24th FIG General Assembly, Seoul 2001
Appendices



Appendix to item 10.1

Report for the 24th General Assembly
FIG Working Week in Seoul, 6-11 May 2001

INTERNATIONAL OFFICE OF CADASTRE AND LAND RECORDS (OICRF)

Report on the work done in the year 2000

This annual account gives an overview of the activities being performed by the International Office of Cadastre and Land Records, a permanent institution of FIG. The report outlines matters like OICRF's tasks, its collection and its information duty.

Tasks

As usual OICRF carried out its activities in all three areas of its tasks, namely:

  1. to collect and systematically file and index all documentation material relating to existing cadastres and land registration systems;
  2. to make comparative studies of that material, followed by publication of the results;
  3. to give information and advice on all cadastres and land registration systems to all interested persons and institutions, whether for the purpose of study or to help countries wishing either to introduce a cadastre or a land registration system or to improve the existing system.
The Collection

After the introduction and presentation of the renewed Internet-site OICRF spent most of its time and efforts to the consolidation of the presented services.

Also in 2000 OICRF continued on bringing the most important part of the collection digitally into the database. This concerns the documents which OICRF expects to be asked for and consulted mostly.

The growth of the collection is satisfactorily. Magazines' articles, dissertations, themes and books are still useful input for the OICRF collection. Since OICRF brings in the new documents digitally anyway, it has the most recent publications always digitally available for its users.

OICRF constantly realises the increasing importance of documents' digital availability. OICRF reports that from the standing collection up to now more than 3,750 publications have been brought digitally into the database.

Information and advice

Bringing publications digitally into the database is an activity which has also been given much priority in 2000. By doing this OICRF is able to provide the most important part of the desired publications via the Internet within some hours. Trying to offer quick services is part of OICRF's duties.

In the beginning of 2000 OICRF additionally made some arrangements to its website, just to comfort the visitor. The search windows have been improved, so that the visitor now can get a faster and more concrete result. Besides OICRF inserted a special page with links to other interesting websites in the field of land registration and cadastres.

But - just in order to more optimise this website service - OICRF started in 2000 to replace its current web site by a totally new, more user friendly one. Development started in autumn of 2000. Although it is a site being visited many times (6,000 times this year) and although many digital orders are received, nevertheless this project has started. A new, actual looking website, offering advanced facilities by using recent internet technologies, stimulates OICRF's position at least. It is planned that the new website is available at the end of March 2001.

Furthermore also this year OICRF presented itself as a host, by receiving delegations from abroad. Thus was it in the opportunity to promote its activities and tasks, as well as its international reputation. OICRF was also invited to lecture at academy.

Comparative studies

Last year OICRF published several (comparative) studies:

  • Cadastres in the 21st Century (GIM International Jan. 2000)
  • Datacommunication: a lifeline between Land administration and Society (FIG Prague, May 2000)
  • Cost Recovery for Land Administration (Survey Review, accepted)
Final Remark

OICRF makes as always every effort to offer best and quick services to anyone who requests for information, not at least to the members of FIG and the professional public. In other words: OICRF is ready to perform its tasks at the level required by an ever improving profession.

Once more all this was possible by the generous support of our host, the Dutch National Agency for the Cadastre and the Public Registers.


Prof. Eng. Paul van der Molen
President of OICRF

Alexander Maljaars LLM MA
Secretary-General of OICRF

21 February 2001



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