Next to monitoring an ever increasing number of open access journals, and the replacement of certain print subscriptions with online-only editions, the library acquired a few new behavior and public health related online titles and additional electronic archives for some of its core journals, such as Acta Tropica, American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (all the way back to 1921), Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene and Trends in Parasitology.

Worthwhile electronic book packages focusing on our patrons’ major interests remain hard to find, so only a handful of individual e-books were acquired. The publication of printed books, however, kept thriving and 30 additional meters of shelf space were installed to more adequately display them in the main reading room. Also ITGPress published 3 new books during the year 2008.

TropMed Central Antwerp, the open access repository of ITM’s scientific publications from 2000 onwards, was launched in early spring and by the end of this year it had reached a substantial volume of over 2200 bibliographic descriptions, over 25% of which also featuring digital full-text in PDF format. Increasing this ratio with author pre- and post-prints, and integrating our repository with international harvesters such as OAIster and Driver will become the major challenges for 2009.

After the departure of Sarah Buys-Devillé at the end of last year, Els Mannaerts, a romanic philology graduate with formal library training, joined us in January to reinforce the library’s highly appreciated document delivery (DocDel) services. Next to the training sessions for our students, a lot of time and energy was invested in the upgrade of the Organization of Health Care Organization in Developing Countries bibliography and a new 5-years cumulative edition of the bibliographic report of ITM’s scientific publications.

Apart from the reorganisation of the historical archival collections, which were consulted several times by researchers examining medicine in Belgium’s colonial era, the image archives also received further attention. An inquiry, sent to every unit in the Institute, will result in a series of appraisal lists that will guide every department and support service to a more efficient document management strategy.

The collaborative VOWB (Flemish council of scientific libraries) project for future perpetual accessibility of at least one physical copy of each biomedical journal collection presently available in Flemish university and research libraries made good progress. One of this year’s workgroup meetings was hosted by ITM.

Photograph

The library staff outdoors on a sunny Belgian weekend. Left to right: Dirk Schoonbaert, Veerle Demedts, Kris Didden, Noor Goemaere and Els Mannaerts.

Publications

1. Demedts V. Organization of health care in developing countries; selected publications (2000-2008). Antwerpen: Institute of Tropical Medicine, The Library, 2008: 208 pp.
2. Schoonbaert D & Demedts V. Analysis of the leprosy literature indexed in Medline (1950-2007). Leprosy Rev 2008; 79: 387-400.

Dirk Schoonbaert

During 2007 the library’s focus remained virtually unchanged: organizing easy access to adequate printed and digital content, complemented by speedy electronic document delivery and other end-user services. Some of the traditional print collections were definitively replaced by ‘online only’ access. On the other hand we joined a collaborative project for future perpetual accessibility of at least one physical copy of each scientific journal collection presently available in Flemish university and research libraries.

A lot of time and effort was invested in the preparation of an open access repository of ITM’s scientific publications, to be launched publicly in the spring of 2008. Also the organization of ITM’s historical archives received a lot of attention and the library staff contributed to the archiving of various image collections. In November Sarah Buys-Devillé, our colleague for 8 years, left ITM, looking for new adventures.

Bibliometrics 2006 & 2007

ITM website

Dirk Schoonbaert

While the main aspirations of the library basically remain the same (e.g. collection development, document delivery, and user education - increasingly with a digital focus), during 2006 several practical action points received special attention. A lot of time and energy was invested in digitizing part of the collections and linking the resultant PDFs with the bibliographic databases. Next to thousands of recent tropical medicine related journal articles, all dissertations of the ITM master courses and 35 years of the Annales de la Société Belge de Médecine Tropicale (1960-1995) are by now available online.

The printed book collection grew by 595 new titles: 369 purchased and 226 obtained for free - 135 of these from the private collection of the late Honorary Director Prof. Dr. P. G. Janssens, graciously donated by his family. The total number of registered books now stands at 19,926. Book catalog records are now also being supplemented with electronic contents pages and cover pictures. In the course of 2006 the library's bibliographic databases were consulted 19,407 times in 6,219 separate sessions, which is roughly on the same level as last year.

The decline in document requests from other Belgian libraries in recent years was countered by a 15% increase during 2006. Of the 1,426 incoming requests, we supplied 97% in electronic format (as opposed to 79% in 2005). On the other hand, the external document requests launched by the library decreased a little. Of the 1,489 externally requested articles, 99% were received in electronic format (PDF) and forwarded as such to our internal customers - including our overseas partners. Again, about 2.5% of our external requests could not be fulfilled by any provider. The three library photocopiers together produced some 225,000 copies, which is slightly more than last year. Apparently the free fall of printed paper output has come to a halt.

After the exceptional 600% increase in 2005, this year the DocDel programme for electronic document delivery to overseas DGDC Framework partners processed 994 requests, a 23% decrease. During summer we were joined by Mrs. Luong Thi Phuong Mai, librarian of the National Institute of Malariology Parasitology and Entomology (NIMPE) of Hanoi, Vietnam. For two months she was trained in library management and information retrieval techniques. Mrs. Birgit Reynders of the Antwerp library school was a trainee for 6 weeks, part of which time she contributed substantially to the digitization projects. Again the Telemedicine Week, as an extension of the SCART course, included a DocDel training session.

The move of a.o. the Public Health Department to the new Rochus campus proved a good occasion to start building a central ITM archive that also encompasses the scientific documents of the departments. Since the autumn of 2006, Kris Didden is taking care of the practical organization of this first case study and producing a strategic policy and further development of the ITM archives.

As usual, the librarians made a bibliometric analysis of the published ITM scientific output of the previous year. The excellent results of 2004 have not been repeated, yet the 2005 values were clearly above the pre-2004 levels. Once more a large part of journal impact factor (JIF) based values were derived from letters and editorials. For 58% of all ITM publications the first author position was taken by ITM staff. Only a few items were published in the newer online only journals.

The 2003 bibliometric study by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of the Leiden University was upgraded to include the period 1991-2005. During these 15 years, ITM staff published 1,700 articles that are included in the Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge databases. By the end of 2006 these had received 22,462 citations. For the 10- and 5-year periods 1996-2005 and 2001-2005 the respective numbers are 1,267 A / 11,103 C and 657 A / 3,018 C. Evidently, the number of citations of the longer periods are substantially higher, as these publications have had much more time to gather citations. Actually the number of articles produced and citations received within the 3 consecutive 5-year periods consistently increase. But clearly the HIV research of the early 1990's has a large share in ITM's publications impact. In the most recent years output, and to a lesser extent impact, are on the rise again - yet evidently individual differences do exist.

During 2006 the ITM website was consulted 619,079 times, which compared to 2005, is again a remarkable increase of over 50%. This time October and November were the top months, with over 70,000 visitors during our major centennial festivities month. Apart from the homepage (367,975 hits) the travel health pages (with over 280,000 hits, general and country specific pages counted together) were once again the most popular pages, followed by the job vacancies (37,495 hits). 55% of the pages consulted were in English, 24.7% in Dutch, 13.5% in French and 6.7% in Spanish. This last number is remarkable, as this indicates that Spanish, and to a lesser extent French, are gaining on English, which still had 66% in 2005. In as far as could be registered, the large majority of visitors came from Belgium, followed by a number of European countries (e.g. 19,898 hits from The Netherlands, 5,254 from France)). From the other continents, USA, India, Peru, Canada, Niger, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Australia , Morocco and Brazil belong to the top 20 of international visitors, with over 500 sessions each.

Dirk Schoonbaert

During 2005 the library has further consolidated the online availability of most of its journal subscriptions and the mapping of the most useful of the increasing array of free open access journals. Special attention was paid to interlinking our own Electronic Reference Library (ERL) databases with digital full-text editions - mostly in PDF format - where available. In this respect, we have also started digitizing and linking the dissertations of the master courses.

The printed book collection grew by 429 new titles, 321 of them purchased and 108 obtained for free. The unexpected bankruptcy of a major book supplier resulted in fewer acquisitons than in previous years. Yet the total number of registered books now exceeds 19,300.

As expected, the number of document requests from other Belgian libraries continued to decline, mainly because of the wide availability of electronic journals at universities and research institutes. Of the 1,240 incoming requests, we supplied 79% in electronic format, either through the VirLib circuit using Ariel, or directly by e-mail. On the other hand, external document requests launched by the library increased with over 50%. This remarkable increase is mainly due to requests on behalf of our overseas partners in the document delivery (DocDel) project (see below), the costs of which are fully recuperated. Of the 1,539 externally requested articles, we received 99% in electronic format (PDF) and these were forwarded as such to our internal customers – including overseas partners. About 2.6% of our external requests could not be fulfilled.

The three library photocopiers, which were replaced by new state-of-the-art machines this autumn, together produced about 120,000 copies. This is again less than in previous years, but a logical outcome of document requests increasingly being processed digitally, both by library staff and by end-user.

In the course of 2005, the ERL bibliographic databases were consulted 19,932 times in 6,715 separate sessions. This represents a slight increase compared to last year and indicates the continuing utility of customized databases in times of popular free web-based resources such as PubMed and Google Scholar. Interest in the videos and interactive multimedia programmes, however, remained disappointingly low. Nevertheless, in cooperation with the Graphics service we have started a program to convert the video collection to digital DVD format.

As for the library staff, 2005 saw more than one change: with library assistant Sarah Buys' one-year sabbatical and assistant-librarian Veerle Demedts' change to part-time regime, we welcomed Kris Didden and Tijl Vandersteene as new colleagues.

During 2005 the library staff increased the number of contact hours for introductory sessions on database and Internet searches: next to the masters and the short courses, now also the participants in the renewed tropical medicine course for doctors took part in these training sessions.

The DocDel programme for electronic document delivery to overseas DGDC Framework partners was a big success with 1,292 requests, a 600% increase. It is striking though, that this service is especially appreciated by our Latin American partners (almost 90% of requests), and far less so in Africa and Asia - excepting Cambodia. During spring we received two trainees of our partner institutions in Peru and Ecuador for a one week practical workshop on electronic document delivery, organized by the DocDel staff. Also the Telemedicine Week, an extension of the SCART course, included a DocDel training session.

As usual, the librarians made a bibliometric analysis of the published ITM scientific output of the previous year, and 2004 was clearly a fruitful year. On the whole, ITM researchers published 20% more papers as in previous years and average journal impact factor values increased with 40% - yet again a large part of these JIF points were derived from letters and editorials. This is especially striking for a high impact journal like The Lancet, which contains 13 ITM contributions, only 4 of which full length research papers. On a general level, it is remarkable that young journals like The Lancet Infectious Diseases and the open access flagship PLoS Biology received their first ever impact factor - and a high one - in 2004, but they contained very few ITM contributions. As for international activities, the librarian became an editorial advisor for the tropical medicine websites section of the Health Links project of the International Network for the Avability of Scientific Publications (INASP).

ITM website and intranet continued to be coordinated by the library staff. Major innovations during 2005 include the transition to resolution-independent full-screen format, automatic generation of printer-friendly pages, a vastly enhanced search engine and a module for optional personal pages for individual ITM staff.

The log module showed that the ITM website was consulted 402,376 times in 2005, which is a marked increase of over 60% compared to 2004. Part of this may be due to crawling indexing robots (e.g. from Google) or hostile virus attacks, though these were filtered out as much as was practically possible. September and October were top months, with over 50,000 visitors each. As usual, the travel health pages (over 250,000 hits, with general and country specific pages counted separately) were the most popular pages. Also the job vacancies (40,367 hits) proved to be quite popular, as well as the education pages (general: 11,068 hits; as a result of redesigning the course overview the different types of courses are no longer logged by the system). 66% of the pages consulted were in English (the default language!), 24.3% in Dutch, 8,9% in French and 0.8% in Spanish. In as far as could be registered, the large majority of visitors came from Belgium, followed by a number of European countries (e.g. 12,234 hits from The Netherlands). From the other continents, USA, Sao Tomé, the Philippines, India, Canada, Peru, Colombia and Mexico belong to the top 15 of international visitors.

Dirk Schoonbaert

The library and information world were dominated in 2004 by the discussion about open access. Should all research results from now on be published in journals that are freely accessible to the readers and funded by the authors - or more accurately, their institutions? Should scientific institutions, either voluntarily or prompted by legislation, take up new responsibilities in building freely accessible electronic repositories harbouring all the published results issuing from their research efforts? Is allowing free viewing of articles a sufficient formal criterion for open access or is the complete abandonment of copyright limitations also a necessary condition? Will traditional players such as libraries and commercial publishers still have a place in such a fundamentally redesigned information landscape? Who will guarantee the long term archiving of electronic literature? And will this new (and currently heavily sponsored) paradigm prove to be aviable one in the long run?

Today the ITM library subscribes to more or less the same periodicals collections as last year. With a core collection of some 450 printed journals, electronic editions of the American Society for Microbiology journals, the Blackwell Science Collection, and the EbscoHost Biomedical Reference Collection, together with the many new open access journals, we can offer our patrons access to over 2,000 biomedial electronic journal editions. The optimization of access to the electronic journal literature remains one of our major objectives and this is achieved mainly with an up-to-date survey of the electronic resources available through two clickable linking lists ('http://lib.itg.be/journals.htm', complemented by 'http://atoz.ebsco.com'. Ovid"s SilverLinker technology now manages the direct link from a number of bibliographic databases to electronic full-text articles. We hope to expand this helpful feature soon to all our ERL databases. As for the more traditional library activities, the printed book collection grew by 526 new titles, 379 of them purchased and 147 obtained for free. The total number of registered books now exceeds 18,900.

As a logical consequence of the wide availability of electronic collections at universities and research institutes the number of document requests from other Belgian libraries continued to decline. Of the 2,191 incoming requests, we supplied 74% in electronic format, either through the VirLib circuit using Ariel, or directly by e-mail. Of the 962 articles we requested externally, we received 94% in electronic format (PDF) and these were forwarded as such to our internal customers. About 1% of our external requests could not be fulfilled. As a result of price increases at our major foreign supplier, average costs for document delivery increased substantially.

The three library photocopiers together produced about 140,000 copies (actually this number is an exaggeration, as it also includes the various computer printouts of the library staff) - again less than in previous years, partly as a logical outcome of requests increasingly being processed digitally.

In the course of 2004, the ERL bibliographic databases were consulted 18,687 times in 6,111 separate sessions. This also represents a decrease of some 25%, possibly as a result from the availability of popular alternatives (e.g. PubMed) or increased use of general web search engines. Interest in the video programmes remained low.

As before, the library staff taught introductory sessions on database and Internet searches in the masters and short courses. PowerPoint presentations and live demonstrations were now supplemented by hand-on training sessions in the computer room. The library hosted national and international trainees. The recently initiated programme for electronic document delivery (DocDel) to overseas DGDC Framework partners was centred mainly on Sihanouk Hospital Centre for HOPE (Cambodia), the Instituto de Nacional de Higiene, Epidemiologia y Microbiología (INHEM) and Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kouri (IPK), both in La Habana (Cuba), and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Peru). Following the SCART course, representatives of 3 partner institutions took part in a practical workshop on electronic document delivery, organised by the DocDel staff. In September, the librarian visited INHEM and IPK, to promote the DocDel service. While in Havana, he also visited the Biblioteca Nacional de Medicina and the INFOMED webportal, which hosts an elaborate network of Cuban virtual health libraries (BVS), featuring both self-produced and licensed international databases. It is clear that Cuba has not missed the Internet information revolution and institutional cooperation may offer mutual benefits in this area.

As usual the librarians made a bibliometric analysis of the annual ITM scientific output. On the whole, ITM researchers published about the same amount of papers as in previous years and average journal impact factor values increased somewhat, but nearly 40% of these were derived from letters and editorials. On the other hand it should be borne in mind that these values suggest a slight underrepresentation of the publication potential, as some fine new journals, like e.g. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, with several ITM contributions, currently do not yet have an impact factor, but surely will get a substantial one soon. Publications in the newer ‘electronic only’ journals suffered from the same handicap.

As in previous years, the librarian acted as co-ordinator of the ITM website. Major innovations during 2004 include a new layout for the travel health module, the restructuring of the education pages, a renewed module for scientific project descriptions and separate pages for the 3 alumni groups of the Master courses. The editing tools have been revised and 15 website editors received a basic training. In June the librarian also took over the general coordination of the ITM Intranet. Next to a number of structural changes, the major developments regarding the Intranet were the redesigned editing tools and the training of over 30 Intranet editors, who can now easily add and change the pages concerning their services or departments in a secure fashion.

The log module showed that the ITM website was consulted 252,480 times in 2004, which is a decline of about 6% compared to the 2003. Besides the functional pages such as the home page, the search page (and sitemap) and the retrievable contact data, the travel health pages (over 120,000 hits) were the most popular pages. Also the job vacancies (18,081 hits) proved to be popular, as well as the education pages (general: 9,195 hits; master courses: 6,983 hits; short courses: 8,857 hits – but as noted the education module was redesigned so these figures are incomplete). 70, 2% of the pages consulted were in English (the default language!), 22, 4% in Dutch, 7, 2% in French and 0.3% in Spanish. In as far as could be registered, the large majority of visitors came from Belgium, followed by a number of European countries (e.g. 6,285 hits from The Netherlands). From the other continents, USA, India, Canada, Cambodia, Peru and Japan belong to the top 15 of international visitors.

Dirk Schoonbaert

Electronic journals constitute a rich, diverse, but above all complex ecosystem. Some of the best thriving species still remain freely accessible to all, others offer the online edition as part of the standard subscription but they become available only after explicit registration, through automatic IP-computer address recognition or a user name/password combination. Others come at a considerable extra cost, sometimes exceeding the standard subscription price several times. Major publishers and subscription agents offer large package deals at a flat fee - often in the context of library consortia. Paradoxically, this online access to one specific journal may be more expensive than access to several hundreds of others combined. As the inherent value of a biomedical journal cannot easily be compared with just any other, what criteria determine what is a fair price for what content for which public? Are new initiatives like those of the open access movement - including Biomed Central and Public Library of Science journals - a blessing for all involved, when authors - and their institutions - need to pay a substantial publishing fee, and risk losing valuable impact factor points in the quest for bibliometric glory?

We endeavour to offer our patrons access to a broad range of electronic journals, and the acquisition of the EbscoHost Biomedical Reference Collection, featuring the full-text contents of several years of over 700 biomedical journals, was therefore a major enhancement of our electronic potential. Another new initiative was the replacement of our remaining American Society for Microbiology print journals by the full ASM journals collection in online-only format. As well as improving the ease of access within ITM, this experiment is certain to limit binding costs and alleviate the ever-growing physical storage problem. At the moment, however, it does not seem prudent to consider this a one-size-fits-all solution and cancel all print subscriptions. The ITM library now offers online access to 130 of the individual journals it subscribes to. However, taking into account the packages referred to above, including the Blackwell Science collection with its 400 titles, our patrons can access over 1,500 biomedial electronic journal editions.

There is still more good news from the bibliometric front. Independent from the specific ITM analysis, a major European Community report was published, including a chapter on bibliometric data of the European universities, research institutes and industry labs (3). This was also compiled by CWTS and based on the ISI citation databases for the years 1993-1999. Again, it features remarkably good results for the ITM. Obviously, the total number of ITM publications (702) is far lower than that of bigger institutions (i.e., not correlated to the actual manpower) when the average impact (citation based) per publication is compared. However, in the overall field average, ITM, with a 1.28 ratio, features in 15th place among European universities and research institutes. As the only smaller Belgian biomedical institute listed, ITM thus ranks above all other Flemish contenders, and from a national perspective it is only preceded (narrowly) by UCL (1.30).

Digital information management continued to grow explosively in 2002. The main international journals are now available on the Internet. Offering a broad range of electronic journals was therefore an important priority for the ITM library, with among others the acquisition of the complete Blackwell Science collection with some 400 biomedical journals. Other tasks were the e-linking from bibliographic databases to full-text journal articles. We closely monitored the trends towards free access, a few months after publication, to the PubMed Central journals and the extensive group of entirely new, free BioMed Central journals (http://lib.itg.be/journals.htm). The ITM collection of printed journals remained at the same level, with 459 current titles.

Books too are becoming more widely available on the World Wide Web (http://lib.itg.be/ebooks.htm), but excellent (and expensive) scientific books continue to be published on paper in 2002. Our 'physical' book collection grew by 504 new titles this year, 367 of them purchased and 137 donated or printed copies of electronic versions. The total number of registered books now exceeds 17,900. Together with special issues from the journal collection and electronic documents, the ITM Library Books and Documents catalogue now comprises more than 20,800 titles.

A logical consequence of the wide availability of electronic collections was a reduction in the number of document requests from other libraries. The ITM library itself supplied 46% of the requests in electronic format, either through the Virtual Library (VirLib) circuit or directly by e-mail. On the other hand, we received 61% of requested articles in electronic format, 60% of which were forwarded in PDF format to the internal customers. Over 27% of all documents requested externally reached us via a foreign supplier (Great Britain, the Netherlands and recently Germany), because the required documents are not (or no longer) available in Belgian scientific libraries. Unfortunately, about 2% of our external requests could not be fulfilled.

The three library photocopiers together produced over 192,000 copies, but requests are increasingly being processed digitally. The weekly literature ‘current-awareness services’ have also largely been converted from photocopies to electronic bulletins.

In the course of 2002, the ERL databases were consulted 21,319 times in 8,032 separate sessions. The 12 own databases contain over 69,000 bibliographic descriptions. The 230 different video programmes were consulted only 495 times. The multimedia CD-ROMs, accessible on the public PCs, also remained under-valued.

Like the other support services, the library started formalising its quality management in 2002. This resulted in a long-term policy plan and an action plan for 2003, as well as revised job descriptions of the library staff. We hosted a trainee (Tine Eggers) from the Antwerp library school. A new collaborator (Eefje Anthoni) started a survey of the ITM archive, in preparation of ITM's centennial in 2006.

The introductory sessions on database and Internet searches for the Master's courses were supplemented with free weekly 'hands-on' workshops. Library staff also taught several specific Internet introductions in the International Short Courses and in the 21st European Course in Tropical Epidemiology (ECTE). We also opened the ITM Science Day 2002 with a contribution on 'Electronic Journals and availability of full-text articles'.

This year, the internal bibliometric analysis of the ITM scientific output was supplemented with a citation analysis by the Centre for Scientific and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University. The results of this project are expected in the spring of 2003.

The librarian was also the general co-ordinator of the ITM website. Major achievements for 2002 include a Spanish version of the website and the travel health module, with separate information pages for more than 200 individual countries and separate direct language-specific URLs ('http://reisgeneeskunde.be', 'http://medecinedesvoyages.be' and 'http://travelhealth.be').

The log module, active since 1 January 2002, showed that the ITM website was consulted around 180,000 times in 2002, i.e. on average about 400 to 500 times per weekday. Besides the functional pages such as the 'home page', the 'search page' (and sitemap) and the retrievable 'contact data', the travel health pages (54,000 hits), and in second place the educational pages (degree courses: 6,300 hits; master courses: 5,850 hits) were the most popular factual pages. Of the consultations, 81% were in English, 14% in Dutch, 5% in French and 0.4% in Spanish. The choice of English as the basic language for the ITM website (from an international research perspective) undoubtedly played an important role in these results.

Dirk Schoonbaert

While the year 2000 was primarily characterised by changes in personnel, 2001 was above all marked by a number of material adaptations. During the late summer, the library rooms received a welcome refurbishment. They were entirely repainted and, with replacement of the original lighting system, the long-standing and irritating heat build-up problem was also overcome. The former multimedia area was redesigned to serve as a multi-purpose meeting place and classroom. This makes it possible, among other things, to organise demonstrations and instruction sessions about Internet applications in the library. These works have limited the accessibility of the library for a number of weeks, but we are proud that it could be carried out without requiring us to close our doors!

In the autumn, a new webserver arrived which, together with the latest version of the Electronic Reference Library (ERL) software package from SilverPlatter, allows faster access to the ever-growing (Gigabytes!) databases. Via (inter alia) the updated WebSPIRS interface, a number of direct links from database records to electronic 'full-text' journals and relevant Internet databases and directories are now available as well.

With regard to distributing information about the library, its collections, services and organisation, the traditional printed guide was moved permanently to the website (http://lib.itg.be). A new colour brochure now supports the presentation of and orientation within the library. For the benefit of the CIPS/ICHD students and others, the selective literature list Organisation of health care in developing countries; selected publications (1980-2001) was compiled. Starting this year, the introductory sessions dealing with searching databases and the Internet for the Masters courses have been split up into groups of 10 participants and substantially expanded to 4 hours per group.

In 2001, our book collection grew by 534 new titles, of which 421 were purchased and 113 were received as gifts or as print versions of electronic documents that can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. The number of catalogued books is now over 17,400. Supplemented by a number of electronic documents and theme issues from the journal collection, the overall ITM Library Books and Documents catalogue features more than 20,000 titles in all.

Also this year, some of the more expensive journal subscriptions had to be discontinued in light of the excessive price increases and to maintain the necessary financial manoeuvring room for a number of interesting new titles. As a result, the size of the printed collection remained at the same level, with 456 current titles. Offering institutional access to a wide range of electronic journals is clearly gaining importance as a policy option. Unfortunately, it is not at all evident how this objective is to be achieved, given that publishers are increasingly demanding additional subscriptions for (institutional) access to electronic publications.

During 2001, the ERL databases were consulted 22,696 times in 8,622 separate sessions. The 12 self-compiled databases together now contain over 65,000 bibliographic descriptions. The interactive multimedia programmes are no longer available on separate PCs in the video room, but are integrated into the public workstations in the reading room. Also, the video equipment was moved to a renovated area on the lower floor. The video programmes attracted the interest of library visitors a total of 698 times. The number of people present in the library after 6 p.m. and on Saturday morning was 1,477.

Total expenditure by the library (except for staff costs) for 2001 was 7,120,152 BEF. The major items included: Journals and electronic databases: 5,130,760 BEF; Books: 770,377 BEF; Photocopies: 377,076 BEF; Miscellaneous operating expenses: 345,191 BEF; Bookbinding: 269,390 BEF; Computer hardware: 227,358 BEF.

This year, the library received 1,559,441 BEF in income, of which 327,673 BEF was for internal credits (including rebilling for photocopies made by or for ITM departments and 986 outgoing document requests) and 1,231,768 BEF in actual revenue. The latter figure includes both cash payments (343,736 BEF) for photocopies of 4,441 journal articles delivered to other libraries (888,032 BEF). The costs of our own requests to other libraries from the Impala circuit have already been deducted from this net revenue. The three library machines together produced over 216,000 photocopies.

This year, we fulfilled 28% of the requests sent to us in electronic format. We also received 47% of the articles we requested in electronic format. A good 16% of all received documents reached us via foreign suppliers (the Netherlands and Great Britain, still roughly evenly divided), usually because the requested documents were no longer available in Belgian scientific libraries. Unfortunately 3% of our requests could not be fulfilled.

In the spring, Lydie Verrept, a student at the Antwerp Library School, spent a brief traineeship period in the ITM library. Sarah Buys-Devillé obtained her Graduate in Librarianship and Documentary Information Science degree with distinction. In her dissertation she investigated the representation of literature on sleeping sickness in international bibliographical databases. In September, she visited the Information Fair in Brussels. In December, Veerle Demedts attended the Online Information 2001 conference in London. Lieve Pittoors, who among other things kept the library impeccably clean for 14 years, departed for a well-earned retirement. Since mid-2001 Ana-Marie Romero Jimenez has taken over this much-appreciated task.

As in previous years, the librarian and his assistant performed a bibliometric analysis of the scientific publications of ITM employees and their international impact, on the basis of Journal Impact Factors from the Journal Citation Reports of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Together with this, the analysis of the entire publication output 1996-2000 absorbed a great deal of time and energy.

During 2001, the librarian also acted as the general co-ordinator of the ITM website. In collaboration with the specialised company, All Directions, a whole new version of this website was designed, which was launched in the spring at the familiar address (http://www.itg.be). The trilingual ITM website combines the advantages of modern dynamic web technology with an extensive content (including electronic versions of complete annual reports, course brochures, "how to travel and stay healthy" brochures). Also, the virtually complete ITGPress collection, administratively co-ordinated by the librarian and whose content is mainly provided by the Department of Public Health, is now available in full-text format at the ITM website.

Dirk Schoonbaert

For the library the year 2000 started with a special event. Gilbert Roelants, ITM librarian since 1962, retired early in January. During his almost four decennia long career he used his exceptional expertise and dedication to turn a rather solitary reading room for august professors into a well organised information center that is appreciated far beyond ITM for its collections, its accessibility and its user services.

Some of Gilbert Roelants' more conspicuous realisations without doubt include the design and organisation of the new library rooms which were inaugurated in 1987, and the succesful integration of various electronic resources for information delivery. This started modestly in 1988 with a first stand alone PC. This (r)evolution has now culminated in an autonomous library webserver ("http://lib.itg.be"). It contains lots of useful information regarding the library, its organisation, collections and services. Next to that it also features external linking pages to interesting websites ("http://lib.itg.be/biblinks.htm") and electronic journals ("http://lib.itg.be/journals.htm"). Finally, access is offered to a broad selection of international and self-produced bibliographic databases. All of this has been available for several years to the whole world via the Internet. The library website received a new structure and outlook on January 1, 2000.

Gilbert Roelants was succeeded by Dirk Schoonbaert, graduate in Germanic Philology and in Library and Information Sciences, and working in the ITM library since 1986. Veerle Demedts, graduate in History and a colleague since 1987, is assistant librarian. Sarah Buys-Devillé, candidate Diploma in Translation and (soon) a Library and Documentary Information diploma, completes the library team since joining in December 1999. So as in preceding years a staff of three provides permanent library services from 8h30 till 7 pm (incl. Saturday mornings).

During the year 2000 the book collection has increased with 481 new titles, 355 of which we received by purchase and 126 as gifts. The total number of registered books now amounts to 16,870. Several hundreds of works that are published on CD-ROM were also added to the catalogue. These books are now available for consultation in electronic format on the library PCs.

The periodicals collection remained more or less unaltered with ca. 470 current titles, including 283 paid subscriptions. The infamous 'periodicals crisis' (rapid increase of subscription prices), combined with the exceptional rise of dollar and pound was severely felt. Notwithstanding a substantial increase of our periodicals budget, we were forced to cancel some of our more expensive subscriptions. On the other hand we were able to optimize access to electronic journal collections by using SwetsNet Navigator, the integrated portal of our major subscription agent Swets Blackwell.

The videoprograms were consulted 906 times. The popularity of the interactive multimedia programs reached an all-time low with merely 22 registered consultations. As such a valuable potential of state-of-the-art self-study resources remained largely unexplored.

In 2000 the ERL databases were consulted 22,933 times during 9,754 individual sessions. Our self-produced databases by now contain some 60.000 bibliographic records. The six public access workstations were further upgraded to meet the requirements of present-day Internet- and database consultation.

The number of library visitors after 6 pm and on Saturday mornings reached 1. 821. Also this year various updated manuals (library guide, database consultation), were available in both printed and electronic format. These were supplemented with database introduction sessions for students of international courses (CIPSAT, ICHD, MDC). A new guide for searching geographically related information (e.g. demographic and vital statistics) was written (available on our website).

Total expenditure of the library (excluding salaries) for the year 2,000 reached 6,700,557 BEF, the major subdivisions being: Journals and electronic databases 4,720,165 BEF; Books 801,307 BEF; Photocopies 397,818 BEF; Various administration costs 265,283 BEF; Bookbinder 261,130 BEF; Computers and auxiliaries: 254,854 BEF.

Total revenues of the library amounted to 1,880,815 BEF, including 355,587 BEF departmental income (a.o. charges for photocopies made by and for the ITG research units and 1,031 requests to other libraries) and 1,525,228 BEF actual income. The latter was realised by cash payments (282,373 BEF), and especially by 5,775 interlibrary document deliveries (i.e. photocopies of journal articles) to other libraries (1,242,855 BEF). In total, over 220,000 photocopies were made with the three library machines

Within the national Impala circuit for mutual document delivery between scientific and pharmaceutical libraries a new option became widely available. The VirLib module allows for data capture by means of scanning technology and delivery in electronic format. This new and highly automated procedure reduces total procedure time to 1 working day or less. In this early stage the choice of format is still largely determined by the preferences of individual requesters and the availability of te infrastructure in the sollicited library. However, it seems obvious that the share of electronic deliveries will rise steeply in the near future. During 2000 we delivered over 10% of all requests using this technology. Over 35% of the documents we requested were delivered in electronic format.

It is remarkable that some 15% of all documents reached us through foreign providers (Netherlands and Great Britain, more or less evenly spread), generally because the requested items are not (or no longer) available in Belgian scientific libraries. For a part of external document deliveries this implies higher costs, especially since the unit prices of the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) were raised to œ 7.25. One positive issue is that BLDSC provides its documents in electronic format, and thus faster.

ITM Library became member of the Vlaams Overlegorgaan voor Wetenschappelijk Bibliotheekwezen (VOWB), the forum for mutual cooperation between the university and college libraries. VOWB a.o. coordinates projects concerning consortium formation for electronic database licences, partially subsidised by the Flemish government. The ITM library this year received a visit of several groups, including Libidoc, the association of graduates of the interuniversity library training program (UIA). Mrs Estelle Béatrice Aka, librarian of the Institut National de Santé Publique (INSP) in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, came to the ITM library for a short in-house training.

Also in 2000 the (new) librarian produced a bibliometric analysis of the publications of ITM staff and its international impact, based on the Journal Impact Factors listed in the Journal Citation Reports of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). He also coordinated the general website of the Institute. The current version was further extended, especially regarding multilingual content. Meanwhile he prepared a new version, in cooperation with a specialised external partner. Thiss new ITM website will go public in early 2001 at the familiar address ("http://www.itg.be").

Dirk Schoonbaert

1999 has been a year of transition for the ITM Library. On the one hand, the activities reported in earlier reports were consolidated, a.o. by expansion and exploitation of our own databases available on the Internet via our ERL server (Electronic Reference Library) and further development and restructuring of the trilingual website. On the other hand, a number of novelties for the year 2000 have been prepared, such as access to a broader platform of electronic journals, electronic reception and delivery of individual journal articles, a.o. by scanning and conversion to PDF (Portable Document Format), either from within the national Impala document delivery circuit - or independently.

New book acquisitions numbered 443, 299 of which we received by purchase and 144 as gifts or by registering a number of titles that had not yet been integrated in the collection. The periodicals collection remained more or less unchanged at around 500 current titles. Multimedia collections were enlarged with 9 videotapes and a few interactive CDROM programmes, of which the English series Topics in International Health produced by The Welcome Trust with 10 different titles deserves special mention.

During 1999 the ERL databases were consulted 23,423 times in 10,258 separate sessions. The video programmes were consulted 996 times. The popularity of the interactive multimedia programmes was rather disappointing with only 50 registered consultations. Occupation of the library after 6 PM and on Saturday mornings totaled 1944. Next to various updated manuals (library guide, database consultation) in both printed and electronic format, database introduction sessions were organised for the participants of the international courses (CIPSAT, ICHD, MDC).

Total expenditure of the library (excluding salaries) for the year 1999 reached 6,264,683 BEF, the major subdivisions being: Journals and electronic databases 4,478,445 BEF; Books 730,182 BEF; Photocopies 342,369 BEF; Various administration costs 329,856 BEF; Bookbinder 282,850 BEF; Computers and auxiliaries: 181,861 BEF.

Total revenues of the library amounted to 1,886,754 BEF, including 344,750 BEF departmental income (a.o. charges for photocopies made by and for the ITG research units and 951 requests to other libraries) and 1,542,004 BEF actual income. The latter was realised by cash payments, and especially by a new record of 6,282 interlibrary document deliveries (i.e. photocopies of journal articles) to other libraries (1,273,845 BEF). In total, 238,000 photocopies were made. In September 1999, two photocopying machines were replaced by three new ones, one of which a full digital machine featuring fax- and scanning modules. The library also obtained a colour printer with scanning capabilities, so it is now possible to make colour copies and scans as well.

In December 1999, Sarah Buys-Devillé joined the library team, so continuity of services will remain assured by a staff of three when Gilbert Roelants retires as the Institute's librarian in January 2000. During 1999 Gilbert Roelants once more took care of a large part of the administration of the editorial office of the journal Tropical Medicine and International Health and of the administrative management of the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine. He also prepared the annual report on the impact of the scientific publications of the ITM staff during the year 1998.

Dirk Schoonbaert

The new ERL (Electronic Reference Library) configuration now allows for the twelve databases developed by the library to be accessed through ITGNet as well as on the Internet, using the multilingual SilverPlatter interface. Also the international databases to which the library subscribes (Medline, CABHealth, CABVet) have become available for ITMA staff through ITGNet and on the Internet (+ The Cochrane Library). Periodic surveys show that all databases together are accessed some 17.000 times per year. Part of these consultations occur in the library itself on the six OPAC (On-Line Public Access) stations.

The webpages of the library have again been updated and expanded. Next to descriptions of the library in three languages - its collections, organisation and services -, multilingual electronic guides for the efficient use of the available documentation and various databases are being offered. Also different acquisitions lists, listings of recommended literature on tropical human and veterinary medicine and hundreds of links to other useful documentation-oriented websites are included. The developments in the offer of full-text accessible scientific journals on the Internet are being closely followed and licences are taken whenever possible. As the library now has its own independent Webserver, the Internet address of the library has in May been simplified to "http://lib.itg.be".

Special instruction sessions have been organized for all masters course students with respect to database use. For all three courses together (ICHD, MCM, CIPSAT) 16 of such sessions have taken place.

The verification, simplification and renewal operation of the books classification codes has been finished. This means that about 10,000 books received new labels including 5,000 with altered classification codes. Tracing the books on the shelves and the daily reshelving of the large number of used material now takes less time and effort than before, thanks also to the novel shelf marking system.

New book acquisitions numbered 368 (purchases: 291, donations: 77). With respect to journals 6 new titles were added. The number of current periodical titles continues to fluctuate around 500, to which some 100 titles must be added which are being received on CD-ROM through ExtraMed.

The number of video programmes has increased with 8 new titles. The number of videos viewed was 545 and the number of interactive multimedia programmes accessed was 97. During this academic year the occupation of the reading rooms after 6 p.m. and on Saturday mornings numbered 1,655.

Expenditure of the library for the year 1998 reached 6.810.490 BF, to be divided as follows: Administration 52.578 BF, Training 13.255 BF, Periodicals + CD-ROM 4.498.302 BF, Books 620.952 BF, Functioning 643.086 BF, Multimedia 53.828 BF, Binding 281.886 BF, Equipment 403.443 BF, Photocopying 243.160 BF.

Revenues of the library amounted to 1,758,167 BF, including 1,340,824 BF actual income (cash paid photocopies plus no less than 5,598 interlibrary requests) and 417,343 BF departmental income (charged photocopies plus 1.082 interlibrary requests). A total of 200,000 photocopies were made.

The librarian has continued to take care of the administration of the Belgian editorial office of the journal Tropical Medicine and International Health, and of the administrative management of the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine. He also prepared his report, becoming an annual tradition, concerning the international impact of the publications of the research staff of the institute during the year 1997.

Gilbert Roelants

The library now incorporates five OPAC (On-Line Public Access) stations. They offer to the public the international databases Medline, CAB Health, CAB Vet, etc., next to ten private databases (library catalogs and literature selections). Two stations also give direct access to the Internet.

Preliminary studies and negociations are in progress concerning the creation of an ERL (Electronic Reference Library) which would permit all of these databases to be accessed from different platforms through ITGNet and the Internet with multilingual SPIRS software. External consultation of the private library databases would then become possible and the internal access to the commercial databases from the different departments of the Institute would be made much fastier and easier.

The webpages of the library have been updated and greatly expanded. Next to descriptions of the library in three languages, multilingual electronic guides for the efficient use of the available documentation and various databases are being offered. Also different acquisitions lists, listings of recommended literature and links to other useful documentation-oriented websites are included. The internet address of the library is "http://lib.itg.be".

During this year all reading room books have been examined one by one and their classification codes verified, and simplified where appropriate. A better shelf marking system has been applied and all books have received a new label. This would enable readers and library attendants as well to trace them easier and to reduce the time needed daily to reshelve the large number of used books.

New book acquisitions numbered 427 (purchases: 347, donations: 80). With respect to journals 14 new titles were added (subscriptions: 6, gifts: 8). The discontinuation of the exhanges with the Annales has reduced the number of current periodical titles to 455.

The number of video programmes has been increased with 30 new titles. The number of videos viewed was 1,092 and the number of interactive multimedia programmes accessed was 374.

During this academic year the occupation of the reading rooms after 6 p.m. and on Saturday mornings numbered 2,735.

Expenditure of the library for the academic year 1996/97 reached 5,122,177 BF, to be divided as follows: Administration 69,575 BF, Training 16,854 BF, Periodicals + CD-ROM 3,399,078 BF, Books 580,487 F, Functioning 326,083 BF, Multimedia 89,790 BF, Binding 246,372 BF, Equipment 145,682 BF, Photocopying 248,253 BF.

Revenues of the library amounted to 1,549,276 BF, including 1,230,050 BF actual income (cash paid photocopies and 4,440 interlibrary requests) and 388,716 BF departmental income (charged photocopies and 842 interlibrary requests). A total of 246,000 photocopies were made.

The librarian has been charged by the European Commission (EC) to perform an evaluation study of the scientific merit of the publications which describe the results of EC-subsidized research projects concerning the health and disease problems proper to the developing countries [Science and Technology for Development - Health, Programmes I (1983-1986), II (1987-1991), III (1992-1996)].

The librarian has continued to take care of the administration of the Belgian editorial office of the journal Tropical Medicine and International Health, and of the administrative management of the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine.

Gilbert Roelants

After thorough negotiations the Belgian, Dutch, English, German and Swiss responsables eventually decided in favour of a merger of four national journals of tropical medicine. As from January 1, 1996 the periodicals Annales de la Société Belge de Médecine Tropicale, Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Tropical and Geographical Medicine and Tropical Medicine and Parasitology are being continued by one single journal which was given the title Tropical Medicine and International Health. Editorship is taken care of simultaneously in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Basel, Hamburg and London.

From 1963 to the end of 1995 the librarian has committed himself to the publication of the Annales. During this period he published 168 issues and 25 international colloquia proceedings - either as supplements, or as special issues - and 2 honorary volumes: altogether about 20,000 pages. He now takes care of the administration of the Antwerp editorial office of the new journal as well and continues his efforts in the administration of the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine.

On request of the dean the librarian has prepared in May an evaluation report on the international scientific impact of the publications of the institute's research staff during the 1991-1995 period.

The library has, first of the institute's divisions, realized an up-to-date Internet webpage (detailed electronic guide to the library) on the institute's website (http://www.itg.be/htm/guide.htm).

The various BiB/Search databases of the library have been continuously updated: 48,000 records are now offered to the public. The current CD-ROM database CAB Abstracts has been replaced by two more specialized and more retrospective databases CAB Health and CAB Vet (both 1973-present). Also the subscription to Medline on CD-ROM has been extended to the period 1966-present.

New book acquisitions numbered 354 (purchases: 256, donations: 98). With respect to journals 8 new titles were added. On the other hand several titles - mostly of lesser importance - have been discontinued as exchange with the Annales is no longer possible.

The number of video programmes viewed was 1,369 and the number of interactive multimedia programmes accessed increased to 448.

The revenues of the library amounted to 1,438,708 F, including 1,105,811 F actual income (cash paid photocopies and 3,890 interlibrary requests) and 332,897 F departmental income (charged photocopies and 809 interlibrary requests). A total of 261,000 photocopies were made in the library.

During this academic year the occupation of the reading rooms after 6 p.m. and on Saturday mornings numbered 2,405.

Gilbert Roelants

The first two public access computers for searching the CD-ROM and Bib/Search databases of the library became operational on July 20, 1993 (a third station was installed shortly afterwards). Since then, these databases have been accessed on 12,124 different occasions: the CD-ROM databases 9,317 times and the Bib/Search databases 3,807 times. During this academic year these figures were 4,718 and 1,995, respectively.

This year the library has made a considerable effort to increase its electronic services. In order to be able to fully participate in the ITMA-network, the internal LANtastic network has been replaced by a Novell configuration which has been integrated into the existing Novell infrastructure of ITMA. This allows in principle for all databases of the library to be accessed from all units and labs in different locations inside ITMA. In-house as well as external communications to the library are now also possible using the library's e-mail address (bib@itg.be). A fixed connection to Internet has opened the information highway for library staff and users: a much faster news gathering on disease outbreaks wherever they take place is now feasible, as well as much easier access to libraries' and publishers' catalogues both in Belgium and abroad.

Five new databases have been made available to the public: one on CD-ROM ("Leprosy 1913-1991") and four library-made: "Ebola" (an exhaustive bibliography of all scientific publications on the subject), "Reports" (all annual reports available in the library), "Videos" (all video programmes available in the library), and "Infosci" (a selection of more than 1,500 publications on the preparation and electronic management of scientific literature, and on the applications of computer hardware and software in medical and library practice).

Ten library databases (totalling about 45.000 records) and six CD-ROM databases (several millions of records) are now offered to ITMA staff and students. The library databases allow in addition for convenient data-transfer to the Collective Catalogue Belgium on CD-ROM (books and journals), Antilope and Biomed (journals), and the African Index Medicus (biomedical publications on Africa).

The database instructions for masters' students, which were initiated last year, have been repeated and refined where necessary.

The classical printed documentation sources of the library have by no means been neglected. On the contrary they will remain for years to come the corner-stone of information supply. New book acquisitions numbered 399 (purchase: 242, donations: 157). With respect to journals 29 new titles were added (subscriptions: 21, free: 8). On the other hand, 20 titles have been canceled. Bound volumes increased with 450 and now number more than 20.000.

The number of video programmes has increased with another 10 titles. The purchase of a new multimedia PC should favour the use of the library's interactive multimedia programmes. The number of video programmes viewed was 1,416 and the number of multimedia programmes accessed was only 132.

The revenues of the library amounted to 1,238,056 BF, including 917,843 BF actual income (cash paid photocopies and 3,211 interlibrary requests filled) and 320,213 BF income from ITMA departments (charged photocopies and 553 interlibrary requests executed). A total of 238,000 photocopies were made in the library. Interlibrary loan or photocopy requests are by now almost entirely handled and settled by electronic means via the IMPALA network, including those from abroad.

During this academic year the occupation of the reading rooms after 6 p.m. and on saturday mornings numbered 2,760.

Gilbert Roelants

During this academic year the in-house electronic bibliographical databases have been continually updated and extended. They now number thirteen (45.969 records in all), of which six are open to the public (including 39.274 records). A new-comer is the database "Animal" which shall offer a selection of the literature in the field of tropical veterinary medicine. The available literature on CD-ROM has been extended with a subscription on ExtraMed, which contains the full text articles of a few hundred journals published in developing countries.

In order to enhance and improve the use of the available databases, an introduction to the science literature has been given to all masters students, followed by more specific instructions, in small groups, on the retrieval techniques for the databases on PC realized by the library itself, as well as for those available on CD-ROM.

The number of informative publications of the library with annual updating augments steadily : "Guide to the library" (12 pages, in three languages), "Guide to the databases" (16 pages, in three languages), "Guide to the video-programmes" (24 pages, trilingual), "Guide to the multimedia" (10 pages, in three languages), "List of periodicals" (108 pages), "selective literature lists on "Organization of health care in developing countries" (150 pages) and "Epidemiology and control of endemic diseases in developing countries" (96 pages), "Master of Public Health theses" (72 pages), "Master of Tropical Biomedical Science theses" (8 pages), "Mycology dissertations" (30 pages), "Master and PhD theses of Tropical Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry" (2 pages).

New book acquisitions numbered 432 (purchase: 282, donations: 150). During holidays a complete inventory of the book collections has been carried out. The total number of books now reaches 14.279. They are all included in the electronic "Books" database and in the national Collective Catalogue Belgium (CCB). With respect to journals 13 new titles were added (subscriptions: 5, free: 8); as a result of careful weeding several titles were discontinued, giving a total of 542 running titles and 671 closed collections. Bound volumes increased with 480 and now number almost 20.000.

The number of video programmes has increased with 32 new titles. At the moment 233 programmes, including 105 in French, 87 in English, and 39 in Dutch are available to the public, which mainly consists of students following tropical medicine initiation courses. Moreover, some interactive multimedia programmes on PC have been added to the assets, comprising Kabisa and Epitrop (both developed by the Institute), Gideon, Tropimed, CD-Derma and others.

The revenues of the library amounted to 1.148.387 BF, including 853.730 BF actual income (cash paid photocopies and 2.776 interlibrary requests filled) and 294.657 BF income from ITMA departments (charged photocopies and 584 interlibrary requests executed). More than half of the library's document requests to other libraries in the country or abroad are now performed by electronic mail via the IMPALA network. A fax machine has been installed in the library, allowing for additional gain of time in the handling of interlibary requests.

During this academic year the occupation of the reading rooms after 6 p.m. and on saturdaymornings numbered 2.927, i.e. a mean of 14 per evening/hour or Saturdaymorning. The number of video-programmes viewed was 1.297.

Appeals to the library staff are made daily for rendering documentary information or performing literature searches. The librarian continues to be in charge of the publication to the quarterly Annales de la Société Belge de Médecine Tropicale and the annual colloquia of the Institute, and of the administrative duties connected with the Society mentioned above.

With less than three full-time staff, library service is maintained 56 hours per week.

Gilbert Roelants

During this academic year the On-Line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) has been further developed. Three public access computer stations allow for the consultation of the OPAC which now consists of five of the library's own databases on PC (35.000 literature references), five databases on CD-ROM (nearly 4.000.000 literature references with abstracts) and two databases on diskette. On-line consultation of external databases via modem is also possible. A 14-disc CD-tower enables the simultaneous consultation of all CD-ROM discs from each of the three public access stations and each of the three library staff stations.

A special effort has been made this year to enter all books kept by the library and the research departments into the OPAC system. The now complete Books database (more than 12.000 unique descriptions) has been included in the new Collective Catalogue Belgium on CD-ROM (CCB). The current journal titles have been included in the electronic Antilope database as well as in the printed BIOMED subdirectory. As a result of the article on the BELCAT database published by the librarian, the ITMA library has been invited by the World Health Organization to collaborate in the realisation of the African Index Medicus (AIM). For this purpose all Africa-related literature references available in the BELCAT database have been transmitted to the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville (Congo).

New book acquisitions numbered 415 (purchase: 248, donation or exchange: 167), the total number of books now reaching 13.844. With respect to journals 11 new titles were added (subscriptions: 3, free: 8), 1 title was discontinued, giving a total of 583 running titles. Bound volumes increased with 486 and now number 19.408.

The expenditures of the library reached 3.358.269 BF, while the revenus amounted to 1.203.075 BF, including 919.022 BF actual income (247.072 photocopies were made and 2.600 interlibrary requests filled) and 284.053 BF income from ITMA departments (e.g. 663 interlibrary requests). About one third of the library's document requests to other libraries in the country or abroad are now performed by electronic mail via the IMPALA network, with gain of time as major advantage.

Use made of the library is difficult to assess or to express in numbers, as patrons do not need to come to the library for using it. During this academic year the occupation of the reading rooms after 6 p.m. and on saturdaymornings numbered 3.246, i.e. a mean of 15 per evening/hour or Saturday morning. The number of video-programmes viewed was 1.297.

Gilbert Roelants