KNOCK, KNOCK… KNOCKING…ON OUR’S USERS’ DOOR….
THE INFORMATION POLICY AT ISTITUTO ZOOPROFILATTICO SPERIMENTALE DELLE REGIONI LAZIO E TOSCANA (IZS-LT): A CASE STUDY
Cristina FERRI, Gabriella LOFFREDO, Patrizia GRADITO, Antonella Italia BOZZANO.*
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Regioni Lazio e Toscana, Via Appia Nuova, 111 – 00178 Roma – Italy
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INTRODUCTION
The Documentation Department at Istituto Zooprofilattico delle Regioni Lazio e Toscana (IZS LT), operates in a Research Institute within the Veterinary Public Health in the Tuscany and Latium Regions.
Although the Library holdings account for a few thousands of records, the Library has provided advanced services thanks to the consortium set up by means of the cooperation with the Istituti Zooprofilattici (IIZZSS) located in 10 Italian regions and thanks to the library inter-exchange with other national and international libraries. Its mission is to support research as well as scientific updating.
IZS-LT policy aims at fostering information services to its users, such as local health boards, veterinary public health operators, free-lance workers, breeders, food producers and laboratory technicians, researchers and students. The attitude of IZS-LT towards the territory within its province has remote roots and is targeted to a fidelity relationship between the producers and the Public Institution, aiming at the livestock protection and safeguard in the Latium Region as well as the protection of animal origin food safety.
In the last years the non-representational relationships between the Institute and its stakeholders have shown a growing demand of a well-grounded, effective scientific information, offering to the Library staff the opportunity to detect latent users.
Especially in the Latium Region, where no Veterinary Medicine Faculty is active, the Library at IZS-LT represents a beacon for students and researchers as to the disciplines concerning this sector.
Considering the field of food safety relating to animal origin food, the emerging infectious diseases (BSE, avian influenza, blue tongue, etc.) which have involved public opinion and aroused the interest of mass media, have urged a targeted information for the operators performing official food control and granting epidemiologic surveillance. The identification of the stakeholders has allowed the Library to focus on the remarkable implicit information needs.
These users are workers operating directly in the territory at full time, performing audit and control activities who need a continuous updating in Veterinary Health and law, who claim a lack of time to be invested in information retrieval, selection and management, due to a number of causes:
§ The exponential growth of the number of scientific journals is puzzling in the selection activity of the most appropriate articles;
§ The lack of time to be invested in sorting the specialized documents because of the commitment on territorial work activities;
§ The poor knowledge of the English language which limits these users outside the plethora of informative resources offered by the international specialized date banks;
§ The difficulty to pace the ever-increasing number of national and international laws and rules concerning the Veterinary Public Health;
§ The inadequacy of the information technology tools in many local public health boards (AUSL) which does not allow to meet the information needs relating to research and scientific updating. A recent survey carried out in IZSLT shows that a high number of AUSL have no access to the Internet, not even to specialized scientific data banks.
Considering this framework, the Library staff has focused on its acquisition policy, by developing its holdings and by setting up a certain number of capillary and advanced user-oriented services aiming at converting the potential users into well-informed and satisfied users.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The Library provides several services and the present study is focusing on two free of charge editorial activities: a monthly review of specialized journals and a forthnightly legislative bulletin. The scientific review started in June 2002 and the title was: “Alimenti di origine animale: notizie dalla stampa specialistica” (translator’s note: Food of animal origin: news from the specialized journals, later on referred to as The Review).
In the beginning, it was made up of 10 articles concerning the field of animal origin food hygiene, from specialized national and international journals within the Library holdings. The article selection was carried out on the basis of well-determined parameters:
§ Relevance and topical interest of the themes (BSE, GMO, etc)
§ Quality and authoritativeness of the journals to be sorted
§ Alert on the innovations as to the legislative provisions published in the specialized journals
§ The right ratio between typically scientific articles and operative, practical articles
§ Attention to provide and grant information in each different food sector
§ Promotion of an international approach and overview by proposing two articles in English
The technical editorial staff is made up of librarians and specialized veterinarians. In addition to the list of the essential references of the articles selected, The Review is supplied with the abstracts drawn up by this technical staff, to provide the most exhaustive information to the users. At the beginning The Review was sent to a small group of users by e-mail but since 2004 it can be accessed through the IZS-LT web site, in PDF format, in order to allow a wider dissemination.
The recipients of The Review (forming a dedicated mailing list) can submit a document delivery request to the Library to receive the full text of the article, in conformity with the copyright law, via fax, mail or to be handed out in the Library.
Since February 2005, the documentation offer has increased, thus leading the editorial staff to opt for a change in The Review title, which was modified into: “Dagli alimenti al controllo di filiera: argomenti dalla stampa specialistica” (translator’s note: From food to food chain control: selection from the specialized journals). The thematic areas previously selected have been developed and extended to further fields and sectors, especially to animal health, breeding and livestock production hygiene. This choice has been urged by the users’ demand as well as by the necessity to tune this information tool to the evolution of the food safety sector.
The bibliographic references offered to The Review’s users increased from 10 to 15, including the number of the articles in English, which raised to three.
It is addressed and targeted to the professional stakeholders, workers and operators, mainly veterinarians and officials but also researchers and students, especially in the Latium and Tuscany regions. The users’ mailing list has been carried out by contacting the Veterinary Public Services located in the Latium and Tuscany regions, the IIZZSS throughout the national country as well as the Universities.
Furthermore, a capillar promotion strategy about the review has been pursued during the various continuous education events organized by The Training, Documentation and Communication Department at the IZSLT, trying to arouse the interest of the audience and stimulating the potential users. It is noteworthy also that the informal advertisement of the enthusiast users who have passed the word has played a remarkable role.
The Legislative Bulletin was launched in January 2003 and it is made up of a selection of legislative provisions concerning the Veterinary Public Health in Italy and in the EU. At first, also this informative resource has been published and delivered resorting to a mailing list and then, since July 2004, a higher number of users has accessed it in the Internet in the website of the Institute.
At present, the mailing list accounts for 244 people, 32 out of them were included during the year 2004. Also the recipients of the Legislative Bulletin are mostly Public Veterinarians.
This informative resource is carried out by the Library staff who sort specific legal sources such as
The Official Journal of The European Union, The Official Journal of The Italian Republic, The Official Journal of The Latium Region, The Official Journal of the Tuscany Region, the acts by The Unified State-Region Conference, as well as any provision issued by various Public Boards as binding regulations for determinate work activities.
In the beginning, The Legislative Bulletin was actually a mere alerting service: it recorded the essential references of the rules selected and the source. Since June 2004, this informative resources has been renewed graphically and the records have been furnished with the link to the full text of the rules listed. This choice was due to the need to improve the usability of this informative resource and to enhance a different approach in our users’ browsing activity aiming at their independence, self-study and awareness in selecting the most authoritative information web sites in a time-saving way.
RESULTS
The data herewith enclosed are relating to The Review, since The Legislative Bulletin can be browsed at our users’ own wish and cannot be screened and measured through usage reports.
The number of the full text articles of The Review delivered since June 2002 is equal to 3717, showing an ever-growing trend: from 347 article requests during the year 2002, to 1094 article requests in 2005 (Fig. n. I), providing for 49,5 articles on the average per month in 2002, up to 97,66 in the first half-year in 2006 (Fig. n. II).
The number of the users who have requested the full text articles has steadily increased: from 171 in 2002, to 406 in 2005 (Fig. n. III), averaging 24,4 units per month in 2002, up to 37 in the first half-year in 2006 (Fig. n. IV).
At present, the users of The Review amount to 340 units. In the years 2002-2003 the number of our mailing list recipients was equal to 241, with a rise of 33 registered people in 2004, 30 in 2005 and 36 in 2006.
The users have been subdivided into five groups: 1) staff belonging to the Health Boards of the Latium Region; 2) staff belonging to the Health Boards of the Tuscany Region; 3) staff belonging to IZSLT in Rome, where it has its Headquarters; 4) staff belonging to IZSLT in the territorial diagnostic centres; 5) other stakeholders (University and research Institutes; Armed Forces; the other IIZZSS and Health Boards in other regions and free lance workers).
As it is shown in Fig. n. V, the higher number of users relates to the Health Boards in the Tuscany Region, followed by the ones in the Latium Region.
The Review has proved that, as an information resource, it has successfully allured the remote users that would have hardly visited the Library at the IZSLT.
It is noteworthy that in February 2003, a survey was carried out for the first time, in order to screen and study the customer satisfaction as to the Review, thus investigating into the following aspects:
1. overall appraisal of the service;
2. interest in the article content;
3. technical scientific level of the articles;
4. considerations as to the articles in English;
5. timeliness in the document delivery;
6. benefit relating to one’s updating needs.
By analysing the results produced by the above-mentioned survey, the following data have emerged:
1. a very positive opinion of the service provided: 95% of the interviewed people has defined it “very good”;
2. The content of the articles has been considered “very interesting” (64.7% has defined it “very good”);
3. the technical-scientific level has been judged “appropriate” by 96% of the interviewed people;
4. 85% of the interviewed people has considered the articles in English as a “valid” choice;
5. a remarkable satisfaction is expressed relating to the timeliness of the document delivery service: 79% has defined it “very good”;
6. This service is deemed rather effective concerning the personal information and updating needs: 62% has defined it “very good”.
CONCLUSIONS
In addition to the daily informal feedback received by the users and registered by the Library staff, the above-described data show a remarkable satisfaction as to the above-mentioned editorial products which contributes to meet an actual informative need.
It is significant that the Library has addressed its attention to latent and potential users, therefore to those people that could not enjoy the documentation services, thus increasing the number of its actual users. This rise in the Library users has enhanced a more efficient and cost-effective use of the information resources available, since in the last years, the Library has invested in a series of specialized data banks and bibliographic data bases.
Furthermore, in the territory where the Institute is located, an ever-increasing exchange between the veterinary medicine stakeholders has occurred, impacting also into the supply of further services, such as reference and document delivery.
This analysis urges the Library to design and conceive much more user-oriented information services, convinced that when a “user-friendly” Library knocks on the user’s door, it often receives a warm welcome.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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