After the memorable heat wave that hit Europe in August, it is hard to fathom that we are now three months later beginning to
experience chills in many parts of the world with a change in seasons. IFLA 2003 was an exciting conference. Berlin, as we all
expected had far too many interesting distractions pulling us away from the conference. However, the conference was nearly
flawless in its organization and our Section together, with colleagues in the Health and Biosciences Libraries Section held several
interesting and exciting programs and events.
Odd year conferences have the added benefit of the changeover of section membership as terms expire and new ones begin. We
had reportedly one of the highest attendance rates of our members, but still several members were unable to come to Berlin and we
missed you. We sadly bid farewell to several members and welcomed new members to join us. They enthusiastically volunteered
to assist us in our ongoing work of the Section. Each issue of the newsletter introduces a couple of our members. In addition, we
were so pleased that we had several visitors at our SC meetings.
As described elsewhere in this newsletter, the program we planned on Bioinformatics generated a fair amount of discussion and
filled an information gap in content areas that many of us are now serving. We also spent an incredible day exploring Potsdam
after a really terrific trip to German Research Center for Earth Sciences (GFZ: GeoForschungsZentrum) and the photos presented
here attest to some of the sights we visited. For many of us, the opportunity to quickly visit Potsdam and review the history of this
community was very special. Our Section's tradition of holding local study tours and sight visits to area libraries will certainly be
challenged as IFLA now requires the choice of holding programs or study tours as part of the official schedule. Perhaps we will
alternate and retain the best of both parts of our conference activities.
Our meetings were full of planning for our future - considering goals for our revised strategic plan; how best to continue the
momentum for our project, Survey of Scientific and Technological Information Needs in Less-Developed and Developing
Countries; continuing to build relationships with our liaison affiliations; and engage in official planning for the next two
conferences in Buenos Aires in 2004 and in Oslo in 2005.
As I begin another term as chair, I am always thankful for having the partnerhip of Irma Pasenen and her counsel and good cheer to
help keep us on track. I hope that this finds you well and excited about our projects as we look forward to meet in 2004 in another
exciting culture and venue.
Julia Gelfand
Chair 2003-05
Chair and Treasurer
Ms. Julia Gelfand
Research & Instruction Division, Science Library
University of California Irvine
PO Box 19556, Irvine, CA 92623-9556, USA
Phone: (1) 949/824-4971 Fax: (1) 949/824-3114
E-mail:
jgelfand@uci.edu
Secretary and Information Coordinator
Ms. Irma Pasanen
Helsinki University of Technology
Library
PO Box 7000, FIN-02015 HUT, Finland
Phone: (358)(9)451-4125 Fax: (358)(9)451-4132
E-mail:
irma.pasanen@hut.fi
WORLD LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CONGRESS:
69th IFLA General Conference and Council, Berlin, 1-9 August 2003
Reported by Raymond Schwartz
The World Library and Information Congress: 69
th International Federation of Library Associations General Conference and
Council met in Berlin, Germany in August of 2003. Close to 4000 participants from 133 countries attended the conference which
was held under exceptionally warm weather. The theme of the conference was '
Access Point Library: Media - Information –
Culture’.
On August 5
th, the Science and Technology Libraries Section together with the Health and Biosciences Libraries Section organized
the open session ‘
Bioinformatics: an evolution of two decades’. The three speakers represented all the German knowhow in
Bioinformatics : Dr. Heiko Liesegang of the Goettingen Genomics Laboratory talked about the problems regarding annotations,
Dr. Sebastian Goeser, Senior Software Engineer of IBM Germany Development Ltd. from Stuttgart discussed the search and
retrieve technologies, and Martin Bomeke of the German National Library of Science and Technology / University of Hannover
Library presented the ViFaTec gateway.
Dr. Liesegang discussed in ‘
Bioinformatics: Data Quality and the Problem of Annotations’, the methods of finding new genes and
their associated problems of data quality. The commonly used method of genome annotation by comparison--comparing two sets
of sequence data to determine similar structure and thus similar function--has greatly increased the number of new genes
discovered from a few per year to thousands per month. The errors in the method accumulate in the databases through
misspellings, and, over/under sequencing. In the end, annotation results must be checked by both automated and manual
examination in order to maintain data quality.
Dr. Goeser’s presentation ‘
Text Mining and Bioinformatics: New Insights through Literature Navigation and Related
Technologies’ reviewed a number of information technologies referred to as text mining to manage knowledge and information in
the life sciences. According to Dr. Goeser, the challenges for information management in the life sciences include the simultaneous
integration of rapidly growing diverse data sources with other information management applications supplemented with the
differences between the research and development organizations working in the area. Furthermore, he saw the knowledge
management--which includes sharing, information overload, and extreme capturing requirements, and the robust, centralized data
and storage management as additional challenges. Dr. Goeser sees text mining as a way to leverage domain expertise, exceed the
text search paradigm, and break the ‘effectiveness’ barrier. Among the areas text-mining applications can address are information
extraction, automatic categorization, summarization, information mining thin clients, and lexical navigation.
The final presentation “
The Engineering Subject Gateway (ViFaTec) and Biotech: Virtual Development in Biotechnology” was
presented by Martin Bomeke, who is a professional engineer and a ViFaTec project member. The ViFaTec was launched in April
2000 with the emphasis on supplying users from the engineering fields and other related technical areas with high quality and
timely information. The target audience of the gateway includes the academic and industrial sectors, and those in the general public
that are interested in sophisticated scientific information. The gateway consists of five modules: a metasearchengine, document
delivery service, link to full-text, a subject guide and a special search engine. The metasearchengine, which is still in preparation,
will offer a search interface to 10 different data sources. Presently, there is a list of 21 databases such as FIZ-Technik and the
NASA Technical Report Server. TIBORDER is the web-based document delivery service of the German National Library of
Science and Technology (TIB) and it has been incorporated to ViFaTec. GetInfo is an online full-text service jointly operated by
the TIB and the Subject Information Center Karlsruhe (FIZ Karlsruhe). The service currently has access to over 50,000 full-text
documents. The Subject Guide consists of technical bibliographic databases, list of books, collections of journals, and important
reference books organized into 10 subject areas such as engineering basics and mechanical engineering. And the Specialized
Search Engine, where a user can search for services in the field of research within Germany, consists of consulting offers listings,
available laboratory space, websites of engineering associations and so on. Since bioinformatics and biotechnology are
interdisciplinary areas, one way the gateway supports them is through subcategories in the Subject Guide. The URL to the
gateway is
http://vifatec.tib.uni-hannover.de/. This paper to be published in a future issue of IFLA Journal is also available via
FLANET at
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/080g-Bomeke.pdf (German)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/080e_trans-Bomeke.pdf (English)
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/080f_trans-Bomeke.pdf (French)
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Study tour participants admire the old reading room of the library of GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam.
Photo Raymond Schwartz. |
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The Einstein Tower (E. Mendelsohn, Potsdam)
Photo Raymond Schwartz.
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Study Tour to GFZ
On August 7th, the Science and Technology Libraries
Section arranged a study tour to the German Research
Center for Earth Sciences GFZ (GeoForschungsZentrum
Potsdam). Our host was Roland Bertelmann, head of the
Library Wissenschaftsparks Albert Einstein on
Telegrafenberg, where the research institutes for
astronomy and earth sciences have found their home
since 1870. In 1992, the GFZ was founded as Germany's
research center for the earth sciences. Presently, there
are four research institutes at the Telegrafenberg in
Potsdam: the GFZ, the Potsdam Institute for Climate
Impact Research, the Alfred Wegener Institute
Foundation for Polar and Marine Research, and the
Astrophysical Institute Potsdam. The Library
Wissenschaftsparks Albert Einstein ( http://www.gfzpotsdam.
de/bib/zb1e.htm) serves all the research
institutes. The Library's collections consists of 100,000
books, 40,000 maps, 400 print journal subscriptions, 900
electronic journal subscriptions, and a number of
electronic resources. The materials budget is 200,000
Euros per year and they have five staff, two apprentices,
and two branch libraries.
The participants of the study tour also learned about the
research projects of the GFZ, such as the satellite
CHAMPS (Challenging Mini-satellite Payload) which
measures the earth's gravitational and magnetic fields,
and atmosphere. There was also a presentation about the
International Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
( http://www.icdp-online.org).
The day ended with an excellent guided sight-seeing
tour around Potsdam.
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Report of the Berlin 2003 Standing Committee Meetings
The Standing Committee met twice, on Saturday Aug. 1st and on Friday, Aug. 8th. The meetings had an excellent representation in
terms of attendance: Jan Compangen (the Netherlands), Julia Gelfand (USA), Rafayel Harutyunyan (Armenia), Marianne
Nordlander (Sweden), Irma Pasanen (Finland SC II), Jean Poland (USA), Philippe Raccah (France SC II), Tovah Reis (USA),
Josee Saint-Marseille (Canada SC I), Raymond Schwarz (USA), Werner Stephan (Germany), Reinhalt Suppert (Germany), Anne-
Mette Vibe (Norway SC II), Greg Youngen (USA), Andrei Zemskov (Russia). There were eight observers in the meetings: Helena
Asamoah-Hassan, Ghana (SC I), Sunita Barre, India (SC I), Salma Chowdhury, Bangladesh (SC I), Rifaat Hilal, Egypt (SC I),
Lesego Ramore, Botswana (SC I), Jagath Wedasinghe, Sri Lanka (SC I), Grzegorz Ploszajski, Poland (SC I, SC II) and Bernd-
Christoph Kamper, Germany (SC II). As special advisors Helga Schwarz (Germany) and Patricia Yocum (USA) participated in the
first meeting.
Julia Gelfand was elected to continue as Chair and Treasurer and Irma Pasanen was elected to continue as Secretary and
Communications Officer for the 2003-2005 term.
The current status of the Section's project “The Survey of Scientific and Technological Information Needs in Less-Developed and
Developing Countries” had successfully been put up on IFLANET in July. There is a link to the project from the Section home
page at
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s7/sstl.htm. The project has been found to be very interesting and a welcome source of information
from other parts of IFLA and several of the observing delegates present at the committee meeting emphasized their interest and the
need for such a project. Tovah Reis was commended for an excellent project and it was hoped that she would continue with the
project provided that financial support can be found. That is our next challenge.
The Section's Open session (jointly organized with the Health and Biosciences section) had some 55 participants all throughout the
session. This was the first time a joint programme with the sections and the response was positive. There were 36 participants in
the study tour to Potsdam and the response to the visit was excellent. The minutes of the meeting will soon be available in PDF
format via the section homepage
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s7/sstl.htm
IFLA 2004 World Library and Information Congress: 70th IFLA General Conference and Council "Libraries: Tools for Education
and Development" will be held in Buenos Aires Argentina and the theme will focus on information literacy and lifelong learning
issues. Marianne Nordlander, Greg Youngen, Ray Schwarz, and Rivkah Frank will continue the planning of the section
programme. The issue regarding the training of science librarians and the need to involve speakers from the region was noted. Julia
Gelfand will pursue the planning of a local study tour/site visit with Jean Poland.
Introducing New Standing Committee 2003-2007 members
Anne-Mette Vibe comes from the University of Oslo in
Norway where she has been the director of the Faculty of
Mathematics and Natural Sciences Library since 2000. The
library is very decentralized, consisting of 12 institute
libraries situated in different buildings. The staff at the
faculty library numbers 36 persons supplemented with
auxiliary staff managing the evening opening hours. Before
her current position Anne-Mette was the library director at
the Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education.
Anne-Mette enjoys work in international cooperation and
she was a member of the Executive Committee of an
international sports information association during her years
engaged in the sports industry.
Reinhard Supper for the past ten years has been the head of
the Information and Documentation Department of the
Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM)
in Berlin, Germany. He holds the degrees of librarian (Dipl.-
Bibl.), and Master of Arts (M.A.) in information science.
Before joining BAM Reinhard worked as librarian and
information specialist at the German Institute Deutsches
Institut fur Urbanistik, Siemens and Nixdorf. Reinhard has
since 2003 been the vice president of the German Special
Libraries Association.
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The remains of the Berlin Wall were
still present in some parts of the city.
Photo Rafayel Harutyunian.. |
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NOW AVAILABLE on IFLANET
The Survey of Scientific and Technological Information Needs in Less-Developed and Developing
Countries
Please visit http://www.ifla.org/VII/s7/projects/litmain.htm and give us your comments. Suggestions from
either section members, IFLA members, or others are welcomed. For future searching, search history and
strategies are available using the Search History link. Please email your comments and suggestions to
Tovah_Reis@Brown.edu |
Upcoming Conferences
IFLA World Library and Information Congress: 70th IFLA General Conference and Council "Libraries: Tools for Education and
Development". August 22th - 27th 2004, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/ index.htm
CRIS 2004. Putting the Sparkle in the Knowledge Society. 7
th International Conference on Current Research Information Systems.
May 13th-15th 2004, Antwerpen, Belgium.
http://www.eurocris.org/conferences/cris2004/
IATUL (International Association of Technological University Libraries) 25th IATUL Annual Conference "Library Management
in Changing Environment". May 30th -June 3rd 2004, Krakow, Poland.
http://www.biblos.pk.edu.pl/IATUL/
SLA (Special Libraries Association) 2004 SLA Annual Conference in 2004 Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, USA,
June 5th-10th 2004.
Theme: ”Putting Knowledge to Work”.
http://www.sla.org
ALA (American Library Association) ALA Annual Conference June 24th –30th 2004. Orlando, Florida, USA
LIBER (European Research Libraries) LIBER 33rd Annual General Conference. St. Petersburg, Russia. June 29th-July 2nd 2004.
Theme:
Integrating Europe! New partnerships across old borders.
http://www.kb.dk/liber/
EUNIS 2004. 10th International Conference of European University Information Systems. Ljubljana, Slovenia. June 29th - July
2nd, 2004.
http://ltpo.fri.uni-lj.si/EUNIS2004/
ICML 9 / CRICS 7. Commitment to Equity, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, September 20-23,2005. http://www.icml.org
The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO) and IFLA Section of
Biological and Medical Sciences Libraries are organizing the 9th International Congress on Medical Librarianship. The ICML9
will promote the opportunity to discuss the commitment to equity, focusing on the understanding that knowledge should permeate
all action in human health. The conference will incorporate a number of regional and national meetings, including the 7th Latin
American and Caribbean Congress on Health Information.
IFLA NEWS: IFLA appoints new Secretary General
IFLA President Kay Raseroka announced November 10
th the appointment of Mr. R. Ramachandran as the new Secretary General
of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). He will assume the position on 1st April 2004,
following the retirement of Ross Shimmon. Mr. Ramachandran is currently Director of the National Library and Deputy CEO of
the National Library Board in Singapore and Secretary General of CONSAL, the Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians.
Forum of the IFLA Science and Technology Libraries Section
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