First Visit to the USA and in at the Deep End

Marcela Chreneková, Slovak National AGRIS/CARIS FAO Centre Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture Samova 9, 950 10 Nitra, Slovak Republic
mail: chrenekova@uvtip.sk

At the end of March and the beginning of April, with the director of the Institute Michal Demeš and his vice-director Ján Šimko, I visited the United States. For the three weeks of our stay we enjoyed a rich programme which culminated in our taking part in the US/Central and Eastern European Library Roundtable in Tucson, which was part of the IAALD and USAIN (United States Agricultural Information Network) conference.
The professional part of our trip began at Cornell University, of which we had heard and read much and with whose workers we had already opened up contacts. The university city of Ithaca in New York state welcomed us with icy weather; throughout our stay it seemed a blizzard was on the verge of sweeping in over the rooftops. Our friend Sam Demas, head of the "Collection Development" department of the Albert R. Mann Library, prepared for us a very intense program. It would hardly be possible to cram more into those two days! On the 20th and 21st of March we toured the library, the central and largest of the 16 libraries of the University. Besides the Collection Development, we visited the sections devoted to Information Technology, Technical Services, Public Services Digital Library, Public Services Reference, and Public Services Remote User Support. Along the way we benefited from many meetings and discussions, with for example Wallace Olsen, co-ordinator of the Core Literature Project.

On Saturday March 22nd we left Ithaca for New York City, from where we went on to Washington D.C. - naturally not without a swing past the Empire State Building in Manhattan, the Rockefeller Center and a few other tourist sights. After a brief rest, on Monday we went on to the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville. The library captivated us with its sheer size - which, as the largest agricultural library in the world, it simply had to. For the several days of our stay here we were well looked after by Maria Pisa, Keith Russell and from the Washington Reference Centre, Janet Wright and the legend of agricultural informatics, Joe Howard, former director of NAL. We visited several Branches, namely Indexing, Automation, Information Management, and Special Collections, learning from the custodians how they went about managing their sections. On the last day we made a presentation of UVTIP's activities to about 40 NAL workers.

The crowning moment of our trip was our participation at the IAALD and USAIN conference in Tucson. Joined to it this year was the annual meeting of agricultural librarians and information specialists known as the US/Central and Eastern European Library Roundtable.

Although Arizona is supposed to be synonymous with sunshine and dry weather, we were greeted by downpours. The excellent organisation of the conference and guided tours of the surroundings however so captivated and engaged our attention that we no longer noticed the rain. The trips were certainly colourful anyway - both in the exotic flora and in the multihued complexions of the guests from all around the world, complexions which for us in Slovakia are still rarities! There were also many participants from Latin America, for whom selected speeches were translated into Spanish. The organisational committee chaired by Barbara Hutchinson, head of the Arid Lands Information Center in University of Arizona, did their work on a highly professional level and without the slightest hiccup. Always smiling and full of energy, Barbara (despite the exhausting demands on the organisers of such a conference) welcomed us each morning at breakfast. A new and pleasant element for us was having a lunchtime lecture delivered right there in the dining room between the meal and dessert and coffee! The conference motto - "The Information Frontier: linking people and resources in a changing world" - was without a fault fulfilled, and was felt in every contribution and personal encounter.

Facultative excursions such as the visit to the University Library of Tucson, with a side- trip to the Sonoran desert museum, also contributed towards the enjoyable running of the conference.

UVTIP already has behind it the organisation of several international events on home soil. In 1994 we hosted the US/Central and Eastern European Library Roundtable, in 1993 a conference on Remote Sensing and in 1996 "Agroinfos", held under the auspices of the FAO. In 1995 we hosted the international seminar "Developing practical skills for Internet and CD ROM Technology", which will be repeated this year under the auspices of the IAALD. As well, workers of the institute regularly present their work at home and abroad. But despite our experiences on the international level, Tucson was the first time the results of our work were presented on such a professionally strong stage.

During the conference there was evident a strong interest in - even a thirst for - information on eastern European workplaces, their activities and work methods. Participants from outside the region took every opportunity to learn as much as possible. At the presentations and poster sessions and during discussions many interesting suggestions for cooperation and for several concrete projects arose. Our collaboration with WAICENT / FAO and its director Anton Mangstl and Joseph Judy was strengthened. On the invitation of Jan van der Burg, we also agreed to co-operate in the preparation of the IAALD conferences in Peking in 1998 and in Dakar in 2000. And that is surely proof of the fulfilment of the motto: "Linking people and resources in a changing world".

In the electronic version of IAALD Bulletin some pictures from the trip can be viewed by clicking on underlined words in the text.


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