Presentation Abstract: Cindy Roberts
Cindy Roberts, National Agriculture Library
The National Agriculture Library (NAL) and the Agricultural Research Service have joined together to form the Food Safety Research Information Office (FSRIO). The NAL will provide information on publicly and privately funded food safety research to the research community and general public. It will also work to prevent duplication of food safety research and highlight research gaps.
The goals of FSRIO include supporting the information requirements of the food safety research community, providing a central place to learn about food safety research efforts and providing the tools needed for making informed decisions about food safety research priorities. Current priorities of the FSRIO include defining stakeholder needs, networking with federal agencies, determining links to existing food safety research on the WWW and establishing if there is support for the creation of a food safety research database.
FSRIO is now creating a prototype website that will have links to food safety research sites, and a Food Safety Research Database. This database will help identify stakeholder needs. It will have standardized data fields and will contain a search engine.
The NAL also hosts an electronic email group, the FoodSafe Discussion Group. This unmoderated forum has over 2000 members from over 30 countries, and shares more than 450 messages per month. Its success depends entirely on the participation of its members.
