This project supports pariticipation by four U.S. scientists in a U.S.-Sri Lanka Seminar on Development of a Science Information Center and Information Science Program to be held in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The objectives are the strengthening of the science information resources and capabililties of Sri Lanka to enhance the progress of scientific research in that country, and to develop the mechanisms for implementing resource sharing on both an international and a domestic level in a developing country environment. The collaborating scientist in Sri Lanka is Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma, director of the Institute for Fundamental Studies (IFS) in Kandy. Topics to be covered will include: user requirements and disciplines, collection and resources development, regional, national and international network relationship and information storage, retrieval and dissemination as well as policy and management issues. Research papers on these topics will be presented, and specific areas for future collaboration will be identified. Scope: The U.S. team from the University of Maryland, College of Library and Information Services is experienced in the area of this project. They will interact with the top research scientists at the IFS and at a dozen research institutes and centers in the Kandy area. The experience gained through this collaborative effort would be quite useful to U.S. scientists in building the research and scientific infrastructure in third world countries.
