Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography HELCOM
Down  What is Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography?
Down  Development of the Bibliography
Down  What can be found from the Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography?
Down  How the original documents can be obtained?
Down  How new contributions can be included in the Bibliography?
Down  Quick search help
Down  BalticSeaWeb - a map to Bibliography
Down  Environmental information links
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Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings:
   List of HELCOM proceedings (sorted by title)
   List of HELCOM proceedings (latest addition first)


What is Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography?

The Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography covers bibliographic information on the Baltic Sea, i.e. all marine areas from the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia in the east and north to the Belt Sea and Kattegat in the west. It contains references to reports including "grey literature", journal articles, books, conference proceedings, dissertations etc. The bibliography covers material from the year 1970, currently ca. 11 000 references.

The Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography is produced under auspices of The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM, Helsinki Commission) from contributions prepared by the Baltic Sea states. The Information Service of the Technical Research Centre of Finland is responsible for compilation and processing of the bibliographic information as a consultant for the Helsinki Commission.

Top   Development of the Bibliography

From the very beginning of the scientific and technological cooperation in the frame of the Baltic Environrnent Protection Commission the bibliography on the Baltic Sea Area has been considered as an essential tool for studies on the Baltic sea pollution problems.

Since 1975 bibliographic material has been collected and distributed to the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention. All Baltic Sea States have annually compiled their own national bibliographies according to the agreed instructions. The collected material goes back to year 1970.

The references have been published in many different forms. The whole bibliography is available as an online database. The years 1970-1989 also as microfiche cards. References from the 70's were compiled and the bibliography was published in printed form in the Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings No. 4. Also the years 1986-1990 and 1991-1992 have been published in Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings -series.

The Baltic Marine -database is available on the Internet via WWW-service at the Information Service of Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Top   What can be found from the Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography?

There are only a few databases in the world dedicated to marine sciences. These include for example such large international databases as ASFA, BIOSIS and AGRIS. The Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography obtains much of the material directly from authors, institutes and libraries and to a lesser extent from monitoring journals and serials, which is the main method in case of large international databases. This means that the content of the Baltic Marine Environment Bibliography is unique and as such it is an important source of information for marine researchers and completes the information received from other information sources.

The subject coverage includes all aspects of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea, for example ecology, fauna and flora, fisheries, hydrography, pollution, environmental impact, research, planning and administrative measures. Noticeable part of references deal with pollution problems. They cover nearly 40 % of the references. The geographical coverage includes the whole Baltic Sea area, i. e. marine areas from the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia in the east and north to the Belt Sea and the Kattegat in the west.

The main language of the documents is English (48 %). Other languages include for example Swedish (14%), Russian (9 %) and German (9%). 44 % of the original documents are journal articles, 31 % are monographs and 25 % are monograph chapters.

The references are augmented by classification codes and keywords. In the earlier phase, (1970 - 1979), an own classification system was used. Since 1986, the classification and thesaurus of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries System, ASFA, of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have been used. A retrospective reclassification for the older material of 1980 - 1985 has been taken place to improve the uniformity of the material. All references have the title and keywords in English. From the year 1990 abstracts have been added to the bibliography.

Top   How the original documents can be obtained?

The original documents are deposited in officially nominated contact libraries in every Baltic Sea state. The relevant library information is mentioned in the reference. The documents can be ordered as loans or photocopies also through local scientific libraries from the contact libraries. For your local contact, see the table.

Top   How new contributions can be included in the Bibliography?

Authors and other contributors are kindly requested either to fill the following form or to contact the focal points of their respective countries:

   LIBRARY / FOCAL POINT ADDRESS FAX
DENMARK Danish Environmental Protection Agency
Documentation and Archives 		Ms. Helle Rasmussen 29 Strandgade
DK-1401 COPENHAGEN K		 + 45 32 660 479
ESTONIA Tallinn Technical University
Institute of Environmental Technology		 Ms. Mare Pärnapuu Järvevana tee 5
EE-0001 TALLINN		 + 372 620 2501
FINLAND VTT Information Service    P.O. Box 2000
FIN-02044 VTT		 + 358 9 456 4374
GERMANY Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency
Library		 Ms. Marion Heinrich P.O. Box 30 12 20
D-20305 HAMBURG		 + 49 40 3190 5000
LATVIA Ministry of Environment and Regional Development / Library Ms. Ilva Ake 25 Peldu Street
LV-1494 RIGA		 + 371 7 820 442
LITHUANIA Environmental Protection Ministry
Library		 Ms. Danguole Mejeriene Juozapaviciaus st. 9
LT-2600 VILNIUS		 + 370 2 728 020
POLAND Maritime Institute Library Ms. Elzbieta Smolnicka Dlugi Targ 39/41
PL-80 958 GDANSK		 + 48 58 3013513
Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry / Polish Secretariat for the Helsinki Convention Ms. Bogumila Kaczorek ul. Kossaka 1
PL-80 249 GDANSK		 + 48 583 414 754
RUSSIA Ministry of Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources
Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region		 Mr. Nicolai D. Sorokin Bolshaya Konushennaya str. 29
191 186 ST. PETERSBURG 		+ 7 812 3127 977
SWEDEN Swedish Environmental Protection Agency Mr. Arne Sjöqvist S-106 48 STOCKHOLM + 46 8 698 1400

Top   Quick search help

Searching is done by a specific search form. Free text searching from the whole database is supported, also searching from different fields. Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT can be used inside every field. The truncation character for search terms is *. By writing the beginning of the search term, truncating it and then choosing as an action the option "display" from the bottom of the form, it is possible to browse possible search terms. Searches are submitted by clicking the button "search". "New search" clears the form. Different layouts are available for printing or saving the search for later use.

Top   BalticSeaWeb

Take a look at the BalticSesWeb, which has substantially improved the usability of the Bibliography by providing an option for a java-based geographical user interface to the database.

Top   Environmental information links

Baltic Sea: Others:

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Last updated: March 10, 2001