Physics Astronomy Mathematics-Asia Pacific Forum (PAM-APF)

Annual Report 1999-2000

During the past 12 months PAM-APF has had much publicity and the Forum has continued to develop, though progress has been slow. These developments are noted below.

PAM-APF Web site:

The Spanish translation of the web site was mounted and has been maintained by Maria-Eugenia Gomez, ESO Library, Chile. The Chinese web site has continued to be maintained by Dr Ye Ying, Zhejiang University Library, China.

First PAM-APF meeting: Hobart, Australia

The first PAM-APF meeting was held as a Focus session in Hobart, Australia, at the 8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference Strait to the Future, 22 - 26 August 1999. A report on this meeting is available at: http://www.alia.org.au/conferences/strait/papers/regan.html.

The main focus of the meeting was the establishment of email partnerships between librarians in developing countries with their colleagues in developed countries. Prior to the meeting, this suggestion was put forward by Dr Nancy Lane. However the meeting also requested that these partnerships should not be limited to the PAM subjects. Representatives from Fiji, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Australia were present.

Two people who participated in this meeting have been of particular assistance, namely, David Byrne and Ruth Foxlee.
Assistance provided to PAM-APF
David Byrne of British Telecommunications Pty C, has assisted in publicising PAM-APF in the UK and in contacting the organisers of the IFLA Twinning Database. Through David’s efforts a workshop has now been organised on the theme: "Links between Libraries: Twinning, Networks and Partnerships" . This Workshop, session 68, is sponsored by the UAP Core Programme and Continuing Professional Education Sections of IFLA.

Ruth Foxlee from University of Queensland (Aust) also offered to investigate other organisations with which PAM-APF might collaborate, to provide assistance to colleagues in developing countries. Although little advancement has been made in this area at this stage, Ruth has also provided editorial and other assistance in the development of PAM-APF.

Maas Corp has developed program prototypes for PAM-APF. In October 1999, the PAM-APF web site was redeveloped. Then, in February 2000, it developed a new online interactive questionnaire which enables the transfer of information directly to a database.

Email Partnership Program

The email partnership program has developed slowly. A test group of 10 PAM-APF participants was selected from the list at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/library/pam-apf/particip.htm . There were 5 responses and from these two partnerships were made. These included
E.F. Nievas (Argentina) with J. Holmquist (USA)
Qin Zeng-Fu (People's Republic of China) with Barbara Chu (Canada)

Brief guidelines were then rewritten which more appropriately reflect the style of these partnerships. A copy is attached to this report.

Although there will be regular monitoring of the partnerships to ensure their success, no comments have been received at this stage..

An announcement for regarding further partnerships is being written at the time of this report.

PAM-APF and APHERN

In October 1999, the PAM-APF Co-ordinator was invited by the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (AVCC)to attend the Asia Pacfic Higher Education Research Network’s (APHERN) initial workshop. This was held in Manila, Philippines. The purpose of the invitation was to promote the role of libraries within this Forum.

Networking developments in India and the Latin Americas
The development of the Forum continues in India. Christina Louis has been the co-ordinator in that region of local meetings which is investigating ways for co-operative ventures to assist librarians. She was also invited to presented a paper at the Conference Recent Advances in Information Technology 1999 READIT-99, October 28-29, 1999.

The final project that is currently underway, involves a preliminary study of PAM library facilities in the Latin Americas. This study is being undertaken by Myrna Koch and Maria Eugenia Gomez both of Chile. The study is to be presented by Brenda Corbin as a poster paper at the International Astronomical Union 24 General Assembly Meeting, Manchester, August 2000. The paper will also give an overview of PAM-APF. Other authors of the paper are Christina Louis and the PAM-APF Co-ordinator.

My thanks to all those that have been named and the many others who have given support to this Forum.

Jeanette Regan
PAM-APF Co-ordinator