PACIFIC ISLANDS MARINE RESOURCES
INFORMATION SYSTEM
(PIMRIS) – HISTORY
Ganeshan Rao
1981 –Commonwealth Heads of Govt Regional Meeting
– CHOGRM
1984 – SPC Regional Technical Meeting on Fisheries
(now SPC Heads of Fisheries Meeting)
1985 – SPC/FFA/USP Fisheries Information Advisory
Group – began its work
1986-1987 – Pacific Islands Marine Information Needs
Survey : Dr Esther Williams and Ueta Fa’asili.
1988 - Establishment of the PIMRIS Coordination Unit
(PCU). Funded by Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) Via International Centre for Ocean
Development (ICOD)
Canadian Ocean Resources Associates (CORA).
PIMRIS objectives:
Coordinating a regional plan for an organized
collection, bibliographic recording, and
dissemination of fisheries and marine information
to the Pacific islands region.
Development of a regional database on marine
resources was another major activity.
PIMRIS STEERING COMMITTEE
The University of the South Pacific (USP),
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC);
Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA)
South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) ;
Pacific Islands Applied Geosciences Commission
(SOPAC),
Reps from PacIs Fisheries Depts.
STAFFING –PIMRIS COORDINATORS
Ross Thrasher – Late1988-1990
Esther Williams – 1990- mid 1991.
Ganeshan Rao – mid1991 – 2003
Vilimaina Vakaciwa – part 2004
Chris Nelson – 2004-2005
Maria Kalenchits – 2006 +
DATABASE -MOANA
1990 - CDS/ISIS computer workshop.
Then WISIS
1996 - Regional Workshop on Marine Information
Management and Introduction to CDS/ISIS
-Individual instructional sessions were held in
14 countries totaling 19 locations.
Version 1 – Aug 1992
Scope of the database: All aspects of Marine
Resources (living and non-living) and specific to
Pacific Island Countries.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
PIMRIS Newsletter (USP); Fisheries Newsletter (SPC);
News Digest (FFA); News (SOPAC); SPREP
Environment Newsletter.
New Acquisitions List; Current Awareness
Service(Journal Content pages)(FFA+USP+SPC+
SOPAC+ORSTOM +SPREP); Information Packages;
Topical Bibliographies; Country Fisheries/Marine
Resources Bibliographies; Poster (in English &
French).
Document Delivery; Translation works by SPC
component; Topical Information (Analysis) Bulletins by
SPC; Fisheries Directory (SPC); News Digest (FFA);
SOPAC News; Literature searches; document
photocopying.
Good will agreements:
ICLARM (Philippines), CSIRO (Australia), Scripps
Institute of Oceanography (California), University of
Miami, Colorado University (USA), Plymouth Marine
Lab (UK), Japan Marine Science and Technology
Centre, University of Oregon - Ocean Law Centre,
NOAA(USA), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority,
University of Texas and ORSTOM. Pacific Regional
Aquaculture Information Service (PRAISE) at University
of Hawaii.
IAMSLIC commenced the practice of ILL request via
IAMSLIC Email list
Collection Development - $10,000.00 was
committed by the USP Library.
Liaison Librarian & Information Literacy
Programmes.
PIMRIS Outreach Project: Technical assistance
in marine information management including
library setup to American Samoa; Cook Is;
FSM; Fiji; Kiribati; Marshal Is; Nauru; Niue;
PNG; Samoa; Solomon Is; Tonga; Tuvalu;
Vanuatu.
REGIONAL GROUP
In 1993
2004 when the Pac Is Reg Gp (PIRG) .
1998
PIMRIS in the New MARINE STUDIES FACILITY.
Resource Centre/Library (including) Audio-Visual
Collection; PIMRIS Database Development Activity;
Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) Input
Centre for the Pacific Islands Region; Publishing Work
for PIMRIS & MSP; and Information Services related
work with regional co-operation.
ASFA Data Input Centre
2002 - PIMRIS WEB PAGE
FUTURE DIRECTION @2004
Mission: To serve as a centre of excellence in
marine information dissemination at USP serving the
region.
-online full text access to relevant literature in digitized
formats.
-special topic/course based literature searching skill
programmes for staff & students.
-Expanding ASFA input.
-Continued development of the PIMRIS database and
explore hosting via web facility.
-Maintenance regional cooperative networking links.
- periodicals holdings listings.
- Maintain links with IAMSLIC.
-Continued assistance to Pacific Island countries