IAA's Virtual Global Actuarial Library Is a Handy Tool

Researchers should know about a useful tool provided by the International Association of Actuaries (IAA) on their Web site. On the site, the icon labeled "Virtual Global Actuarial Library" can launch searches into over 180,000 documents from over 70 sites of interest to actuaries, including libraries of actuarial associations, a number of academic libraries, those of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and many other organizations.

Researchers can search within a selected group of sites, which drastically reduces the number of nonrelevant answers, or they can narrow down searches by selecting specific domains or libraries by type, language, or geographic areas.

Documents can be translated into one of the eight languages using the IAA's customized automatic translation tool. This tool is a work in progress that will give researchers the gist of the document or message, and will allow them to decide if they wish to have the document professionally translated. The languages available are Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian. The IAA is working on improving the translation tool by adding terms and expressions in a custom actuarial dictionary.

To access the virtual global actuarial library, log onto the members section of the IAA Web Site. A login name and password are required. The VGAL is listed in the menus on the left, below the main ones, in orange.