34 th IAMSLIC Conference, September, Suva Fiji Access to Pacific marine information for the Pacific Islands Countries and Territories Panel Discussion PIMRIS

What is PIMRIS ? PIMRIS is the acronym for Pacific Islands Marine Resources Information System It is a formal cooperative network of library and information centres concerned with the development of fisheries and other marine resources in the tropical Pacific

PIMRIS was established in 1989; Participants include marine and fisheries libraries in ministries of departments in many Pacific nations as well as several regional agencies: –Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) –Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) –South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) –Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) –University of the South Pacific (USP) A Coordinating Unit is based within the School of Marine Studies of USP

What does PIMRIS do? The aim of PIMRIS is to improve access to marine resources information in the Pacific Islands. Participants do this by: Acquiring, cataloging and disseminating documents in print and electronic formats; Creating new information products (such as reports, journals & newsletters, posters, bibliographies, websites & databases) and services (question and answer & current awareness services); and Supporting the development of regional libraries and information centres through training and technical assistance.

PIMRIS CU information products - 1 PIMRIS Newsletter Published quarterly Distributed in print format to more than 150 recipients in the region E-version available on the PIMRIS website Includes contributions by PIMRIS participants and invited authors, information about new books and information sources, conference notices, etc.

PIMRIS CU information products - 2 PIMRIS Website: –Contains information about PIMRIS (incl. contact information of all PIMRIS participants) –Provides access to full- text publications by PIMRIS participants ex.php?id=pimris ex.php?id=pimris

PIMRIS CU information products - 2 Moana is a regional database of South-Pacific specific living and non-living marine resource; DB consists of more than relevant records from the four regional organization’s library catalogues (FFA, SOPAC, SPC, USP) as well as the records from contributing marine departmental libraries around the region; Accessible on the Internet via PEIN website asp asp

From the List of PIMRIS recommendations… R5That participants provide PIMRIS CU with a copy of/or link to their departmental publications so that it could be added to the list of publications on PIMRIS website; R8That Moana is to be re-focused to fulfill the functions of the regional e-repository for “grey literature” produced and kept in regional marine and fisheries departments; R9That partners follow up relevant governmental publications for inclusion into Moana; R17That PIMRIS participants inform PIMRIS CU about changes in status of their publications as soon as they appear and about new serial titles so that necessary changes could be made to PIMRIS Monitoring List;

Moana e-repository – scope and coverage USP marine collection Collection of published and unpublished research, organizational documents and other scholarly materials produced by regional Fisheries Departments

Moana e-repository – goals and targets Facilitate exchange of scientific research related to marine/aquatic environments in Pacific region Preservation Visibility Access (on-line and CD-ROM)

Moana e-repository Selecting of relevant materials, scanning of the documents, submitting of PDF files/links to PIMRIS Regional Fisheries Departments Building and distributing digital library collection Moana e-repository PIMRIS Coordination Unit

ODIN-PIMRIS Project Background 2004 – Eight Session of GE-MIM –Capacity Survey by Suzie Davies 2005 & IODE XVIII and IODE XIX – support for Pacific ODIN project initiative 2005 – IAMSLIC PIRG Meeting 2007 – PIMRIS Survey of Fisheries and Marine Resources Libraries in the South Pacific 2007 – IODE Project Officers Meeting has approved GE-MIM/IODE proposal to implement ODIN Pacific network through PIMRIS CU

ODIN-PIMRIS May 2008 – IODE Training Course on Marine Information Management towards the Ocean Data and Information Network of the Pacific Island region, Oostende, Belgium. Participants – FFA, SPC, SOPAC, SPREP, PIMRIS

ODIN-PIMRIS Project Document Proposal for Pilot Project for a Regional Network of Pacific Island Marine Libraries incl. Proposed Work Plan for ODIN- PIMRIS Pilot Project

ODIN-PIMRIS Pilot Project ODIN-PIMRIS Project Secretariat/Coordination Unit – PIMRIS CU Major Collaborating Partners: PIMRIS, USP, SPREP, SPC, FFA, SOPAC, IOC-IODE, IAMSLIC Other Potential Partners: National fisheries and Marine Agencies for the Pacific Countries

ODIN-PIMRIS will focus on: Establishing a regional information portal Creating capacity at national and institutional level to use and contribute to the portal Promoting of the portal as a valuable information source for managers and decision makers

Promotes access to web-based information resources Promotes access to marine data resources Ensures an integrated access point for both marine information and data at the regional level

Project objectives Establish e-repositories of grey literature for Fisheries Departments (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa) –(incl. training program for e- repository skills) Establish procedures for collecting/uploading institutional data to regional e-repository Moana Support establishment of OAI compliant e- repositories for regional agencies (project partners (PIMRIS, SPREP, SOPAC, SPC, FFA)

ODIN-PIMRIS hopes to achieve: Better management of the institution’s published or semi-published information Secure long term storage and protection of this information Enhanced sharing of published and semi- published information Development of the skills and capacity to identify important resources available outside the institution

Capacity building opportunities Support for marine library twinning program Framework for integrated regional training programme Links to existing scholarships and training programmes on portal