1. A Documentation Unit at the OIE What for? For whom?
From information to data processing
Comments (with copyright) / Commentaires (soumis au Copyright) :
Marie Teissier – Information Specialist
Publications Department

2. The story starts

3. with the creation of the OIE

5. Soon after, many meetings took place

6. and, to discuss and decide the actions to be taken,

7. each year, the Member Countries met at the General Session

8. Reports were written, which had to be recorded

9. The first issue of the Bulletin was published in July 1927

10. 1927-1981 The golden age of the Bulletin
The Bulletin grew thicker and thicker over the
years.
It contained EVERYTHING:
Working Documents and Final Reports of the OIE General Sessions of the International Committee
Resolutions and recommendations adopted by Regional Commissions and the International Committee since 1921 (Paris Conference)

11. The Bulletin
Conference proceedings, seminars, workshops, consultations, mission reports, minutes of meetings organised by the OIE or with OIE collaboration, Commission and group reports
Scientific articles
Statistics and reports on animal health situation in the Member Countries

12. Resolutions

13. The Bulletin

14. As time went on…
the Bulletin could no longer contain all the information published or issued by the organisation
New publications were launched, among which the International Standards:
The « Code » in 1968
The « Manual » in 1989
1982 saw the creation of the Scientific and Technical review
A new Bulletin was then published monthly

15. The Review and the newBulletin

16. First edition of the Code

17. As time went on…
World Animal Health began to be published annually in English, French and Spanish in 1985
Disease Information, a weekly publication was distributed in the same three languages, from 1988 till 1995: its content is now disseminated via the OIE Web site
Monographs, studies, technical publications were also issued

18. Technical publications

19. As time went on… Commissions and groups grew in number and frequency.
Meetings were held, reports were written, sometimes published, or printed and kept in files in the different Departments of the Office.
The specialists needed relevant scientific information in order to perform their tasks.
The records had to be registered, and the information provided: the time had come for a documentation unit to be created. This unit, first called “Library” was created in 1993.

20. The first years of the Documentation Unit
A few months were spent exploring the OIE’s Headquarters in order to try to gather all publications (official or “gray”) in one place, the “Library”.
A few years were then spent looking for and gathering as much information as possible to help the Central Bureau in its everyday tasks, indexing in the OIE database as many scientific articles from as many publications as possible.

21. The missions of the Documentation Unit
In 1996, the OIE took out its first subscription to a scientific veterinary bibliographic database (CABI Vet CD)
With the rapid development of data processing and huge specialised scientific databases, it became obvious that the mission of the Documentation unit in the OIE should not be to compete with them, but to focus on other tasks.

22. The missions of the Documentation Unit
These tasks were:
Recording documents received or acquired by the OIE for its scientific information
Recording documents issued by the OIE and the various bodies with which it is in contact
Managing the history of the OIE, in paper and/or electronic form

23. The missions of the Documentation Unit
Providing OIE personnel with accurate and up-to-date scientific information in their field of activities related to the OIE
Providing all users with accurate, targeted and up-to-date information on the activities of the OIE

24. The role of the Information specialist
should thus be to:
Provide the agents of the OIE with the best sources of information in their speciality
Provide the persons working with the OIE with the best information about the activities of the Organisation
Communicate this information to the public as widely as possible, in order to let them know as much as possible about the OIE and its activities

25. HOW has this been achieved up to now?
In the Documentation Centre:
Management of paper and electronic collections
Management of Alexandrie, the internal OIE database
Document research and supply
On the OIE Intranet Site:
“Virtual library”:
Online internal resources
Online external resources

26. Documentation heading on the OIE Intranet

27. Internal resources: Power Point presentations

28. Internal resources: Trainees reports

29. Internal resources: OIE Documents

30. External resources: Reviews and databases online

31. External resources: Reviews and databases online

32. The scientific databases
The three most important are:
External databases with subscriptions:
« Animal Science », the CABI animal science bibliographic database
« Web of Science » the ISI Thompson bibliographic database
Internal database managed by the Information Specialist
“Alexandrie”

33. Animal Science – Web of Science For whom?
They allow scientific research on topics of interest within the world’s scientific literature
They provide scientists with the information they need to keep up-to-date with the evolution of knowledge and research in their specialised field
They help them prepare their papers and presentations in order to participate in meetings and Conferences, or to write their articles for journals

34. Animal Science – Web of Science For whom?
These databases are meant for internal use: they are intended for the agents and persons working for the OIE
They reflect the scientific research in the academic world and give access to the latest works and studies in one’s field of activities
They are the necessary tools for a scientific organisation in the age of computers

35. Animal Science (CABI)

36. Animal Science

37. Web of Knowledge (Thomson Scientific)

38. Web of Science

39. Web of Science

40. Journal Citation Reports

41. Journal Citation Reports

42. Internal database: Alexandrie

43. What is Alexandrie?
Alexandrie is a bibliographic database developed by GB Concept.
It was chosen for the management of the OIE’s documentation centre in 1995 and is now fully devoted to the activities of the OIE.
It is aimed at keeping a record of all documents issued or published by the Organisation.

44. What is Alexandrie? Each document indexed in the database can be
easily retrieved by searching by keywords.
More and more full text is now also available to the user.

45. What is Alexandrie?

46. Alexandrie – Internal database

47. What can you find in Alexandrie?
Official OIE publications:
Monographs
Conference and Seminar Proceedings
Periodical publications including:
Reports published in the Bulletin since its creation (project*)
Articles from the Scientific and Technical Review since its creation (1981)
Technical items presented at the International Committee

48. What can you find in Alexandrie?
Workshop and mission reports
General Session final reports
Resolutions and recommendations
Specialised and Scientific Commission reports
Regional Commission reports
Working Group reports
Ad hoc group reports

49. Alexandrie

50. Alexandrie

51. Whom is it for?
In brief, it tries to provide the same kind of information
contained in the first Bulletin, a true reflection of the life
and activities of the OIE, to the following:
International, Intergovernmental or Regional Organisations working or having a cooperation agreement with the OIE
Governments, Institutions, Administrations, Public Services
Associations, private sector organisations

52. Whom is it for? The « Public »: What is the « Public »?
All persons interested in the activities of the OIE
All persons looking for documents relating to the activities of the OIE: students, teachers, researchers, scientists, veterinarians, lawyers, traders, publishers, librarians, farmers…
All persons working or having worked or wishing to work with the OIE and keep informed of its activities

53. Alexandrie

54. Alexandrie

55. Alexandrie

56. Alexandrie

57. Alexandrie

58. In short… Two sources of information: External: For internal use only:
Access to Reviews and periodicals on line
Reference tools (glossaries, terminology, handbooks, manuals, etc.)
Scientific databases:
Animal Science
Web of Science

59. In short… Two sources of information: Internal: For internal use:
Power Point presentation database
Trainee reports
OIE’s documents
For external use (mainly):
Alexandrie, the OIE’s database of internal resources

60. Projects to improve the communication of information about the OIE
Integration of some of the data of Alexandrie into the OIE Internet Web site, as the information it contains is intended for the “Public”
Digitalisation of the old “paper” collection of OIE publications printed before the age of the computer: Bulletin*, Review from 1982 to 2002, Codes, Manuals, World Animal Health, and integration into the OIE Internet Web site through Alexandrie

61. Thank you for your attention

62. 12 rue de Prony, 75017 Paris, France - www.oie.int – oie@oie.int
Organisation Mondiale de la Santé Animale
World Organisation for Animal Health
Organización Mundial de Sanidad Animal
12 rue de Prony, Paris, France - –