APSIG newsletter no. 60: March 2006

Secretariat of the Pacific Community Library moves ahead

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Library has initiated several projects for 2006. One of these projects is to digitize and mount online a collection of its historic photographs. SPC Library has approximately 8000 photographs, mostly black and white, from the early 1950s to date.

A second and very important project is to produce a system-wide OPAC. SPC library is actually a system of libraries: the main library is at the headquarters in Noumea, which serves the programs located in Noumea, corporate services and responds to regional demands; there a six small branch libraries in Suva, associated with the Suva campus of SPC and which relate to and serve the programs and projects based in Suva. The Suva libraries use a variety of cataloguing and classification systems and work on different software packages, most of which are not library catalogue software. The Noumea library is online and then by clicking on the 'Library Catalog' link. None of the catalogues of the Suva libraries are online. The task is to harmonize the catalogs by migrating all the various catalogs, which are currently on disparate systems, onto one unified integrated library database management system and to produce an OPAC for all of SPC various branch libraries.

A third project is the forthcoming PIRG (Pacific Islands Regional Group) section meeting of IAMSLIC (International Association of Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers). As a corporate library that serves its organisation's programmes, SPC library collection follows the work of the corporate divisions of SPC. One of the major areas of work is in fisheries, aquaculture and maritime issues. In order to provide information resources we depend heavily on information networks. SPC participates in PIMRIS, the Pacific Island Marine Resource Information System, based at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, and in IAMSLIC It provides a free ILL service via a Z39.50 catalogue, a Union List of Serials, a duplicate exchange service and a listserve. With the aim of promoting resource sharing among fisheries and marine science libraries and information centers in the Pacific region, SPC library and PIMRIS will host a Pacific Islands Regional Group of IAMSLIC meeting in conjunction with the SPC Heads of Fisheries meeting 3-7 April 2006. Contact SPC library (please remove '.nospam' from address), if you are interested in more information.

Rachele Oriente, Librarian, South Pacific Commission