Issue 67 (Spring/Summer 1998)

APLIC-INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATOR
Spring/Summer 1998, Issue #67

The APLIC-International Communicatoris published several times yearly by the Association for Population and Family Planning Libraries and Information Centers, International. Mailing address: c/o Family Health International Library, P.O. Box 13950, RTP, NC 27709 USA. ISSN 09-9847
Editors:
Nicole Pelsinsky, Center for Communications Programs, Johns Hopkins University, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, MD. 21202. Phone: 410-659-6168; Fax: 410-659-6266; e-mail: npelsins@jhuccp.org
Jean Sack, Hopkins Population Center, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205. Phone: 410-614-5222; Fax 410-955-1215; email: jsack@jhsph.edu

Table of Contents

Presidents’ Message
By Lisa A. Newman and Anne K. Ilacqua, APLIC-I Co-Presidents

We were pleased to see such a good turnout at the APLIC-I Annual Meeting. Working together to plan a Conference Program was enlightening and rewarding (and a lot of hard work!) To those of you who helped by giving us suggestions for speakers, thank you! What we found is that the logical choices for speakers are often those whose schedules are too busy for them to accept. Those speakers who come for PAA, though they might express a willingness to address APLIC-I members, are reluctant to take the time to come earlier. We were very pleased with the speakers who were kind enough to accept and from where we sat, it was evident that many of you found some of these speakers moving. Thanks, too, to those of you who expressed your appreciation to us for taking on the work of planning the meeting and for telling us how much you enjoyed it.

Over the past year and particularly quite recently, organization members have expressed their concern at the loss of members’ positions in their organizations. This is painful, of course, to the individuals, but APLIC-I members are also affected by the loss of these special people we have come to know and appreciate. One of our members recently said:
“I am so disappointed about what is happening right now… it is happening to dear friends, and that is really sad, another and more frightening thing is that it seems that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the whole “population effort.” I really do hope that I am wrong.”
We hope that he is wrong, too, but agree that it is worrisome.

We are happy to note, however, that we do have many new members. We have newly-revised by-laws. We have committees and archives and online resources and interested, enthusiastic and hard-working members. The APLIC-I Board will be meeting at Brown in Providence on September 17 and 18th to continue our efforts. If you have any ideas or suggestions which you would like us to consider, please send them to your Presidents or any Board member. If you would like to attend the Board Meetings, please e-mail or call Anne Ilacqua at Anne_Ilacqua@Brown.edu or (401)863-1863.

At our 1998 Banquet, one member rose to say that she looks forward to our Annual Meeting because APLIC-I members are like family. One of the tangible benefits of APLIC-I is the expeditious interlibrary loan service, but there are also fringe benefits such as becoming acquainted with and getting to know one’s counterparts in organizations and institutions around the nation (and sometimes around the world) and sharing ideas, problems, solutions and concerns with them.

As Presidents, we look forward to a rewarding and productive year!

News of Members

Nika Bareket’s baby and maternity leave are expected shortly after July 4, 1998. Two libraries are merging at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan this summer. We appreciate Nika’s initial CD-ROM review in this issue of the Communicator.

Bob McCann: APLIC-I president 1996-97, Bob is leaving the Florida State University Center for the Study of Population after his position was cut to half time for fy99. He has just hosted a housewarming in his new home in Tallahassee and welcomes continued contact from APLIC-I friends as he begins a job search. Address and phone are: 2831 BOATNER STREET, TALLAHASSEE, FL 32304. Phone: (850) 504 – 0606.

Suggestions for Article Topics to Submit to the APLIC-I Communicator

If you would like to contribute to the Communicator, below is a list of possible topics. Your contributions can carry a byline (potential for your resume!) and should be submitted to Jean Sack at jsack@jhsph.edu or to Nicole Pelsinsky at npelsins@jhuccp.org.

  • Marketing tips

  • Demographics: births, deaths, marriages, retirements, awards, job changes, new members, committee appointments, honors, etc.

  • Reference question tips: Q&A with approach to answering questions

  • Reviews of Web sites. Maybe using a template for review. (i.e. What kind of questions to address in the review?) If this is done, it might be helpful to have the review previewed by the web site manager for counterpoints.

  • Biographies of board members… now would be a good time with the elections over.

  • Cartoons

  • Reviews of new journals

  • Book reviews

  • Conference summaries: ALA, SLA, MLA, others–with a specific view to things of interest to APLIC-type folks

  • Library profiles: What a library does, who it serves, what the coverage of the collection is, etc.

  • Reviews of CD-ROMs. (Perhaps, to be forward-thinking, this category could be combined with book reviews, new journal reviews, and Web site reviews to be a general review section.)

  • Responses from one or more libraries to questions like:

    • Do you weed? How often and when?

    • What controlled vocabulary do you use for the collection and why do you use it?

A Cornucopia of Connections
By Maryann Belanger – Librarian, Office of Population Research

During the second week of December, 1997, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting four specialized demography institutions (INED, INSEE, CICRED, CEPED) in Paris, France. I had been invited to tour these facilities and speak with the directors of their libraries and information centers by Jacques Veron, Director of International Relations at INED. I had met M. Veron in 1996 during his visit to Princeton’s Office of Population Research. At that time, I provided a tour of the Population Research Library and discussed the services offered to our patrons. My INED-sponsored visit would hopefully increase the networking between our library and the French insitutions.

The Institut National d’Etudes Demographiques (INED) and its library recently celebrated their 50th anniversary. The library directed by Francoise Meunier (meunier@ined.fr) supports over 160 researchers. A staff of nine, five professionals and 4 paraprofessionals provides reference and interlibrary loan services. The INED collection contains 60,000 volumes and 500 periodical titles. The classification system permits shelving by size and acquisition date code number. While this system works well for this closed stack facility and does provide the searching patron an opportunity to immediately locate new acquisitions, it seriously limits serendipity. Most of their clientele is in-house, but reference questions from outside patrons do arrive by telephone or mail.

The records of censuses, vital statistics and monographs from 1987 to the present are in the INED database as are the records of all INED publications. M. Meunier and her staff employ a number of electronic resources, such as POPLINE, PopIndex, CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), Pascal (journal article database) and Francis (humanities database). We discussed a number of possible enhancements to her facility, such as: more open stacks, development of a more workable classification system, expansion of patron services, improvement of the cataloging database and increasing the visibility of the library. I am hoping to arrange a reciprocal visit of M. Meunier to a number of U. S. demography libraries in New York, Philadelphia and Washington during the fall of 1998.

INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques) was the second library visited. INSEE is the primary statistical unit of the French government and is responsible for the production of national surveys (both demographic and economic) and counts. The documentation center with its staff of 37 supports over 1500 researchers and is directed by Marguerite Weil. Its closed stack collection consists of 100,000 books and 8,500 serial titles of which 3,500 are still active. The online public catalof starts with material from 1982 and items are added as they circulate. The classification system is identical to that of INED’s. While she plans on retaining the closed stack policy and the in-place classification system, M. Weil is in the process of purchasing a new computer system for the catalog. She also hopes to improve the information center’s WEB presence as well as increasing accessibility of holdings’ information for her in-house clients.

My visit to CICRED (Comite International de Cooperation dans les Recherches Nationales en Demographie) provided a change of direction. I was speaking not to the director of a library or information center, but to a publisher of demographic material. CICRED was established in 1972 to act as a liaison organization to all the member organizations attending the World Population Conference in Bucharest. CICRED works to develop cooperation among international population resesarch centers; to promote research, and to provide links between UNPD, UNFPA. WHO and FAO. Hartati Ayral (ayral@cicred.ined.fr), the assistant to the director, discussed several topics: the usability and usage of their publications; the issue of whether to translate more of their publications into English; and the relevance of the PoPIN thesaurus. She wrapped up our discussion by pointing out a number of expanding CICRED research areas, such as ubranization, aging, international migration, and the interdisciplinary analysis of interactions between Demography, Economics and Society.

CEPED (Centre Francais sur la Population et le Developpement) was the last research institution on my agenda. It is the youngest of the four facilities. Established in 1988 and supporting a fairly small complement of researchers (25) compared to INSEE and INED, CEPED aims to promote research, training and cooperation among developing countries with special emphasis on French-speaking Africa and Vietnam (especially in respect to relationships between population and development). The library which has a staff of two and is headed by Francoise Gubry (f.gubry@ceped.ined.fr) is somewhat different from the others I visited. Cataloging is based on a variation of the PoPIN Thesaurus using broad subject headings. Access is not restricted and the stacks are open to all patrons. 15,000 books, 170 journal titles, plus conference proceedings, statistical data, dissertatiosn and microforms are the resources provided by this library. An excellent collection of censuses from French-speaking Africa are part of the collection. A local database of holdings has been maintained since the library’s inception. M. Guibry plans to incorporate new serviced and materials. She hopes to add a GIS capability and to expand Asian and Latin American resources with an emphasis on Mexico and international migraion. She is also working to put the online catalog on the CEPED WEB site.

In addition to spending fruitful hours with librarians and publishers, I also has an opportunity to sample a cornucopia of other connections with the editors of INED’S monograph series and the journal, POPULATION, archivists, WEB masters and institute directors.

Several re-occurring themes were obvious throughout my visit to these institutions:

1. Networking is vital in order to produce the widest dissemination of knowledge.
2. We need to share our expertise in order to provide the best possible service for our patrons.
3. French librarians are confronted with the exact same problems as U. S.librarians, i.e. copyright, document delivery, melding new technologies with traditional library philosophy and practice.

APLIC CD-ROM Survey Results
By Nika Bareket, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

The Population Studies Library at the University of Michigan currently relies heavily on print materials and on information available over the WWW. One of the projects that I wanted to work on over the summer was to start collecting materials in CD-ROM format. I felt that these could be a big improvement over many print resources, and could provide faster and easier access to much of the information and statistics that needs to be accessed frequently, especially if accessed over our network. One of the first steps I took in identifying these resources was to send an inquiry to the APLIC listserv. I got some great responses, which I found very helpful, as well as a number of inquiries about whether I would be willing to share the results of this somewhat impromptu survey with other APLIC members.

First of all, I would like to send a big thanks to all those who responded. I received about 12 responses, not counting those who wanted only to express their interest. What I have compiled here is a basic summary of most of the information that was sent to me. What I didn’t include are resources that seemed to fall more under the category of data sets (i.e. National Longitudinal Surveys, Linked Birth/Infant Death data, etc.) since this was not really the focus of my inquiry.

Results

Not surprisingly, the most highly recommended item was POPLINE. Most libraries have this on a single user CD from Silverplatter or NISC, while some get access through the online catalog of their main university library system. POPLINE is a heavily used resource and seems to be a reliable mainstay for the APLIC members who replied. One person indicated that POPLINE was also useful as a teaching tool for international students (NISC version.)

Ranking second in usefulness were the 1990 U.S. Census materials. Items specifically mentioned here were the 1990 U.S. Census CDs, Census CD + maps and Census CD by Geolytics. All the libraries that mentioned these (nearly everyone that responded) felt that the electronic versions were a significant improvement over print versions. Released this spring, several respondents indicated that CensusCD+maps is a great new resource, with its mapping capabilities tied into the data available from the Census Bureau.

Other resources that were common to a number of libraries and were well liked by library users were many of the products put out by NCHS. These include such things as Advance Data, Health US, Vital and Health Statistics Series, Monthly Vital Statistics Reports, Healthy People 2000, etc. Additional popular choices were resources relating to AIDS and fertility. More than one institution owns and likes the AIDSCAP Electronic Library, National Survey of Family Growth, and Health and Nutrition Financing and Sustainability in Developing Countries in CD-ROM format.

One person gave a glowing review of Demographics ’94 (there are subsequent versions of this CD issued for 1995, 1996, and 1998 as well.) This product includes features such as the ability to create and view charts, graphs, and population pyramids for a variety of different countries, and print them out in color (if you have a color printer) for presentations or for demonstrating how population pyramids change. This program was developed for UNFPA and uses such things as the U.N. Estimates and Projections, IIASA Population Scenarios, etc. Demographics ’98 sounds like it would be a great resource for any demography or population studies center.

Part of the question that I posted to the listserv dealt not just with specific products, but also what type of information people preferred to have in electronic format. Answers to this were widely varied. Some people feel that the best things to have on CD are basic statistical data from organizations like the UN or World Bank. Others keep their electronic resources to a minimum and have little else besides POPLINE. Still other people mentioned that they liked buying reference materials (indexes, abstracts, and yearbooks), while some respondents felt just the opposite. Collection policies for electronic products seem to be very individualized, depending largely on the library, and the preferences of its users.

List of CDs. The following is a list, in alphabetical order, of titles of electronic resources mentioned in the survey with any additional information that the respondent wanted to share. I have put stars next to the products that are held by more than one institution. Your editors have added website URLs for additional information.

Population Action Email Alert Network : May 11, 1998
From Population Action International
By Anne Marie Amantia, PAI Librarian and Andrea Calise, Media Relations Associate/Web Master

Dear Colleague: The following are brief summaries and links to PAI’s latest publications, factsheets and updates located on PAI’s Web site at http://www.populationaction.org.

New Materials

Africa’s Population Challenge: Accelerating Progress in Reproductive Health
http://www.populationaction.org/programs/afpop/afpop_index.htm
Change and challenge are the two principal themes of this new study. Dramatic changes in government policies mean that today, two-thirds of countries in the region have active family planning programs. Nevertheless, sub-Saharan Africa faces a critical challenge with respect to meeting the reproductive health needs of its rapidly growing population.

The new PAI study endeavors to present a comprehensive overview of this challenge and the diversity of the regional responses. From mass media AIDS prevention campaigns to family planning services directed at youth, sub-Saharan Africa is home to innovative approaches and programs that are part of a picture of change across the region.

What Birth Dearth?
Why World Population is Still Growing
http://www.populationaction.org/why_pop/birthdearthfs.htm
The world’s population is still increasing by over 80 million people a year, despite the trend worldwide towards smaller families. Moreover population will continue to grow for at least the next half century and by at least another two billion people.

This factsheet outlines and explains current population trends and stresses the importance of expanding family planning services to enable more couples to have the smaller, healthier families they desire.

Politics of Population Assistance
http://www.populationaction.org/politics/political.htm
As PAI monitors the Foreign Affairs Bill and the “Global Gag Rule” provision, we continue to post the latest developments on this Web site in a timely fashion. The site also contains a background factsheet on the Gag Rule provision currently attached to H.R. 1757, the Foreign Affairs Reform Act.

Thanks again for visiting and please don’t hesitate to contact us with suggestions on ways to improve the site.

To subscribe to PAI Pop Alerts, send an email to majordomo@nmpinc.com with only the words subscribe popact-list in the body of the message.
To unsubscribe from PAI Pop Alerts send an email to majordomo@nmpinc.com with only the words unsubscribe popact-list in the body of the message.

Population Action International
1120 19th Street NW #550
Washington, DC 20036 U.S.A.
Tel: 202.659.1833
Fax: 202.293.1795

New Internet Resources

The Scout Report has established a metasite for topics and web-mounted technical papers in the Social Sciences: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/socsci/metapage/index.html We note that Wisconsin’s working papers on population web site is linked on the site. Other categories include Full Text Papers and Articles, Tables of Contents for New Journals, Government Papers, Publishers, Think Tank Policy Papers, Data/Statistics, Conferences. Listed below are several examples of the items/organizations with full-text or summaries available.

Three New Working Papers from the Census Bureau:
“How Well Does the Current Population Survey Measure the Foreign Born Population in the United States?” (Number 22) http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0022/twps0022.html “Poverty, Family Structure, and Child Well-Being: Indicators From the SIPP” (Number 23) http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0023.html “Child Well-Being Indicators From the SIPP” (Number 24) http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0024/twps0024.html

The Census Bureau has recently posted Population Division Working Papers No. 22, 23, and 24 (titles listed above), on its website. The first, by A. Dianne Schmidley and J. Gregory Robinson, reviews and evaluates the use of CPS data as an indicator of the social and economic well-being of the foreign born population. The second, by Jason M. Fields and Kristin E. Smith, examines the efficacy of SIPP as a measure of child well-being. The last paper, written by Kristin E. Smith, Loretta E. Bass, and Jason M. Fields, provides figures from four areas of child well-being: early childhood experiences, parent-child interaction, school-age enrichment activities, and children’s academic experience. [MD] The Scout Report 5/19/98

RAND Corporation Rodolfo A. Bulatao, “The Value of Family Planning Programs in Developing Countries”–RAND Corporation [.pdf] Summary: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR978/

New Print Resources

Teresa Frydryk, APLIC member from JSI Research and Training Institute in Boston, announces the availability of Sexual Assault Prevention: A Catalog of Educational Materials. It lists over 500 training publications, multi-media kits, posters, and videos as well as Internet sites that can be used for sexual assault prevention education in school and community settings. The materials in the catalog are arranged by broad age categories such as young children, pre-teens and teenagers, young adults, and older adults. Separate sections list materials for adult survivors, parents and concerned adults, and health and human service professionals. To request a free copy, contact:
Kathy Girod, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Sexual Assault Prevention and Survivor Services Program,
250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108-4619
Voice: 617-624-5489 / E-mail: Kathy.Girod@state.ma.us

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health by the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Wave I and Wave II are on CD-ROMs. For more information, contact Joyce Tabor tabor.cpc@mhs.unc.edu. For further information about the contractual datasets, contact:
Jo Jones, Carolina Population Center,
University of North Carolina, CB# 8120,
Chapel Hill, NC 27516-3997
E-mail: jo_jones@unc.edu
Web: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/addhealth_home.html

The AIDSCAP Electronic Library CD-ROM from FHI offers 300 full-text publications searchable by simple word queries, author name, title, or a keyword. Most documents are reproduced in their entirety, accompanied by photos, charts and graphics from the original print publications. Nine areas are covered: Behavior Change Communication (BCC), Behavioral Research, Condom Programming, Epidemiology, Evaluation, Gender, Policy, Program Management, Sexually Transmitted Diseases. For more information, e-mail:
cdrom@fhi.org
http://www.fhi.org/ctu/cdrom.html

CensusCD+Maps from GeoLytics.
Windows (95, NT, or 3.1x) CD-ROM. A demographics and mapping software product combining 50 gigabytes of data with advanced thematic mapping capability. CensusCD+Maps lets anyone create colorful thematic data maps, down to the neighborhood level of census block groups, with no mapping or GIS experience required. All of the data, boundaries, and software to create results are on the one disc. CensusCD+Maps eliminates the hassles of importing data and boundaries required by most mapping software. GeoLytics sells CensusCD+Maps directly for $249.95 for a single user license; $750 for LAN/CD-Tower license. GeoLytics can be reached by phone at 800-577-6717, by fax at 732-651-2721, or by e-mail at info@gcensuscd.com.. See also their website at http://www.censuscd.com/cdmaps/censuscd_maps.htm.

The CDC Division of Reproductive Health has published the final report for the 1996 Romania Young Adult Reproductive Health Survey (English or Romanian), the final report for the Three-City Reproductive Health Survey in Russia (English), and the final report for the 1996 Honduras Reproductive Health Survey (Spanish). Single copies are available free of charge from the Behavioral Epidemiology and Demographic Research Branch, DRH, CDC, MS K-35, Atlanta, GA 30333; Fax: 770.488.5965.

ImageBase is a small database developed by the CCP, Media/Materials Clearinghouse which includes over 300 international reproductive health posters and other materials from North America, Africa, Asia, Latin America, Near East, and the New Independent States. The Media/Materials Clearinghouse has permission to provide access to all materials in ImageBase except those produced by the United States government, which are in public domain. These posters are a small part of the Media/Materials Clearinghouse collection of over 25,000 posters, pamphlets, videos, audiotapes, photographs, flipcharts, kits, and other materials produced to promote reproductive health worldwide. Take a look at:
http://www.jhuccp.org/mmc/imagbas.stm. For a modified CD-ROM version contact Peggy D’Adamo at mmc@jhuccp.org.

Premarital Sexuality Among Young People, 1973 Data set on the Internet. Principal Investigator: John DeLamater. This study focuses on the social aspects of premarital sexuality, socio-psychological characteristics, current sexual behavior, and contraceptive knowledge and use among young people in Madison, Wisconsin. Information on personal and family characteristics, sexual experience, peer group influence, and self-image was also collected. Web: http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/Premsex73/.

Reproductive Health Training for Primary Providers: A SourceBook for Curriculum Development (User’s Guide and eight modules, 1997) provides practical solutions for developing a performance-based curriculum for training primary providers to offer high quality, client-oriented, integrated reproductive health (RH) care services. Each module includes a detailed analysis of a specific RH job, the related tasks, skills and knowledge required for providers to perform the job, as well as assessment tools to evaluate trainee achievements, and a reference list. Materials in the SourceBook are adaptable to specific field needs. The User’s Guide and six modules are currently available in English. Web: http://www.med.unc.edu/intrah/pubs.html#rt.

CensusCD + Maps Revolutionizes Demographic Mapping

Press Inquiries Contact:
Michael Brennan, GeoLytics Marketing/PR
781-545-8969, marketing@censuscd.com

GeoLytics compresses 75 CD-ROMs of demographic data and boundaries onto ONE easy-to-use Windows disc including thematic mapping software.

East Brunswick, NJ, March 31,1998 – GeoLytics announces the release of CensusCD+Maps – a demographics and mapping software product combining 50 gigabytes of data with advanced thematic mapping capability.

GeoLytics’ proprietary data compression allows for the inclusion of over 6,500 variables. The one disc holds 1990 United States Census data (the complete long form) as well as 1997 Estimates and 2002 Projections of Demographics and Consumer Spending. Also included are 15 levels of geographic boundaries for 375,000 unique places in the United States as well as County Time Series statistics for 26 topics including Crime, Agriculture, Business Earnings, Retail, Industry, Government, etc. Data can be exported for use in other software packages.

The integrated thematic mapping capability creates full color data maps, and display census data down to the neighborhood level. This flexible tool provides built in map viewing and generates maps from .DBF files. A virtual variable calculator allows users to perform mathematical functions on the data and automatically map results. The map viewer exports map boundaries in GIS formats, ArcView and MapInfo, or saves maps as bitmap files for use with most office suite or graphics software.

CensusCD+Maps is the newest product from GeoLytics, the maker of the popular CensusCD. “Incorporating mapping into a fully loaded data product provides the end user with a flexible tool for use in almost any application, ” said Craig Cornelius, President of GeoLytics. “We want to change the paradigm for how demographic data is traditionally sold. From pricing to data storage to performance and software tools, CensusCD+Maps provides a complete solution.”

GeoLytics sells CensusCD+Maps directly for $249.95 for a single user license; $750 for LAN/CD-Tower license. The single CD-ROM runs under Windows 95, 98, NT, or 3.1x. For more detailed information on data and mapping visit GeoLytics ‘ web site at http://www.geolytics.com. GeoLytics, Inc., based in East Brunswick, NJ, is a privately held company, developing and distributing affordable software products for analyzing geographically based information under Microsoft Windows operating systems. CensusCD and CensusCD+Maps are trademarks of GeoLytics, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders GeoLytics can be reached by phone at 800-577-6717, by fax at 732-651-2721, or by e-mail at info@geolytics.com.

New Projects Funded by USAID

MEASURE stands for Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results. It is a new project funded by USAID and jointly run by Macro Internationa, the Carolina Population Center, Population Reference Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Division of Reproductive Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Visit the web site at: http://www.measureprogram.org to find our more about it.

Horizons is a global five-year (1997-2002) operations research project designed to identify components of effective HIV/AIDS programs and policies, test potential solutions to problems in prevention, care, support, and service delivery, and disseminate and utilize findings with a fiew toward replication and scaling-up of successful interventions. Visit the web site at: http://www.popcouncil.org/horizons/ to find out more about it.

IMPACT, the Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care Project, funded by a five-year cooperative agreement awarded by USAID, will support efforts to bring state-of-the-art HIV/AIDS prevention and care programming to resource-poor nations where the spread of the pandemic threatens advances in health and development. Together, FHI and its five partners — Management Sciences for Health, PATH, Population Services International, the Institute for Tropical Medicine, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — bring to the project a wide range of expertise in program design and management, behavioral change and biomedical interventions and research, behavior change communication, technical and management training and capacity building, mass media dissemination, program evaluation, policy development and advocacy, and diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). To read the press release visit the FHI web site at http://www.fhi.org/general/newsrel.html#anchor73421