AERADE newsletter - Vol 2 Issue 1


*Newsletter*		August 2003

Contents Information management developments at CIRA Aftermath of the Iraq war and lessons learned Keeping up to date Need to identify standards? © Cranfield University 2003. Find out more about AERADE.		Information management developments at CIRA
		Article kindly written by Ferruccio Diozzi and Rosa Sannino, CIRA Documentation Centre
		About CIRA CIRA (Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali) is the Italian Aerospace Research Centre, and was established in 1984. Since 1988 it has been a joint-stock consortium, majority-owned by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the National Research Council (CNR).
		The CIRA Documentation Centre The main function of the Documentation Centre is the management, retrieval and dissemination of technical and scientific information to support the activities of CIRA. During the past year, information activities have focussed on services such as interlibrary loan and document electronic interchange, both for in-house users and for users within the Italian aerospace community. In 2002, the Documentation Centre produced the Italian Aerospace MetaOpac in collaboration with CILEA (an Italian non-profit organisation that provides ICT) and the AIB (Italian Libraries Association). The first of its kind in the Italian aerospace field, the MetaOpac enables the simultaneous searching of a number of Library Catalogues and has significantly improved awareness of, and access to, previously hard-to-find documents. At the moment the following Library Catalogues are available: Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) Politecnico of Milano. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale University of Roma "La Sapienza. Facoltà di Ingegneria Aerospaziale Politecnico of Torino. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aeronautica e Spaziale University of Bologna. Corso di studi in Ingegneria Aerospaziale della sede di Forlì University of Roma Tre. Coordinamento delle Biblioteche di Area Scientifico-Tecnologica Discussions are underway within the university and industrial sectors to increase this number shortly. Furthermore, a financed project has been presented to the Italian Minister of Education, University and Research for the realisation of an Italian aerospace digital library. The aim of the project will be to provide an effective means of accessing, sharing and disseminating aerospace information. The expertise of Documentation Centre staff is also beneficial to fields beyond the aerospace sector. For example, the ARPAC (Agenzia Regionale Protezione Ambientale Campania), the Regione Campania Environmental Protection Agency, has asked us to create a library and reference service for them. This will involve defining ARPAC information needs and ensuring access to, and dissemination of, relevant information sources. In conclusion, the CIRA Documentation Centre continues to play a central role in information-sharing in Italy and within the international aerospace information community. A paper related to this topic will be presented at the VII AIDA National Congress in Rome on the 2nd-3rd October 2003.