Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS

The Agricultural Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is a non-profit scientific research institution whose main tasks are to conduct research in agricultural information science and provide agricultural science and technology literature and information. It mainly carries out scientific research in three disciplines: agricultural information technology, agricultural information management, and agricultural information analysis. It is a national science and technology library and documentation center for the collection, processing, and analysis of agricultural literature and information. The Agricultural Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences was formed through the gradual merger and integration of independent research institutions including the Intelligence Institute (founded in 1957), Library (founded in 1957), Computing Center (founded in 1981), and Macro Research Office (founded in 1992) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It currently has 319 staff members and 20 departments. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, it has achieved 70 national and provincial/ministerial scientific research achievements in the fields of agricultural information technology, agricultural information management, agricultural information resources, agricultural information dissemination, digital agriculture, digital libraries, agricultural intelligence and information analysis, and agricultural macro-strategic research. The National Agricultural Library, which it manages, holds a collection of 2.1 million volumes. It edits and publishes 13 publicly available journals and has cooperative relationships with institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. The Agricultural Information Institute possesses a systematic research system and a public service team. It has an authorized staff of 319; currently there are 88 senior researchers, 102 mid-level scientific and technical personnel, 45 with doctoral degrees, and 67 with master's degrees. It has 20 departments: 5 management departments and 15 professional business departments (including 8 innovative research offices, 5 public service departments, and 2 industry development departments). The management departments are: General Office, Science and Technology Management Office, Human Resources Office, Party Committee Office, and Finance and Asset Office. The 8 research offices are: Key Laboratory of Agricultural Information Technology, Intelligent Agricultural Technology Research Office, Multimedia Technology Research Office, Network Technology Research Office, Database Research Office, Information Analysis and Evaluation Office, International Intelligence Research Office, and Food and Nutrition Information Office. The 5 public service departments are: Digital Library Research and Construction Department, Literature Resources Development Department, Literature Information Service Department, Journal Editing and Publishing Department, and the Editorial and Publishing Department of "Scientia Agricultura Sinica". The 2 industry development departments are the Information Industry Development Center and Property Management Department. The Agricultural Information Institute occupies an important position in the national strategic information resource layout and agricultural information technology innovation. After years of reform and development, it has become the largest research and public service institution in the field of national agricultural science and technology information. It manages the National Agricultural Library, which receives key national support and has become the largest agricultural library in Asia and the third largest in the world. It serves as the national agricultural information research institute, the national agricultural science and technology information network and computer agricultural application research center, the national agricultural science and technology information database and agricultural multimedia product development center, and the national food and macro-agriculture and intelligence research center. It is also establishing a national agricultural information product quality inspection and agricultural science and technology achievement exchange center. Scientific Research: Our institute has a strong and powerful agricultural information science research team. The main research fields include: agricultural information technology of a public, foundational, and standard nature, as well as agricultural informatization platforms and product technologies; agricultural expert systems, decision support systems, precision agriculture, crop growth simulation systems, and related integrated agricultural information systems; agricultural multimedia technology and database applications of multimedia technology, as well as related software development; website construction technology, network information publishing technology, network content and standards, network system construction, agricultural science and technology information database network interfacing technology, and agricultural e-commerce technology; agricultural database technology and methods, agricultural knowledge organization theory and methods, standardization of agricultural information resources, intelligent information retrieval technology, and data mining technology; digital agricultural resource construction projects and knowledge network construction; food security, food safety, nutritional standards and health, public information research, food safety warning technology and methods; scientific and technological competitiveness assessment, agricultural production resource information, agricultural market information, agricultural environmental information, agricultural product export information, international agricultural science and technology intelligence, and agricultural policy and international market information analysis. From 1980 to 2003, our institute achieved 54 achievements that won national and provincial/ministerial science and technology progress awards in fields such as agricultural information technology research, agricultural information resource research, agricultural science and technology intelligence research, and macro-agriculture and development research. Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan, 23 achievements have won science and technology progress awards from the Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing Municipality, and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. These have played an important role in promoting agricultural information technology innovation and economic construction in China. Public Services: Public services are one of the important businesses of our institute. They mainly involve systematic collection, processing, storage, dissemination, development, and utilization of agricultural science and technology literature and information in various media from home and abroad, digital processing of library collections, and network-based services. The institute's library currently holds a collection of more than 2.1 million volumes, covering more than 330,000 titles. Among these, there are more than 310,000 books in over 200,000 titles; more than 15,000 volumes of ancient agricultural books and local chronicles in 3,494 titles; more than 120,000 Chinese and foreign language materials in over 110,000 titles; and more than 1.647 million volumes of periodicals in over 14,000 titles. Currently, it subscribes to more than 3,200 Chinese and foreign language scientific and technological periodicals, of which more than 800 foreign language periodicals are unique copies nationwide. The library has eight reading rooms: Chinese, Western languages, Japanese and Russian periodicals, latest books, ancient books, reference works, internal materials, and electronic documents, accommodating 250 readers simultaneously. All newly arrived documents are available for open-shelf reading. To facilitate readers' use of the collection, the library provides domestic and international document delivery services, selective dissemination of information services, and electronic document catalog push services via E-mail, fax, express mail, and other means.