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Animal Welfare Information Center

The Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) was established at the National Agricultural Library (NAL) in 1986 as a result of the amended Animal Welfare Act (PL 99-189). In the act, Congress mandated that: "The Secretary [of the U.S. Department of Agriculture] shall establish an information service at the National Agricultural Library. Such service shall, in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine, provide information:

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Pertinent to employee training

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Which could prevent unintended duplication of animal experimentation

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On improved methods of animal experimentation, including methods which could reduce or replace animal use, and minimize pain and distress to animals

As an information center within NAL, AWIC's role is to provide reference services, bibliographies and listings of relevant documents, establish the subject scope for acquisitions and indexing, conduct outreach activities and interact with user groups. In turn, AWIC relies on NAL for the purchase and maintenance of the subject relevant part of the collection, lending services and other technical services that ensure user access. Because of these cooperative efforts, the substantial resources of the Library enable the AWIC staff to supply information on a broad array of subjects, even though the main thrust of AWIC's subject responsibilities are determined by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Materials commonly accessed for AWIC's clientele cover important technical, ethical, political and legal issues related to the welfare of animals. Briefly, subjects indexed include: anesthesia, analgesia, euthanasia, training and education of technicians and investigators, transportation and acquisition of animals, species husbandry, animal behavior, environmental factors affecting animals, laboratory animal management, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees, regulations and legislation concerning the humane treatment of animals, philosophies of animal welfare/rights and alternatives to the use of animals in research, testing and education.

One result of computer technology has been the advent of computer databases in general and the bibliographic database in particular. These have become important repositories referencing the world's scientific literature. Databases enable information providers to develop customized bibliographies for the patron's specific information needs. To access as well as disseminate the extensive information resources in the NAL collection, NAL staff generate an internationally available database called AGRIcultural On-Line Access (AGRICOLA). Established in 1970, AGRICOLA contains over 3 million citations to books, articles and audiovisuals covering agriculture and related subjects. There is no database specifically for animal welfare generated by AWIC. Many published books, journals, videotapes, reports, etc. relevant to AWIC are included in the AGRICOLA database. Approximately one-fifth of the AGRICOLA database is devoted to citations on animal production, laboratory animal science, veterinary medicine and animal welfare.

Reference services are available to anyone who calls the Center. However, most AWIC users are biomedical researchers, veterinarians, animal technicians and caretakers, USDA regulatory staff, facility managers, academics, organization personnel, curators in zoological parks, librarians and students. These services may be a quick answer, a suggested general resource, reference to an article and/or a database search. In the event that an extensive database search is suggested, the patron has the option of a free abbreviated search or to purchase the more comprehensive online DIALOG database search on a cost recovery basis. Because many organizations and institutions have full-service libraries with the capability of multi-database searching, AWIC staff are a back-up resource, providing materials, other information resources and advice to librarians. For those organizations or individuals with limited information resources, AWIC can provide more comprehensive services.

Several types of publications are generated by the AWIC staff. Most publications fall into the following five NAL publication series:


	Quick Bibliography (QBs)


	Special Reference Brief (SRBs)


	AWIC Series


	Fact Sheets


	Animal Welfare Information Center Newsletter

Efforts continue to address new and old welfare issues through either new publications or updates of old publications. At the present time, all AWIC publications are supplied without charge. It should be noted that AWIC-produced publications are not copyrighted and may be photocopied without permission. For a current listing of publications available, please contact the AWIC.

For your convenience there are various ways that you can contact the Center. Staff members are available to take your calls between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

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Telephone - (301) 504-6212

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FAX machine - (301) 504-6409

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Email - awic@nalusda.gov

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http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/

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The AWIC mailing address is:

Animal Welfare Information Center

National Agricultural Library

10301 Baltimore Blvd.


	Beltsville, MD 20705-2351