Aquaculture Information and Technology Transfer Task Force
Term: 1986-1998
Leadership: USDA ARS National Agricultural Library (Aquaculture Information Center) and USDA Extension Service (currently NIFA)
Participating federal agencies: USFWS, NOAA National Sea Grant Program, USAID, and USDA ERS
Mission: To provide Federal leadership for coordination of information collection and dissemination, enhancement of communication system networks, and facilitation of technology transfer in the Nation.
Highlights:
- Completed Aquaculture I CD-ROM with 62 documents (1987)
- Completed Aquaculture: A Guide to Federal Government Programs (1987)
- Completed and revised the 1985 version of Practical Aquaculture Literature II: A Bibliography (1989)
- Completed Aquaculture II CD-ROM containing 155 aquaculture publications and more than 6,000 pages of text and images (1992)
- Updated the publication, Aquaculture: A Guide to Federal Government Programs (1992); 5,000 copies distributed in 4 months.
- Prepared 250 disks with 13 scientific papers from Workshop on Design of High-density Recirculating Aquaculture Systems for distribution.
- Developed an action plan for national information collection and dissemination.
- Supported development of publications for the interagency Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture (currently Interagency Working Group on Aquaculture; IWG-A).
- Conducted Aquaculture Information and Technology Transfer workshops.
- Established a national network of state aquaculture extension coordinators.
- Developed project directories and databases representing recent aquaculture projects funded by Federal agencies.
- USDA Extension Service provided seed funds for creation of Aquaculture Network Information Center or AquaNIC concept on the worldwide web (www) in collaboration with Purdue University (1994).
- Completed Resource Guide to Aquaculture Information (1994).
- Initiated work on implementing electronic information systems for aquaculture and established coordination of national electronic information dissemination.