CGIAR launches Virtual Library

Wed, 1 Aug 2007
By Duncan Mboyah


Experts in agriculture can now access thousands of full-text documents related to agriculture, hunger, poverty, and the environment, drawn from some of the most reliable sources using a single website.

This has been made possible through a new initiative - Consultative Group on the International Research (CGIAR) Virtual Library (CGVlibrary) that has just been launched.

The library, accessible at http://vlibrary.cgiar.org, is an internet gateway from which researchers can, using a single interface, simultaneously search the online libraries of CGIAR Centers and the Secretariat.

According to Mr. John Whitehead, a Programmes Assistant at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) this technology also enables agricultural expert to access more than 160 of the outside databases most frequently used.

He revealed that other external sources available include the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Library of Congress, the London School of Economics, AGRIS, and Global Online Research in Agriculture.

Whitehead further noted that researchers also have access to over 4,000 e-journals through the facility.

“Those who belong to CGIAR centres can view full-text journal articles not only from open access periodicals, but also from the 86 journals to which the centres have subscribed through the CG Library Consortium,’ he says.

Users of the CGVlibrary find full-text documents, abstracts, and references either by searching pre-selected sets of databases, grouped according to information type (“CGIAR Libraries,” “Reference Books,” “News”) and different Centers’ areas of interest (“Water,” “Forestry,” “Genetic Resources”), or by creating their own resource groupings.

CGIAR researchers have the additional option of saving these groups for future searches, as well as saving links to particular journals, documents, or abstracts.

Launched recently in the USA , the CGVlibrary is the product of an eighteen month collaborative effort by the CGIAR Centers, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

“The virtual library was inspired by the expressed need of CGIAR researchers and collaborators for a one-stop information shop,” says project leader Luz Marina Alvaré, who is also head of IFPRI's Library and Knowledge Management.

He observes that the information that was scattered around the world, across CGIAR libraries and other leading agricultural information providers, can be brought together more easily.

The site may expand in the future, broadening the range of information resources available.

The CGVlibrary could eventually include not only Centers’ online catalogs, but also full-text versions of all CGIAR Center publications, should they become available in electronic form.

The expansion may not be limited to the CGIAR network, either but will also cater for details of other development partners.

“The development of the CGVlibrary has motivated outside organizations to try to take advantage of it,” says Nancy Walczak, the head of IFPRI’s computer services and the project’s technical advisor.

Outside groups with information on agriculture or the environment to offer may adapt their databases to the CGVlibrary’s technology:

This would make making these external resources accessible within the website, eliminating the need to follow a link to a separate site.

“Integrating their data with the Virtual Library system would streamline the research process: a user could retrieve more full-text documents or references in fewer steps,” says Walczak.

He notes that this kind of simplified data and interface should make the CGVlibrary more valuable to researchers, both inside and outside the CGIAR Center network.