Eahil Dublin 2009 Workshop

Animal Health Parallel Paper Session (Thursday 14.00-15.30)

Grey Literature in Veterinary Medicine: Extending the Pelzer/Wiese Study

Presenter: Esther Carrigan
Authors: Robin Sewell, Taryn Resnick, Ana Ugaz, Esther Carrigan, Medical Sciences Library, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States.

Problem: The importance of grey literature to veterinary medicine is largely unknown. Only one study has been published: Pelzer and Wiese performed a systemic analysis of veterinary medicine grey literature (2003, JMLA, 41(9): 434-441). These authors analyzed grey literature references for articles in 12 core veterinary journals published in 2000, using a fairly restrictive definition of grey literature, and reported the incidence of grey literature references as between 2.5–10%. There has been no bibliometric re-examination of the role of grey literature in veterinary medicine since this report.

Objective: To produce an estimate of the percentage of veterinary medical literature that is grey, employing bibliometric methods and using a widely-accepted standard definition of grey literature.

Methods: This research will re-examine a representative subset of veterinary research and clinical journals from the 12 studied by Pelzer and Wiese and perform citation analysis for 2007, using an expanded definition of grey literature to include all works “not controlled by commercial publishing interests where publishing is not the primary activity of the organizations” (Second International Conference on Grey Literature (GL2) consensus definition). Article references for these journals will be retrieved using Scopus with additional citation information obtained from CAB Abstracts (Ovid). Grey references will be assigned to categories, based on origin, with the addition of the categories “grey article” and “non-grey article” used to extend the project to meet the GL2 definition.

Outcomes/Conclusion: Preliminary data indicate a substantial increase from 2000 to 2007 in the volume of citations to be classified and analyzed. Combined with the broadened definition of grey literature, this reveals a professional literature vastly increased in scope and accessibility since 2000. The data sets are unexpectedly massive; preliminary results are presented derived from two journals. We expect to provide a more complete picture of the contribution of grey literature to veterinary medicine and anticipate the final results will confirm a much higher percentage of grey literature references in veterinary medicine literature.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) archives will be available to the public online

Presenter & Author: Marie Teissier, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), Paris, France

The need to fight animal diseases at global level led to the creation of the Office international des epizooties through the international Agreement signed on January 25th 1924.The OIE, now called the World Organisation for Animal Health started publishing in 1927. Its main publication remained, for almost sixty years the “Bulletin of the Office international des epizooties”, which reflects, through scientific articles, official documents, Conference proceedings, General Sessions reports, Resolutions and recommendations, statistics on animal health and reports on all its activities the true history of the Organisation since its creation.The Bulletin, together with the scientific articles published since 1981 in the Scientific and Technical Review, the International health standards published in the “International Animal Health Code” since 1968, the “Manual of Diagnostics and vaccines” since 1989, statistics on animal health worldwide published annually in “Statistics on Animal Health” and “World Animal Health” since 1959 are a valuable contribution to the improvement of animal health worldwide and a rich historical resource in the field of public health.

This is the reason why the World Organisation for Animal Health decided in September 2008 to undertake the huge task of digitising these main archives in order to make them available to the public on its website. The communication and sharing of these resources on the Internet should meet the need for information of Governmental Authorities, Diplomatic Missions, Delegates to the OIE, Observers from other International Organisations, on the one hand; and the many Academies, Learned Societies, Teaching Faculties, particularly the many veterinarians, biologists, laboratory workers, epidemiologists, statisticians, livestock producers, historians, students, on the other hand, who, in their various way, are interested in the work and the accomplishments of the OIE over the years.

This paper will present a live example of collaboration and communication in virtual spaces in order to facilitate online collaboration and interaction.

Liaison librarian: prospects in information specialist’s tasks (case animal health)

Presenter: Raisa Livonen
Authors: Raisa Iivonen, Esko Siirala, Teodora Oker-Blom, Viikki Science Library, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Aim: The aim of the presentation is to describe the process of becoming a specialized campus library during a large structural re-organization of the University Libraries. The challenge is how to maintain the existing services and refine them when the legislation of all the universities is renewed and simultaneously the economical situation is becoming tighter.

Methods:The methods will be: gathering information on similar cases, analyzing the existing situation and evaluating the best practices already working, creating a fruitful way of communication in the library and with co-operators, making prognoses and systematically doing documentation of the process. The case of veterinary medicine librarianship is presented. ResultsThe process needs to be done during the academic year 2008-2009. The new organization will start 1.1.2010, so results are needed in Spring 2009. Expectations are high: the new library structure, the services and the welfare of the staff should be excellent, all this with less resources!

Discussion: How is this possible? How will the Campus library satisfy the needs of a Campus which unites a multidisciplinary science community of more than 6,000 students and 1,500 teachers, a home to a wide range of life science researchers and students in such fields as environmental science, veterinary medicine, food research and economics. Numerous international research groups also work on the Viikki Campus. The new situation will create a lot of challenges, focusing on the liaison librarian’s work, presently done by subject area specialists. As an example of liaison librarian’s tasks the work of the animal health information specialist is described. Larger projects e.g. the Finnish General Upper Ontology YSO connect the specialist to the academic community.

Conclusions: The Liaison librarian is situated between the scientific community, its information needs and the University libraries network, with all its possibilities to create services. Without the professional and social back up of the subject specialists –colleagues world wide - the task would be impossible.

Collaborating Across Libraries and Institutions to Collect, Ensure Access and Preserve Veterinary Grey Literature

Presenter: Esther Carrigan

Authors: Esther Carrigan, Joe Jaros, Ana Ugaz, Medical Sciences Library, Texas A&M University, College Station TX U.S.A.

Objective: To develop a comprehensive, collaborative plan to collect, ensure access and preserve the veterinary grey literature. A significant portion of the literature of veterinary medicine is grey literature. Although three United States national libraries as well as all veterinary medical libraries cover some portion of the veterinary grey literature there is no comprehensive plan.

Methods/Process: In September 2007, seven veterinary librarians from universities in the United States and the American Veterinary Medical Association met at Texas A&M University for a 3-day session to discuss issues surrounding the veterinary grey literature, brainstorm ideas of potential remedies, and create the beginnings of an action plan. This group, known as the Veterinary Archives and Grey Literature Steering Group, is providing leadership for this cooperative venture.

Outcomes/Conclusions: In March 2008 a survey on veterinary collection practices, emphasizing archives and grey literature handling, was sent to librarians at all AVMA accredited schools of veterinary medicine. Response rate for survey completion was nearly 75%. Based on the information gathered from the steering group and analysis of survey data, an action plan was created. Several initiatives have been undertaken to publicize the project and build collaborations. Members of the steering group have presented at national and international meetings for diverse audiences. We have developed a collaborative grant application to fund a demonstration project to digitize and place in institutional repositories a key bibliographic resource in veterinary medicine that pre-dates the existence of any online indexing tools. This project will serve as a model for local efforts to digitize, make web-accessible and preserve veterinary grey literature. Research is underway to update and expand the literature analysis done in 2000 concerning the relative proportion of veterinary grey literature. As the action plan unfolds, collaboration will be expanded internationally to identify, retrieve and preserve veterinary content in veterinary and non-veterinary libraries.