About NAIS

The national agricultural information system is a collaborative partnership of agricultural research and development organisations in Papua New Guinea. The objective of NAIS is to maintain and exchange library and information resources to benefit both the individual institutions and the country as a whole.

NAIS currently comprises seven institutions. Collectively, the NAIS partners cover a broad spectrum of interests in the agriculture sector, with offices or research stations in all but one of PNG’s provinces. The seven NAIS partner institutions are:

  • Cocoa Coconut Institute of Papua New Guinea (CCI)
  • Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC)
  • Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL)
  • National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)
  • New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL)
  • Papua New Guinea Oil Palm Research Association (OPRA)
  • Ramu Sugar Ltd (RSL).

Central to NAIS is a library catalogue database, recording the holdings of the 19 library collections in the partner institutions. This is a collaborative venture that began life in December 2000 as a library catalogue system for NARI. In October 2001, the system was revised and the PNG Coffee Research Institute, now part of CIC, was invited to join. Based on the success of running a multi-site, centralised library catalogue, participation into the system was extended to other organisations. NBPOL and RSL joined in April, and CCI in July 2005. DAL joined in May 2006, and OPRA is expected to become a full participant in late 2006. Whilst primarily a library catalogue database with over 30,000 records, that’s not all it is. Users are able to access records of 609 titles published by 18 PNG institutions, all available for sale or free of charge.

All NAIS partners are committed to identifying, organising, documenting and sharing their information assets, including their libraries and publications, for the benefit of their own staff and other partner institutions. To do so improves the management of agricultural information in Papua New Guinea, and contributes to effective decision-making, more credible research and improved services to farmers.

Software, standards and tools

At the operator level, the system is managed using Inmagic DB/TextWorks, a Windows-based information management software application. To make the content of the database accessible on the web, a variety of open source software has been utilised. The functionality of the individual computer system has been recreated for the web, with support from the ACNARS project.

The operators, currently numbering 12 people at 9 sites, have been trained to catalogue (drawing on data entry standards established for the Pacific Islands region under SCAINIP), index (using CAB Thesaurus), and classify (using Agdex Adapted for Use in the Pacific Islands). It is their work that is represented in the content of the database.

Last updated 14 September 2006.