Helga Schmid

Helga Schmid begins the interview by discussing the growth of her interest in the world of information. While attending the Vienna University, she studied mathematics and physics and also worked on gaining her teaching certification. However, after meeting her husband, she relocated to Belgium and worked for Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community), where she began training to be a computer programmer. In 1969 she and her family moved back to Vienna and she joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). While there, under the direction of Giampaolo Del Bigio, Schmid helped publish the first INIS (International Nuclear Information System) Atomindex. In 1975, she moved on to AGRIS (International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology) where she worked with varying software and helped the fledgling organization to organize and evolve its technological programs. In 2000, she retired, after rising through the organization to become the head of AGRIS Processing. Schmid concludes the interview by discussing briefly her knowledge of AGRIS in its present state and sharing some of the positive experiences she had throughout her career as a computer analyst.

European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), Belgium

1966 - 1968 Post-doctorate Fellowship

European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), Belgium

1966 - 1969 Scientific Programmer

International Atomic Energy Agency

1969 - 1975 Programmer/Analyst for INIS

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Vienna

1975 - 1981 Programmer/Analyst for AGRIS

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Vienna

1981 - 2000 Head of AGRIS Processing

W. Boyd Rayward

W. Boyd Rayward is a research professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamapaign. He turned to librarianship after graduating in English literature from the University of Sydney. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago in 1973. He has held positions in the University of Chicago (where he became Dean of the Graduate Library School). He served as professor and head of the School of Information Library and Archive Studies and Dean of the University's Faculty of Professional Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney where he is now professor emeritus. He has published two books related to Paul Otlet, Belgian documentalist and internationalist, and a great many articles on history of national and international schemes for the organization and dissemination of information.