Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “BIOR”Riga, Latvia

Library at the Fish Resources Research Department

Information Support to Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

in Latvia: Recent Developments

Institutional Report 2011 - 2012 by Natalya Kondratyeva

15th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Aquatic Sciences Libraries and Information Centres (EURASLIC), May 13- 15, 2013

          Varna, BULGARIA

The history of the Scientific Library, founded in 1945, is closely linked with the history of institutions conducted fisheries research as well as marine and inland water investigations in Latvia.

In 1945: the Latvian Department of the All-Union Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO);

In 1961-1991: the Baltic Fisheries Research Institute;

In 1991-2004: the Latvian Fisheries Research Institute;

In 2004-2009: the Latvian Fish Resources Agency;

Since 2010: the Fish Resources Research Department of newly established Institute “BIOR”.

• about 9500 books;

• more than 25000 units of serials and periodicals;

• about 700 old and rare editions (mostly serials and periodicals);

• special issues of international organizations ICES, HELCOM, IBSFC, NAFO;

• scientific reports of the Institute since 1948

The topics of the collection:

Ichthyology, hydrobiology, fisheries and aquaculture, hydrology and oceanography.

Library ‘s collection

Nowadays the Scientific Library is one of 45 subject libraries in Latvia.

In 2012 the Library’s Profile was set up within the Latvian

Libraries Portal www.biblioteka.lv (launched in 2007)

The current work and activities in 2011 – 2012

• Continuing the work on structuring the Library’s holdings, creation the electronic lists of new books and periodicals (in 2012 preparation work for Ecet Union Catalogue of Serials was started) ;

• Participation in 2012 in the Project based on the financial support of Fish Fund of Latvia resulted into the acquisition of 9 new valuable monographs (1020 €);

• Participation in exhibition organized in 2012 by FAO by sending 3 books and manuals connected with fishing and fishing gears, edited in Riga, Latvia.

• Library’s work is presented in scientific reports of the Department, and also put into annual reports on Information System www.kulturas.karte.lv (statistics, changes in holdings, digitization);

The current work and activities in 2011 – 2012

The current work and activities in 2011 – 2012

Internet and Electronic resources

• An access to electronic journals (in 2011and 2012) and databases (ScienceDirect and Scopus are available since 2012) has increased;

• Web Pages on www.bior.gov.lv devoted to the Library and available open-access resources in marine and fisheries science have been updated;

• Valuable materials in electronic format are located on the Department’s server to be available to researchers through a local network (for example, the materials of ICES Annual Science Conferences).

• Abstracts of Doctoral Thesis of the Baltic Fisheries Research Institute’s researchers (1956-1985);

• Publications of the Baltic Fisheries Research Institute’s researchers (1975-1990) in joint serial edition “Fischerei-Forschung/Fischereiliche Untersuchungen der DDR und der UdSSR in der Ostsee, Рыбохозяйственные исследования

ГДР и СССР в бассейне Балтийского моря”.

Digitization and digital collections

Two historical digital collections createdin 2008 - 2012 are available on Central

and Eastern European Marine repository www.ceemar.org

In 2012 the Library contributed institutional historical digital collections to the database “Digital collections of memory institutions in Latvia” (collections of Archives, Libraries and Museums)

Digitization and digital collections

In 2011 - 2012 the Library participated in searching of electronic resources and libraries holdings in ODINECET region in order to prepare the list of rare books to be digitized (for the proposed Project ECETRA). The Library’s collection of old editions consists of about 700 (mostly serials and periodicals in German, and also some valuable serials in Latvian). In order to participate the Project we prepared the list of 29 rare editions in German and Latvian (1896 – 1939).

Digitization and digital collections

Digitization and digital collections

“Latvijas jūras zvejniecība/Bulletin Statistique des Pêches Maritimes de Lettonie”/

Statistical Bulletin of Marine Fisheries of Latvia, 1925-1936, edited by V.Miezis

National

Participation in the workshops and trainings organized by Training Centre of the National Library of Latvia (“Searching and information retrieval in Joint Electronic Catalogue of 8 Latvian Library’s of National Importance”, “Archives”, and others).

International

Participation in OceanTeacher Academy Training Courses on Marine Information Management organized by IODE:

In 2011 - “Disaster Planning and Recovery”;

In 2012 - “Preservation of Books and Other Media”

ODINECET network:

In 2011 - Joint ODINECET/ODINBlackSea Workshop.

Participation in workshops and trainings

OTA Training Course “Preservation of Books and Other Media” in 2012: the Preservation Plan for the Scientific Library was developed.

The Preservation Plan includes activities for five years, 2012 – 2016:- Improvement of care, handling and shelving practices;

- Care on the collection of old and rare editions;- Care on the Library’s archival materials;

- Creating of digital collections of publications and historical materials.

Participation in workshops and trainings

Thank youfor your attention!

Благодаря заВашето Внимание!

15th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Aquatic Sciences Libraries and Information Centres

(EURASLIC), May 13- 15, 2013

    Varna, BULGARIA