Field Trip at International Rice Research Institute

Field Trip at International Rice Research Institute


Reflection


Last Wednesday of 26th of August 2009 our LIS 260 class went out for a field trip, where? ... at the International Research Institute (IRRI) in Laguna. The purpose…is to expose us
to different Information Retrieval System (IRS). It was a breath taking, nourishing, and informative field trip. A breath taking one because of the scenery admired by everyone, nourishing because of mouth watering cuisines of food served at Palaisdaan, and informative
because of the information that the group acquired & learned at IRRI.



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Things I learned from the “Field Trip”



International Rice Research Institute is a non-profit agricultural research that started operations in 1961 where the main goal “is to find a sustainable ways to improve the well being of the present & future generations of poor rice farmers & consumers while at the same time protecting the natural environment”
IRRI have the world’s largest collection of rice literature. Published the first Rice Bibliography (1951-1960) in 1963. IRRI started partial computerization in 1989 using Cardbox Plus application, used Innopac 1986, and in 2002 acquired Millennium system up to the present.

Millennium system fits very well for IRRI because “Millennium’s modules reliably support simple, everyday library transactions on IRRI while at the same time meeting the demands of the web librarian or circulation manager on their cataloging & indexing task” the only constraint that limits the use of Millennium system is the budget for the maintenance of the system. It is typical for a library having a problem regarding budget, but IRRI’s Librarians & staff find ways to be innovative and creative on how to improve their services regardless of budget constraints.
IRRI’s online library collection of journals started in 2001 and it is accessible via the online catalog, organized alphabetically, but because of limited budget there are journals articles not available in the library. Librarians at IRRI where forced to find ways on how to supplement further the online collection by making a list of free online databases & integrating it to make a parallel links of e- journals to make it accessible for IRRI’s users which the community responded positively.

http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.org/ features linkages such as
*Main Catalog Search for materials owned by the IRRI Library
*E-Journals Find direct links to full-text journals
*E-Reference Sources Browse for Reference Web sites by category
*Online Databases Search for articles, citations and other documents
*Other Library Catalogs Search catalogs from other libraries worldwide

http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.org/ is a one stop shop url that caters IRRI’s library users in a most convenient regardless of fiscal constraints.
IRRI also offers “Document Delivery” service where delivery for poor countries is free of charge & a USS10 is charged per article for developed countries. “Documents are delivered conventionally (photocopies via snail mail) or electronic format as e-mail attachments.


*Access to information should promote equality not only for personal development as well as for global alleviation in overcoming barriers of poverty & despair. Dealing with limited resources on libraries because of fiscal constraint fellow librarians at IRRI exercise their creativity in finding sustainable ways to maintain existing system & services making all available possible resources accessible for IRRI’s clients.

*Technological advancement (e.g. adapting web 2.0) bridges the gap between barriers on making the library able to function at its best creating a one stop shop for the IRRI clients.

*Budget creates a big factor for a certain library to survive. Though as of now IRRI library is still able & functioning, but because of fiscal difficulties the fear of being closed is always at the back of the minds of the IRRI Librarians and staff.