In Slovakia there are problems of collecting agricultural statistical information on items such as seeds, foodstuffs, fertilizers, pesticides, purchases of agricultural machinery and repair, fuel etc. Scientific and technical information sources are insufficient. On-line access to databases is expensive. Researchers are not used to database searching, either because of lack of experience or because they have no Internet connections. The basic problem is that the system of agricultural information is very complex and the Integrated Information System for Agriculture in Slovakia is only in the first stage of operation. There is a lack of central management and dissemination of market information. An increase in demand for scientific and technical information is expected with the launching of the Biotechnology Project.

There is great interest on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture to support the development of electronic agricultural information services. The ISTIA (Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture) has been chosen to run the project and set up an Integrated Agricultural Information System .

Important information centers that supply scientific, technical, economic and business information in Slovakia:

Slovak Agricultural Library (SlPK) in Nitra - coordinating center of the agricultural bibliography in the Slovak Republic; more than 500,000 units. Searching for items in the wide stock is done through a set of library catalogues. Several international agricultural databases are available as well as the Slovak National Bibliography. The library is an AGRIS-CARIS sub-center.

Slovak Forestry and Wood Library (SLDK) in Zvolen - a specialized state scientific library for forestry/ wood literature; 300,000 units. The Library produces the VTEI-SLDK database that contains records from foreign forestry periodicals as well as a database of publications of the Technical University in Zvolen; an AGRIS-CARIS sub-center.

Institute of Scientific Information and Library at the University of Veterinary Medicine (UVIK) is a specialized information center for veterinary medicine; more than 100,000 holdings. The library produces a database of monographs; an AGRIS/CARIS sub-center.

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture (UVTIP/ISTIA) in Nitra specializes in obtaining information sources, and forming, processing and distributing information in the area of scientific and technical information to meet requirements of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture, and other users. It is the Slovak National AGRIS/CARIS Center, FAO Depository Library, and collects EU documents. The FAO Depository Library's AGROCATALOGUE is available via the UVTIP homepage.

Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics is affiliated to the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture. It is the only specialized institution related to food-markets research. It administers the Central Databases of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture. It is the national participant in the Global Information and Early Warning System of FAO (GIEWS), and processes market and price information in Slovak agriculture (ATIS).

Current situation with regard to the access to the Internet.

Current connections are rather slow. UVTIP's "Project of Internet connection in agricultural sector" seeks to facilitate connections. A new server has been installed and uses LINUX operation system on the INTEL platform. It is connected to the National Academic Net - Sanet.

13 of 22 agricultural organizations have access to the system. The Ministry of Agriculture is connected by a dial-up through Sanet provider and by leased link to Governmental net GOVNET by Telenor provider.

WAICENT (AGRIS and CARIS) in the Slovak Republic.

Slovakia has been an active user of FAO's WAICENT (World Agricultural Information CENTre) utilities. It has participated in AGRIS since the beginning of the system in 1975. CARIS was began as a result of the recommendation of The Third Technical Consultation in 1995. A National Information Network, which includes the most important research institutes as well as universities, has been created. Potential customers of agricultural information come from different branches throughout Slovakia. End-users are sometimes not satisfied with the quality of records, mainly with missing abstracts. More than 95 percent of records input from Slovakia contain abstracts.

The most significant event in the Slovak AGRIS/CARIS system has been the transfer of the National Center from Bratislava to Nitra at the end of 1995 what created some staff problems. National AGRIS/CARIS National Center has lately enjoyed more respect on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture. The workshops aimed at the future development of AGRIS and CARIS in Slovak Republic were organized.

Slovakia has been processing some 650 yearly records from 35 periodicals, conference proceedings, monographs and gray literature. Annual Agrofilm International Festival of agricultural films in Nitra has also been processed for the AGRIS input. Patents and norms will also be included in the future. Number of records with abstracts increased from 30 percent in 1995 to 97.8 percent in 1998. At the moment approximately 40 CARIS projects are processed annually. Despite efforts, the CARIS has not as yet met enthusiasm on the part of the Slovak scientific community.

FAO Depository Library

Within the organizational structure of UVTIP the Library holds an important position. In the first place it serves the workers of the institute, but at the same time it is also a public library visited mostly by scientists and other university workers in the field of agriculture.

The specialized structure of the Book Fund as well as the modern information sources and services available at the library attract end-users from all over Slovakia.

A lot of information are obtained by exchange with foreign countries. The Library is a member and user of AGLINET services. It also actively employs services offered by the WAICENT. The bulk of Library activities is represented by building of the Book Fund, building of the Agrocatalogue, and providing library and information services to end-users.

The Book Fund

The Book Fund has three special collections: The FAO Depository Library, The EU Fund, the Reading room library (Guidebooks and Manuals).

The FAO Depository Library was founded in November 1993, following Slovakia's becoming a member of the FAO. FAO special collection is available to the public for reading in the library only. At present the Library has some 840 documents from FAO, including 3 periodical titles. The publications are divided into several groups (general agriculture, crop production, animal production, forestry, fisheries, soil science, economic and social development, statistics, nutrition and food industry, legislation and general information about FAO).

Informing of potential end-users is affected by publishing of lists of new acquisitions. Presentations of documents are also organized, such as at the regular annual exhibition at the international agricultural exposition AGROKOMPLEX. Some titles that are obtained in several copies are sent to other research institutes and university libraries. In 1998 some 212 publications were distributed in this way.

Another possibility of obtaining FAO information is to search in the AGROCATALOGUE which consists of bibliographic records. This is the UVTIP's FAO publication database and is available also via the Internet. UVTIP has a license to sell FAO publications, according the an agreement of 1997. 35 FAO publications has so far been sold.

The EU Fund

The second significant component of book fund is the EU (European Union) book fund. In 1996 the UVTIP was nominated as the Slovak national Information Center for European Union by the Ministry of Agriculture. EU information sources on agriculture are collected, such as reports on EU agriculture, statistics, almanacs, address books, legislation, and also databases, such as CELEX Justis, SCAD (EUROREF), and CORDIS.

The acquisition list of EU publications has also been published. The publications are divided into the following 14 groups: Institutional issues and EU policy; Trade policy; Agriculture; Employment; Social issues; Law; Economic issues; International relations ; Energy; Regional policy; Environment; Agricultural research; Information, education and culture; Terminology and directories.

The Library is building its own bibliographic database on EU publications. Library also keeps dictionaries, encyclopedias and specialized manuals.

AGROCATALOGUE

An important activity is maintenance of the Agrocatalogue on book funds of 23 agriculture-related research workplaces in the Slovak republic. At present the catalogue has compiled some 45,000 records on books, almanacs, research and travelling reports, periodicals, cartographic and audiovisual documents. The catalogue is updated regularly. This is a micro CDS/ISIS -based application and uses superstructure software ADEM 3.9. Quick orientation and searching is made possible by superstructure module IRIS. Agrocatalogue is available via the Internet.

Library workers provide different services for end-users. They search CD-ROM databases, the Internet, Agrocatalogue and EU and FAO databases. They also organize interlibrary loan in Slovakia and abroad. Consultation services are also available.