Announcing FORELISE - Forestry Library and Information Services in Europe.
If you are involved in forestry or forest-related information work, please
join our mailing list - see below!
+++ Please forward this message to anyone likely to be interested +++
+++ Apologies for cross-posting +++
FORELISE is a new initiative under the auspices of the International Union
of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), Unit 6.03.01, Bibliographic
information and library networks [
http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/iufronet/d6/hp60301.htm ].
It is intended to provide a forum for librarians, information officers and
others to discuss the future provision of forest-related information in
Europe (including forest products). It is also intended to complement,
support and develop the IUFRO-sponsored Global Forest Information Service
within Europe (including the former Eastern bloc countries). It is open to
all interested individuals and organizations, whether or not they are
members of IUFRO.
Although increasing use of automation is leading to many new opportunities
in information delivery, their exploitation is often limited by budgetary
constraints and a trend towards amalgamating smaller specialist libraries
into larger units covering broader subject areas. No one centre can now hope
to be comprehensive in its coverage, and collaboration is increasingly
important in meeting demand.
The purpose of FORELISE is to facilitate such collaboration, by, for
example:
- providing a mailing list as a forum for discussion
- organising occasional meetings for face-to-face discussion and review of
important developments
- developing a forum for the exchange of subject-specialist knowledge and
expertise
- acting as a support centre for the professional development of all
involved in forest-related information work
- providing a referral centre for enquiries, to assist in the location of
difficult-to-find documents or information
- developing consortial purchasing arrangements for, for example, electronic
journal subscriptions
- developing improved resource-sharing schemes, with subject specialisation
and effective paper and electronic document delivery mechanisms.
- co-operating with other collaborative groups including EBHL (European
Botanical and Horticultural Libraries) [
http://www.ub.gu.se/Gb/ebhl/home.htm ] and GFIS (Global Forest Information
Service) [ http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/taskforce/hptfgfis.htm ] to avoid
duplication of effort.
FORELISE is now being launched with an e-mail list: to join, go to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forelise.html and follow the instructions,
or send an e-mail to [log in to unmask] with the command: join FORELISE
firstname lastname (and no other text in the message).
Once your membership has been confirmed, you may post messages to the list
from the same web site or by e-mail to [log in to unmask] You might
like to begin by describing your own institution, the main issues currently
affecting you and how you think this group might help.
A note on language: although English is to be used as the common language
for the list, it is important that this does not exclude those who find it
hard work! Please feel free to 'mix in' your own language where that helps.
The main aim is to share ideas, problems and solutions as effectively as
possible! Dealing with a variety of languages is, indeed, one of the
difficulties we have to address in any Europe-wide activity.
Please join and have your say! I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Roger Mills
Co-ordinator, IUFRO Unit 6.03.01
Bibliographic information and library networks
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Roger A. Mills, Librarian and Information Service Manager
Plant Sciences Library, Oxford University Library Services
South Parks Road, OXFORD OX1 3RB, UK
tel.: +44 1865 275080; fax: +44 1865 275095
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web: http://www.plantlib.ox.ac.uk
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