36 from last year's Board Meeting:
24. CSA and NOAA agreed to investigate ways of locating electronic journals and other information sources on the Internet and means for including the records in ASFA. A draft of their recommendations will be circulated to Partners via ASFA-Board-L. (pg.9).
CSA tabled a paper entitled "Locating & Citing Electronic Journals from the Web" (ASFA/99/48) as a basis for discussions. CSA agreed to send it to Partners via the ASFA-Board-L Listserv, and the Partners agreed to make comments by the end of September 1999. A working Group was established (CSA, NOAA, BF) to consider the matter during the intersessional period.
25. Regarding some core journals appearing in ASFA without abstracts, CSA agreed to consider the preparation of abstracts for the papers contained in these journals to conform to the ASFA policy which requires abstracts for most records (particularly for core aquatic science publications). (pg.9).
CSA reported that it was doing this.
36. The Board agreed that Partners would identify core and non core titles on their monitoring list in their responses to Ms Wibley�s study. FAO stated that it would add a field to the master file to indicate core and non-core titles. (pg.11).
The Board agreed to continue to send such core titles to FAO.
Regarding the discrepancy between the input statistics reported in the BF Report and CSA�s records, BF agreed to send an explanation concerning the discrepancies for inclusion in the final Report.
Regarding the discrepancies (i.e., missing records) reported by IFREMER between the ASFA CD-ROM and the ASFA tapes for the years 1992 and 1994, CSA did not know the reason for the discrepancies. CSA agreed to investigate the matter and when possible to rectify the matter when the tapes were reloaded and the CD-ROM was remastered.
Regarding the input of documents within the scope of ASFA, but published in journals which were outside the scope of ASFA (e.g., a fisheries paper appearing in a sociology journal), CSA agreed to search Sociology Abstracts to get an idea of the number of records and quality that are involved in such an exercise. Partners were encouraged to adopt a similar strategy wherever possible.
8. ASFA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
8.1 Quality of Outputs
8.1.1 ASFA Journals, CD-ROM and Database (see Annex-40 for list of 1999 prices)
The Chair introduced this Agenda item by referring to action items 35, 38, 1 from last year's Board Meeting:
35. The Board agreed that CSA should allow records to go into the magnetic tape and IDS versions of ASFA as soon as they are processed. (pg.11 of last year�s Board Meeting).
CSA reported that this was done.
38. Regarding the difficulty in replacing corrected IOC records sent to CSA, CSA has agreed to replace these records now that Ms Wibley has supplied the accession numbers. (pg.11 of last year�s Board Meeting).
CSA reported that this was done.
1. CSA agreed to review the situation of pricing of the ASFA CD-ROM with SilverPlatter and NISC.
CSA reported that it had investigated the matter and that SilverPlatter was still offering the stand alone version of the ASFA database in Germany and that the pricing of the 1-4 network user version would be phased in over a three year period. BF mentioned dissatisfaction with the SilverPlatter marketing in Germany. CSA agreed to follow up on this complaint.
Regarding the CD-ROM delivery schedule, CSA agreed to post the schedule on their Web site.
Dr Romanov (YugNIRO) tabled a paper regarding the representation of special characters in the ASFA products (Annex-44). He did not feel that complex equations were easily understood when read on the CD-ROM. He suggested that ways to simplify these equations be discussed.
BF suggested use of UNICODE or HTML to represent special characters, and CSA agreed to investigate the use of HTML.
Regarding the use of diacritical marks, CSA reported again that the ASFA CD-ROM producer and Dialog were not in a position to publish diacritical marks. NISC mentioned that the NISC CD-ROM did accommodate the diacritical marks. In the mean time, Partners may, if they desire, submit their input to CSA with diacritical marks.
Regarding the desire of CSA to produce the ASFA tapes in Dialog B format instead of ISO 2709, CSA agreed to move cautiously on this matter and not without the consent of the ASFA Partners since ISO2709 format is an international exchange format. CSA agreed to prepare a study comparing the two formats, and circulate it to Partners.
8.2 New Outputs and Services
BF reported on its copy of the ASFA database (1975-present) now mounted on the ZADI Web site. BF would like to make this database available to all Partners for searching, for example, to produce statistics on ASFA database content.
CSA expressed concern that it would jeopardise its Internet Service and therefore preferred that BF did the searches for Partners only when requested.
FAO suggested that Partners think of ways to utilize the BF database creatively. DFO suggested one such use could be to create thesaurus term frequency lists.
Regarding the Guidelines for selection of material for input to ASFA (Scope, Coverage, Monitoring) which was included as Annex-2 of the 1998 Board Meeting Report, the Board agreed that FAO should circulate these Guidelines to Partners so that they could assist in its completion.
FAO suggested a directory of ASFA Partners which would provide information about each Partner, including resources and expertise that could be shared. NOAA suggested that their Directory of NOAA libraries be used as a model for the ASFA Directory.
8.3 Public Relations Activities and Marketing
PML requested from CSA customer information regarding ASFA CD-ROM subscribers in the UK. PML would use this information to direct requestors external to PML to local institutes where they would have more convenient access to ASFA. CSA agreed to provide the subscriber information, but only on a case by case basis noting the proprietary nature of this information.
8.4 Partner Entitlements
Discussions were limited under this item, because the matter was included in the discussion of the Publishing Agreement.
Regarding the request by IFREMER for additional free ASFA CD-ROMS (beyond its free entitlement) for installation aboard French research vessels for publicity purposes, the Board agreed that additional free copies could not be made available to IFREMER for this purpose.
Regarding the trading of entitlements between Partners, the Partners agreed to respect the terms of the Publishing Agreement which prohibits such exchanges.
8.5 Increasing Distribution of ASFA Information Products and Services
FAO presented a brief summary of the Report by Ms Cochrane (Annex-41) which describes the progress of the project to supply CD-ROMs to institutes in the Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDC) of Africa which was introduced at last year�s Board Meeting.
To date, ten [18 as of 28 June 1999] Institutes have been identified. The consultant, in collaboration with IOC, will now concentrate on contacting those Institutes which did not respond to FAO�s first letter and questionnaire.
9. PROGRESS WITH MACHINE READABLE INPUT
Mr Pissierssens presented a demonstration of "ASFAmaker" which is based on Filemaker Pro, an inexpensive, easy to master, off-the-shelf database management software for creating, storing, and searching records in the Windows environment. The rational behind the introduction of this alternative solution to CDS-ISIS was the uncertain future of the DOS based CDS-ISIS and the steep learning curve necessary to master the CDS/ISIS software and the application software programming.
Although the FAO systems analyst was not present at the Board Meeting, FAO provided a brief summary of the planned co-operation with AGRIS in the development of a joint software interface for data input and querying.
The Board discussed the feasibility of one standardized software for ASFA input or various software input options. Most of the Board Members were of the opinion that a one software solution would be more manageable and would provide a common point of reference for the Partners. Regardless of the choice of software, the inclusion of verification utilities was considered essential.
A brief survey of the Meeting participants showed that a majority of them use ASFISIS for ASFA input , as well as CDS/ISIS for library and database management.
The Board recommended that FAO continue its talks with AGRIS regarding the joint software project. FAO agreed to provide the Board with more precise and detailed information. The Board also recommended that the option for ASFAmaker be kept open.
The Board agreed that the Partners should continue using the ASFISIS (release-3) for the short term (i.e., next three years).
FAO agreed to investigate the inclusion in ASFISIS (release-3) of the spell checker which has already been prepared by Dr DeSmet.
10. REPORT ON ASFA TRAINING ACTIVITIES
Four training sessions were held by FAO during the Intersessional period. They are briefly described in section 11 of the FAO Report which is contained in Annex-3.
During 1999, FAO will train Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, and perhaps Bulgaria.
FAO again mentioned the problem of an increased workload on the ASFA Secretariat as the Partnership grows. Should extra-budgetary funds become available, they could be used to organize special workshops or training courses to improve input quality which would decrease the editorial workload of the ASFA Secretariat.
11. STATUS OF ASFIS REFERENCE SERIES PUBLICATIONS
11.1 ASFIS-1, Serials Monitored for the ASFIS Bibliographic Database
FAO reported that Ms Lombardi was still maintaining this file and that she relied on the input of Partners.
FAO announced that the complete, updated ASFA Monitoring List (in text format) is now available for viewing or downloading on the ASFA Homepage [note: since this Meeting, the ASFA Monitoring List is also available on the ASFA Homepage, in ISO2709 format, for downloading and importing into the ASFISIS (release-3) software, so as to replace the existing superseded list].
11.2 ASFIS-2, Subject Categories and Scope Descriptions
The intersessional Working Group (IOC, NOAA, FAO, CSA, BF) which was established at the last ASFA Board Meeting to investigate the need for new categories and the elimination of unused categories reported no action. The Board agreed to maintain the Group with NOAA as the Chair.
11.3 ASFIS-3, Guidelines for Bibliographic Description
Revised during the 1997-98 intersessional period by Ms Lombardi and Ms Wibley, these Guidelines were distributed together with the ASFISIS (release-3) software. The Board thanked Ms Lombardi and Ms Wibley for their efforts.
11.4 ASFIS-4, Guidelines for Abstracting
11.5 ASFIS-5, Guidelines for Indexing
FAO reported that both of these Guidelines have still not been finalized although an "update sheet" was issued with the ASFISIS (release-3) software.
11.6 ASFIS-6, Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus
FAO reported that the revised ASFA Thesaurus had finally been released in the form of a pick-list with the ASFISIS (release-3) software.
Ms Cameron led the discussions on outstanding Thesaurus issues: printing, translation, and maintenance.
Printing
Ms Cameron explained that it was not possible to print the Thesaurus with a full hierarchical display using the OECD thesaurus maintenance software. She distributed a sample page of the "top term format" and explained the display. The Board preferred the " one level" display. Ms Cameron agreed to contact the Thesaurus consultant for a sample listing of possible display formats. These formats will be circulated to Partners for choice. Once a print format is chosen, FAO agreed to print copies for Partners' use. When the Thesaurus has been fully tested, CSA agreed to make an offer regarding the final bulk printing.
Translation
Some Board Members were in favour of translating the Thesaurus. However, the problems of maintaining a multilingual thesaurus were also recognised as perhaps being beyond the means of the ASFA group in terms of expertise, time, money and effort. CSA agreed to report to the Board the results of a project now underway for the translation of an in-house authority list into Spanish by a commercial company.
NISC is investigating the translation of the Thesaurus in Spanish.
In any case, any eventual translation must await a stable English version.
Maintenance
Ms Cameron agreed to co-ordinate Partners comments regarding the new Thesaurus and the Thesaurus Committee was revived (DFO, CSA, FAO, BF, IFREMER).
11.7 ASFIS-7, Geographic Authority List
CSA has finished revising the list of geographic terms contained in three years of annual ASFA geographic indexes. Not all of the ASFA Partners have replied to the CSA request, made at last year's Board Meeting, for comments on the terms related to their countries or seas. CSA will send the list to FAO, who will then distribute it to Partners for inclusion in the ASFISIS picklist.
Much discussion followed on the need to make the pick-list either thesaurus-like or searchable in ASFISIS (release-3). FAO agreed to investigate the matter.
BF mentioned the BalticSeaWeb thesaurus of geographical terms and the possibility of requesting the list in machine readable format for use or incorporation into the ASFA Geographical List. The Board agreed that BF should request this list and permission to use it from the Baltic Commission. However, ASFA would be under no obligation to adopt the format.
11.8 ASFIS-8, Taxonomic Authority List
The list of FAO Standard Common Names and Scientific Names of Commercial Species is included as a pick-list in the ASFISIS (release-3) software. Partners were requested for their comments.
11.9 ASFIS-9, Database User Guide
No action reported.
11.10 ASFIS-10, Authority List for Corporate Names
CSA reported that it sent the updated list to FAO in February-March. FAO agreed to investigate the status of the List which is now with Dr DeSmet for conversion from text file into ISO2709 format . When the list is ready for inclusion in the ASFISIS (release-3) software it will be sent to Partners.
11.11 ASFIS-11, Magnetic Tape Specifications and Record Format
CSA agreed to update this publication and to provide side-by-side comparison of the ISO2709 exchange format and the Dialog B format.
12. EXPANDED LANGUAGE CAPABILITY IN ASFA
FAO reported that starting with ASFISIS (release-3) it was now possible to submit two abstracts, one English and one non-English, to CSA for inclusion in the ASFA database. However, only the English abstract will appear in the printed journal. Although the possibility of submitting only a non English abstract exists, Partners are strongly recommended to include an English abstract.
CSA agreed to monitor and report at the next Board Meeting the number of records with only non-English abstracts.
13. ASFA TRUST FUND
13.1 Status of the ASFA Trust Fund
FAO introduced this agenda item and reviewed the information contained in Annex-38. The balance in the Trust Fund account is US$ 174 494.51. CSA deposited US$ 80 003.75 in Royalties for 1998 and BF deposited US$ 86.00. See Annex-37 for calculation of CSA Royalty payment.
13.2 New Proposals
The Board discussed the following proposals:
13.2.1 (FAO proposal) Staff Support to ASFA Secretariat
The Board agreed to this proposal (Annex-39) for the period January 2000 to December 2000. The Board agreed to increase the proposal by US$ 5 000 to US$ 31 460 FAO agreed to amend the wording of item 4 of the "terms of reference" to read: "Assisting in the development/testing of emerging input software".
The Board agreed that the proposal will be reviewed at the next Meeting for the year 2001.
13.2.2 (BF proposal) Improvement of the ASFA Database
The Board agreed to this proposal (Annex-18a) to clean the entire ASFA database of duplicate records, systematic errors, misspelt descriptors etc. FAO would receive a copy of the entire edited (cleaned) database. CSA requested a copy of this file for inclusion in its Internet Database Service. The file would also be made available for remastering the ASFA CD-ROM and reloading the ASFA database. The proposal is for up to US$ 15 000
13.2.3 Request for Training from Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (RECOSCIX-WIO)
The Board agreed to this proposal in principle. FAO and Kenya agreed to draft the terms and costs of the proposal for submission to the Board for approval via ASFA Board-L.
13.3 Proposals underway, pending further discussion, and completed
13.3.1 Chinese proposal sub-project-1, Identification of ASFA information users and suppliers in China (see Annex-9 of 1994 ASFA Board Report)
Mr Yang Ying tabled the completed Directory. The formal publication of the Directory will take place the end of the year. All Partners will then receive a copy. FAO agreed to proceed with the payment for this proposal.
The Directory is also available electronically online as part of the IOC�s GLODIR (Global Directory of Marine and Freshwater professionals) at URL address (http://ioc.unesco.org:591/glodir). IOC thanked China for allowing IOC to make the Directory available through GLODIR.
13.3.2 A Systems Analysis Specification for a Windows-based Data Entry Software
Although this proposal (see Annex-42 of 1998 Board Report) was approved, no contract was signed to carryout the work. Dr DeSmet felt that there was uncertainty concerning the platform for the development of the next version of ASFISIS (i.e., Windows-DLL based WEB-based) and that this issue needed resolution before the systems analysis specification could be done. The Board agreed to suspend this proposal and return the funds (US$ 10 000) to the Trust Fund Balance. See Agenda item-9 and FAO Report (Annex-3, pg.10) for discussions regarding this matter.
13.3.3 Supporting Attendance to Board Meeting (see Annex-7 of 1998 Board Report)
The Board agreed to increase the total for this for this proposal to US$ 15 000 for the year 2000 Meeting.
13.3.4 Conversion of ASFA Printed journals into machine readable format... (see Annex-11 of 1998 Board Report)
The Board agreed to the proposal to convert the 1971-1974 ASFA printed journals into machine readable format. The Board agreed that NIO shall carry out the work to convert the 1974 journals, which will consist of keying the bibliographic citations and the abstracts. The indexing terms will not, at this time, be converted. The proposal is for US$ 15 000.
With the experience gained from this exercise, next year it is envisaged that the Chinese ASFA Partner shall carry out the same work for the 1973 printed journal.
Regarding the inclusion of the indexing terms, BF agreed to investigate the possibility of scanning the annual indexes. CSA could then compare these terms against the ASFA Thesaurus terms to identify valid descriptors and the remaining terms would be designated as identifiers. Finally, the indexing terms and the identifiers could be merged with the parent bibliographic citation and abstract via the corresponding abstract numbers.
Regarding the inclusion of the abstracts in the ASFA machine readable records for the years 1975-1977 (about 45 000 records), CSA and the Chinese Partner agreed to investigate the possibility of keyboarding this material offshore (i.e., outside the USA) and to notify the ASFA Secretariat.
13.3.5 - Extension of ASFA Potential in Lithuania (see 1998 Board Report, Annex-16A) - Completed.
13.3.6 (UK) The Coverage of Fishery Economics and Related Subjects in ASFA ... (Annex-18 of 1998 Board Report)
PML reported that progress was underway (e.g., questionnaires have been sent out to experts in the field, databases were being searched). A report on the results of the project is foreseen for August.
13.3.7 (Ukraine) Provision of ASFA Centres in former USSR with reference material for input
This proposal was for the translation into Russian of the ASFA Guidelines. Originally, budgeted at
US$ 2 500 this proposal was increased to US$3,500 to accommodate an additional publication and the doubling in size of another. For administrative reasons, FAO has not yet been able to issue a contract. Action FAO.13.3.8 Convert 500 Records from PIMRIS database into ASFISIS format (US$ 3 500)
PIMRIS reported that they hoped to send ASFA records to FAO during the later part of the year.
14. OTHER BUSINESS
BF suggested that the Board consider projects and/or strategies that will lead ASFA into the next millennium. The Board agreed to establish a long term planning group made up of members from: BF, CSA, DFO, FAO, and IOC.
15. PLACE AND DATE OF NEXT MEETING (see Annex-45 for list of past ASFA Meetings)
Mr Tapaswi reiterated the offer made at the last ASFA Board Meeting, by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), National Information Centre for Marine Sciences (NICMAS) located in Dona Paula, Goa (India) to host the year 2000 ASFA Advisory Board Meeting (which marks the 30th Anniversary of ASFA).
Ms Marisela Ceballos (CIP) also extended an invitation to have the ASFA Board Meeting in Cuba.
The Board thanked both India and Cuba for their offers.
The Board agreed to meet in the year 2000 in India at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO).
NIO agreed to provide the Board via ASFA-Board-L possible meeting dates in March and September. Board Members will be asked to indicate the preferred date.
On behalf of the Board, the Chair thanked Ms Beattie (NOAA) for local arrangements and for the assistance of the NOAA Library staff during the Meeting, and CSA for their hospitality.
The Board thanked the Chair and Rapporteurs.
Annex 1
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
UN CO-SPONSORING ASFA PARTNERS
FAO
Messrs R. Grainger, J. Cort
R. Pepe and R. Sutton
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Fisheries Department
Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit (FIDI)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100, Rome, ItalyTel: (39) (6) 570 54828 (R.Grainger) [email protected]
Tel: (39) (6) 570 54729 (J. Cort) [email protected]
Tel: (39) (6) 570 56380 (R.Pepe) [email protected]
Tel: (39) (6) 570 55787 (R.Sutton) [email protected]
Fax: (39) (6) 570 52476
URL: http://www.fao.org/fiIOC
Mr P. Pissierssens
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
1 rue Miollis
75732 Paris Cedex 15, FranceTel: (33) (1) 45 68 40 46
Fax: (33) (1) 45 68 58 12
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://ioc.unesco.orgUN/DOALOS
Mr R. Gruszka
Senior Ocean Affairs & Law of the Sea Officer
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, N Y 10017, USATel: (1) (212) 963 3926
Fax: (1) (212) 963 5847
E-mail:[email protected]INTERNATIONAL ASFA PARTNERS
ICES
Ms M. Ovens
International Council for the Exploration
of the Sea (ICES)
Palaegade 2
DK 1261 Copenhagen K, DenmarkTel: (+45) 33 15 42 25
Fax: (+45) 33 93 42 15
E-mail:[email protected]
URL: http://www.ices.dkPIMRIS
Mr G. Rao
Pacific Islands Marine Resources Information System (PIMRIS)
Marine Studies Programme
University of the South Pacific
C/- Library
P.O. Box 1168
Suva, Fiji IslandsTel: (679) 313 900 Ext. 2284 or 212284
Fax: (679) 301 490 or (679) 300 830
E-mail:[email protected]NATIONAL ASFA PARTNERS
CANADA
Ms H. Cameron
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Library Policy and Services
200 Kent Street K1A OE6
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
for
National Research Council Canada
Building M-55, 1200 Montreal Rd.
Ottawa ON K1A 0R6, CanadaTel: (613) 993-2926
Fax: (613) 990-4901
E-mail:[email protected]
URL:http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.caCHINA, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
Mr Yang Ying
National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS)
State Oceanic Administration (SOA)
93 Liuwei Road, Hedong District
Tianjin 300171, People's Republic of ChinaTel: (86) (22) 24214161 Ext. 3901
Fax: (86) (22) 2430 44 08
E-mail:[email protected]
URL:http://www.coi.gov.cnCUBA
Ms Marisela Hernandez Ceballos
Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras (CIP)
Ministerio de la Industria Pesquera (MIP)
5TA, Ave. Y 248
Barlovento, Habana, CubaTel: (537) 297875/298066
Fax: (537) 331534/249827
E-mail:[email protected]ESTONIA
Ms. M. Kalenchits
Estonian Marine Institute
Library
Viljandi Rd.18b
11216 Tallinn
EstoniaTel: +372 6 281 561
Fax: +372 6 281 563
E-mail:[email protected]FRANCE
Ms J. Prod'homme
Institut français de recherche pour
l'exploitation de la mer (IFREMER)
Service de la documentation et des bibliotheques
Centre de Brest, B.P. 70
29280 Plouzane, FranceTel: 33 298 22 4019
Fax: 33 298 22 45 86
E-Mail: [email protected]GERMANY
Dr W. Kirchner
Bundesforschungsanstalt fur Fisherei (BF)
Informations- und Dokumentationsstelle
Palmaille 9
D-22767 Hamburg, GermanyTel: (49) (40) 38 90 51 40
Fax: (49) (40) 38 90 52 61
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:http://www.dainet.bfafiGREECE
Ms S. Goulala
National Centre for Marine Research (NCMR)
Library, Documentation and Information Centre
Library
GR. 16604, Ag. Kosmas, Eellenikon
Athens, GreeceTel: (301) 9653520-22
Fax: (301) 9653522
E- mail:[email protected]
URL:http://atlantis.fl.ncmr.grINDIA
Mr M. P. Tapaswi
National Institute of Oceanography (NIO)
National Information Centre for Marine Sciences (NICMAS)
Library
Dona Paula, Goa 403 004, IndiaTel: 91 -(0) 832 22 62 53 Ext.4276
Fax: 91 -(0) 832 22 33 40
E-mail:[email protected]
URL:http://www.nio.orgLITHUANIA
Ms L. Kargaudaite
Ichthyobank
P.O.Box 855
2055 Vilnius, LithuaniaFax: (370-2) 62 50 36
E-mail:[email protected]KENYA
Mr M. Odido
Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI)
ODINEA/RECOSCIX-WIO
P.O. Box 95832
Mombasa, KenyaTel: 254 11 47 25 27/254 11 475151-5
Tlx: 21115 Public MBSA (Att. KMFRI)
Fax: 254 11 47 51 57
E-mail:[email protected]NORWAY
Mr. H. Bjoerke
Institute of Marine Research (IMR)Nordnesparken 2
P.O. Box 1870 - Nordnes
N-5024 Bergen, NorwayTel:(47) (55) 23 84 90
Tlx:42297 OCEAN N
Fax: (47) (55) 23 85 84
E-mail:[email protected]POLAND
Ms Z. Brzeska
Sea Fisheries Research Institute (SFI)
ul. Kollataja 1
81-332 Gdynia, PolandTel: +48 58 620-17-28 (Library)/620-28-25 (Director)
Fax: +48 58 620-28-31
Tlx: 054348 mir pl
E-mail:[email protected]SWEDEN
Dr V. Oresland
National Board of Fisheries
Institute of Marine Research (IMR)
Turistgatan 5
S-45321 Lysekil, SwedenTel: +46 (0) 523-18734
Fax: +46 (0) 523-13977
E-mail:[email protected]UKRAINE
Dr E. Romanov
YugNIRO
Laboratory of Pacific and Indian Oceans Fish
Resources and Fishery Statistics
2 Sverdlov Street
334500 Kerch, Crimea, UkrainaTel: (380) (6561) 21065
Fax: (380) (6561)21572
E-mail:[email protected]UNITED KINGDOM
Ms L. Noble
Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (CCMS/PML)
National Marine Biological Library
Library and Information Services
Plymouth PL1 2PB, United KingdomTel: (44) (1752) 633 266
Fax: (44) (1752) 633 102
E-mail:[email protected]USA
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, USATel: (1) 301 713 2607 Ext. 1391315
Fax: (1) 301 713 45 98
E-mail:[email protected]
URL:http://www.lib.noaa.govPUBLISHING ASFA PARTNER
CSA
Mr J. McGinty, Ms A. Hitti, Dr C. Emerson
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA)
7200 Wisconsin Ave.
Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USATel: (301) 961 67 00
Fax: (301) 961 67 40
E-mail:[email protected][email protected]>[email protected]
URL:http://www.csa.comOBSERVERS
Ms Margaret Crampton
National Inquiry Services Centre Pty Ltd. (NISC)
22 Somerset St, PO Box 377
Grahamstown 6140, South AfricaTel: +27 46 6229698
Fax: +27 46 6229550
E-mail:[email protected]
URL:http://www.nisc.co.za
Annex 1a
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN BODY OF REPORT
AGRIS
International Information System for Agricultural Science and Technology
ASFA
Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts
ASFIS
Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Information System
ASFISIS
Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Integrated Set of Information Systems (Micro CDS/ISIS package for preparing ASFA input and for retrieval)
BF
Informations-und-Dokumentstionsstelle, Bundesforschungsanstait fur Fischerei (Germany)
CICH
Centro de Información Cientifica y Humanistica (Mexico)
CIP
Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras (Cuba)
CSA
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (ASFA Publisher)
CSIRO
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia)
DFO
Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada)
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FISHLIT
Database of fisheries literature produced by JLB Smith Inst. of Ichthylogy (South Africa)
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
GAL
Geographic Authority List
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
ICES
International Council for the Exploitation of the Sea
ICLARM
International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management
IEO
Instituto Español de Oceanografía (Spain)
IFOP
Instituto de Fomento Pesquero (Chile)
IFREMER
Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Service de la Documentation Bibliothèque Centre de Brest (France)
IMR
Institute of Marine Research (Norway)
IMR
Institute of Marine Research (Sweden)
INIDEP
Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (Argentina)
IOC
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO)
IPIMAR
Instituto Portugues de Investigacão Maritima (Portugal)
IUCN
The World Conservation Union
JFRCA
Japan Fisheries Resource Conservation Association
KMFRI
Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute
LIFDC
Low Income Food Deficit Countries
MEI
Estonian Marine Institute
NCMR
National Centre for Marine Research (Greece)
NICMAS
National Information Centre for Marine Sciences (India)
NIO
National Institute of Oceanography (India)
NISC
National Information Services Corporation (South Africa)
NMDIS
National Marine Data and Information Service, State Oceanic Administration (People's Republic of China)
NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
PIMRIS
Pacific Islands Marine Resources Information System (Fiji)
PML
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK)
SFI
Sea Fisheries Institute (Poland)
UNAM
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
UN/DOALOS
United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (UN-Secretariat, NY, USA)
UNEP
United Nations Environment Programme
VNIRO
All-Russia Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography
YugNIRO
Southern Science Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (Ukraine)
Annex 2 AGENDA
1. Opening of the Meeting
2. Administrative Arrangements
3. Election of Chairpersons and Rapporteurs
4. Adoption of the Agenda
5. Adoption of the Summary Report of the 1998 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)
6.1.4 Standard Report Elements to include in Partners Reports6.2 New and Potential ASFA Partners
6.2.1 Admission of new partners
6.2.2 Consideration of potential partners6.3 Co-operation with AGRIS
6.4 ASFA Partnership Agreement
6.5 ASFA Publishing Agreement7. ASFA Scope, Coverage and Monitoring and Timeliness
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 Services9. Progress with Machine Readable Input
9.1 ASFISIS
9.2 WIN/ASFISIS10. 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 New Proposals
13.3 Proposals underway, pending further discussion and completed14. Other Business
15. Place and Date of Next Meeting