Caribbean Librarian for Agriculture

At the Agricultural Information and Documentation Service of the Americas ( SIDALC) 10  meeting held in Costa Rica in September 2009, Kathryn Duncan, Information and Communication Specialist, IICA -Trinidad made a presentation on Agricultural Information Services in the Caribbean. The third SIDALC strategic workshop, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), through the Orton Commemorative Library, technical coordinator of the Agricultural Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC), brought together information specialists from the agriculture and environment sector to analyze the current state of the service, share experiences and learn of new trends in the management of information worldwide.

Roger James on his Caribbean Fruits page says " Depending on the island, a fruit can have a different name, for example Mammy Apple (St Vincent) while other island(s) called it Mamisiporte which is a soft fruit the size of an avacado which has a faint smell and taste."

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)'s  has a web portal which provides numerous information resource materials on agricultural and rural development. Anancy, the CTA Virtural Resource Center provides technical publications, proceedings, policy briefs and  rural radio materials. The information is organised by Themes, Collections and Countries. The following themes are used: Agriculture - general; Animal Production and Health; Crop Production and Protection; Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Management; Fisheries and Aquaculture; Information and Communication Management; Institutions and Services; Marketing and Trade; Miscellaneous; Post Harvest Technology and Processing; Rural Dynamics. Searches can also be executed by individual Caribbean countries.

Carib-Agri-L, is a discussion list that focuses on the exchange of information and ideas on agriculture in the Caribbean. The List is open to anyone and is moderated by staff of FAO’s Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean in Barbados.  Discussion on the list is informal and comments made by members, including FAO staff, are not deemed to necessarily represent the views of the organizations or agencies for which they work. The vitality for the List depends on the participation and involvement of its members. Consequently, all members are invited to participate in the List via questions, answers and supplying information. You may join by sending the following message: subscribe Carib-Agri-L to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org to leave the list, send the following message: unsubscribe Carib-Agri-L to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org

The Directory was compiled and edited by Shamin Renwick (Librarian, Agriculture and Life Sciences Division, Main Library, UWI and Past President of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) , Claudette de Freitas (Information Networks Manager, Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and Liz  M. Pagán ( Director of Agricultural Experiment Station Library , University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) Puerto Rico) The idea of publishing this arose among its editors and then Director of the US National Agriculture Library , Dr. Peter Young, at a meeting of the Agricultural Libraries Section in the Annual ACURIL Conference held in Puerto Rico in June 2007. There was no available comprehensive listing bringing together Caribbean agricultural information sources and it was felt that this type of publication would be extremely useful for all stakeholders in agriculture: policy makers, researchers, extension...

The objective of this Caribbean Librarians for Agriculture (CLA) Blog is to highlight online information resources which support sustainable Agriculture (including Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Development and the Environment) in the Caribbean. Resources to manage online information will also be discussed. This blog is an initiative of the Agricultural Librarians Network of Trinidad and Tobago (ALINTT). It is hoped that policy makers, researchers, students, extension personnel, farmers and persons interested in agriculture will find the resources posted on the site useful. Members at this time are: Mrs. Shamin Renwick, Librarian, Agriculture and Life Sciences Division, Main Library , The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus , Trinidad and Tobago. Mrs. Claudette de Freitas, Information Networks Manager, Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) . Ms. Kathryn Duncan, Information and Communication Specialist, Inter-American Institute for Co...