Presentation note

To develop the ability of agricultural information specialists to promote long-term food safety, the fight against poverty and the conservation of natural resources:-
 

  • Facilitate communications development between members of the international community of agricultural information professionals
  • Promote access to and use of agricultural information resources

STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES

  • Promote the profession of agricultural information specialist: increase awareness of the role of information and agricultural communication (annual prize to reward the best agricultural information specialists, and organisation of meetings with decision-makers and users)
  • Support professional development via training programmes
  • Strengthen collaboration and partnership with other organisations operating in the information sector, and publish a global directory of agricultural information resource centres to be used as a networking tool
  • Serve as a platform for information exchange, via the publication of the "IAALD Quarterly bulletin", conference documents, implement and organise an electronic forum, set up a web page, organise regular regional conferences and a worldwide Congress (every five years).

IAALD PROFILE

  • Created in 1955
  • 600 members in 80 countries
  • 84 African members (34 countries)
  • Institutional membership fees US$ 90
  • Individual membership fees US$ 35

MEMBERS

  • Individual members
  • Institutional members
  • Honorary members

ADVANTAGES FOR MEMBERS

  • Access to the IAALD Quarterly Bulletin
  • Reduced rate for IAALD publications
  • Invitations to technical meetings, workshops and congresses
  • Training programme for developing countries
  • Networks of international partners

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

  • Pamela Andre  (USA)
  • Janeti Bombini de Moura  (Brazil)
  • Jodee Kawasaki  (USA)
  • Vyatcheslav Posdnyakov  (Russia)
  • John Beecher  (USA)
  • Edith Hesse  (Mexico)
  • Thiendou Niang  (Senegal)
  • Caro Roberston  (USA)
  • Qiaoqiao Zhang  (China)

ACTIVITIES

  • General meeting (every five years)
  • Annual meetings of the EC
  • Working group meeting

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

  • Publications
  • Regional conferences and Congresses
  • Education and training

PUBLICATIONS

  • IAALD Quarterly bulletin
  • Agricultural Information Resource Centres: a world directory (1995)
  • International symposium on new information technologies in agriculture (Bonn, 1994)
  • Proceedings of the IXth World Congress of the IAALD: communicating agricultural information in remote places (Melbourne, 1995)
  • Proceedings of the USAIN/IAALD Conference on the information frontier, linking people and resources (Tucson, 1997)

THEMATIC SEMINARS AND MEETINGS

  • Round table on information transfer in a global economy, Bordeaux, France, January 1992
  • Congress on communicating agricultural information in remote places, Melbourne, Australia, January 1995
  • Conference on the information frontier: linking people and resources in a changing world, Tucson, USA, April 1997
  • Role of agricultural information in decision-making in agricultural research and practice, Freising, Germany, June 1998

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • Production of training guides: information network analysis grid
  • Organisation of training sessions: Sri Lanka, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania
  • Creation and development of human resources databases

PROMOTION AND ADVERTISING

  • IAALD Quarterly bulletin
  • Information package
  • Web page
  • Conferences

IAALD QUARTERLY BULLETIN

  • Articles - subjects of regional interest; reproducibility
  • News about the IAALD and the international community
  • Publications, products and information services

AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION RESOURCE CENTRES: A WORLD DIRECTORY

  • Published in 1995 (data gathered in 1993/1994)
  • 4,903 entries (+1,182 compared with the 1990 version), from 171 countries
  • Classification in alphabetical order of country and town
  • List of logos, index of institutions and subjects

SPECIFIC IAALD ACTIVITIES FOR AFRICA

  • Regional Congress on education and training in agricultural information, Nairobi, Kenya, 1983
  • Round table on agricultural information in a global economy, Bordeaux, France, 1992
  • Follow-up meeting of the Bordeaux round table, Rabat, Morocco, 1994
  • African Group information letter
  • Round table on new information technologies at the SCECSAL Conference, 1996
  • Training sessions in Côte d'Ivoire and Tanzania

10th IAALD World Congress Challenges Facing the Community of Agricultural Information Professionals in the Third Millennium

Novotel Hotel, Dakar, Senegal 24-28 January 2000