Published in Probe Volume 6 (Final): July 1996
ISIS, the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) of the National Agricultural Library (NAL), is now available over the Internet at telnet address: opac.nal.usda.gov. The catalog can be searched Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
According to NAL Director Pamela André, while this improvement will help all users of the Library, it will be of particular interest to those who are outside the Washington, D.C. area. "Over the years, NAL has become an internationally recognized resource for the agricultural community, serving thousands of scientists, researchers, and scholars throughout the world. To have Internet access to these resources will help to meet a critical need for agricultural information worldwide," says André.
ISIS contains two agricultural databases, the NAL Online Catalog and the Journal Article Citation database. The NAL Online Catalog is updated by NAL and contains the most current bibliographic citations for books, reports, maps, periodicals, audiovisuals, CD-ROM's and other materials being added to the NAL collection. It also includes citations for materials at the U.S. Reference Center and five Regional Research Center Libraries of USDAs Agricultural Research Service.
The Journal Article Citation database consists of citations of journal and periodical articles, book chapters, reprints, and other specialized materials indexed by NAL and its cooperators. It is part of NALs AGRICOLA database, which contains over 3 million agriculture-related citations.
For more information, please contact John Stetka, Information Systems Division, Room 013, National Agricultural Library, USDA, ARS, 10301 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705-2351; phone: 301-504-6816; TDD/TTY: 301-504-6856; Fax: 301-504-7473; E-mail:jstetka@nal.usda.gov