The National Agricultural Library serves the changing face of farming by Malcolm Brantz Director, The Learning Resource Center Arapahoe Community College Littleton, Colorado NAL is the third largest of our four national libraries and was established as part of the Department of Agriculture in 1862. The library is located in Beltsville, Maryland, and housed in the fifteen story Abraham Lincoln building. NAL's collection of over 3.5 million items makes it the largest agricultural library in the world. NAL's budget, $20 million, is modest when compared to the larger libraries. The Library is staffed by 175 people. NAL is part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with a total budget of 74 billion dollars and staff of nearly 100,000 people. One would think the budget of the USDA is shrinking because the numbers of people farming land has shrunk from forty percent of the country's population down to two percent. Today there are around 2 million farms with an average size of approximately 500 acres. The department uses a system of extension services with most of the research being distributed across the country at a "land-grant university" in each state. The USDA website contains many interesting links. The USDA has broadened its areas of service to include natural resources, nutrition, and food safety, to mention a few. Many changes have occurred within farming. Farming has gone high tech with "precision farming," boosting crop yields and reducing waste by using satellite maps and computers to match seed, fertilizer and crop protector applications to local soil conditions. Farming cost has increased to where an average tractor costs $97,000 to $170,000. Farmers are older, the average age being around 55, and because of the type of work, a dangerous occupation. Another service from the library is called "Plant Disease Announcements." At the end of September, 2002, the following announcement was made: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has not ruled out the possibility of widespread testing of Canadian fields for potato mop-top virus, following recent developments. Alain Boucher, seed potato specialist for the CFIA, in Moncton, N.B., was cited as confirming his agency will consider testing Canadian fields since it is conceivable, based on vast movements of potatoes north and south of the border, that Canadian provinces may have received some infected seed potatoes. There are no confirmed cases in Canada, but at least 2 seed lots were sent north from the U.S., and the CFIA is beginning trace backs on those shipments. It is also possible that some of the progeny from those potatoes could have been shipped back across the U.S. border. Other reports come from all over the world, such as from Lebanon to Australia. This system is an e-mail system called "ProMed" and is maintained so specialists can report their findings. ProMed is supported by the International Society for Infectious Diseases and has human, animal and plant reports. For example, today it was announced ANTHRAX VACCINATION, HUMANUSA, with three areas for use of the vaccination. Primary library responsibilities include building and organization of materials, both a national and international mandate for service, building a comprehensive information network, and development of specialized subject services. I must confess that I've never used the AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) database before. Using this database was easy, turned up useful bibliographic records, (water and Colorado) and other records that you wonder why are they doing this. For example, one article was titled: "Water Composition and loss of body color and form mutants of the German Cockroach (Dictyoptera: Balttellidae)." The abstract for this article stated: "Body water composition and rates of water loss were determined for adult males of five body color or form mutants of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.). Body water content ranged from 68.4% for a yellow body strain to 74.7% for the balloon wing strain." The above article, strangely reminds me of a house, more specifically the kitchen, I lived in while doing my undergraduate work with five other male students in Honolulu, Hawaii. On second thought, let's stick with our article about NAL's user population. Statistically, there were 24,200 people that earned Bachelors degrees in agriculture and natural resources in 1999-2000. That figure is holding steady for the past five years. There were 4,300 who earned Master's degrees and nearly 1,200 who earned PhDs in this category that year. Compared to medicine, these figures are relatively small. A colleague and I were talking about the most famous farmer in the US. Two that came to mind were Old McDonald (story character) and Johnny Appleseed. A search of the database revealed that Old McDonald does not appear but Johnny Appleseed generated five titles. Actually, the man's name was John Chapman who had unconventional religious beliefs and was quite a character. Only one record was retrieved when Bill Clinton's name was submitted. John Deere, as in tractor resulted in 121 records. Most were studies of the equipment and done at the land grant school. NAL has six information centers dealing with special topics: Alternative Farming, Animal Welfare, Food and Nutrition, Rural Information, Technology Transfer and Water Quality Information Centers. For example, the Rural Information Center "provides information and referral services to local, state, and federal government officials; community organizations; rural electric and telephone cooperatives; libraries; businesses; and, rural citizens working to maintain the vitality of America's rural areas." The Animal Welfare Center offers advice and links to laws for a variety of animal including ones that are in Zoos, circuses and captured. One publication is titled: "A Reference Source for the Recognition & Alleviation of Pain & Distress in Animals" but was not in full text. Many of the publications are bibliographies (listing of other books, magazines, etc. where specific subject-related information can be found.) Another service from the library is its AgNIC (Agriculture Network Information Center). AgNIC is a guide to quality agricultural information on the Internet as selected by the National Agricultural Library, land-grant universities, and other institutions. For example, under forestry are a number of informative sites, including one from Colorado State University dealing with forestry. I found the NAL link website for acarology, which is the study of mites and ticks. A quick review of this list failed to find any experts here in Colorado which was OK with me. Finally, last year a comprehensive study "Report on the National Agricultural Library 2001," was completed. Not surprisingly, some of the recommendations read like this: "Establish a national grant program on the NLM model," "database to a level equivalent with the NLM." What does the future hold for NAL? Surprisingly, even though fewer people are involved with agriculture, society's needs (population explosion) and opportunities (plant modification) are great. It is unlikely that NAL's budget will be increased dramatically. The direction for this national treasury is up to the USDA and leadership within the Library. |
The National Agricultural Library serves the changing face of farming by Malcolm Brantz Director, The Learning Resource Center Arapahoe Community College Littleton, Colorado NAL is the third largest of our four national libraries and was established as part of the Department of Agriculture in 1862. The library is located in Beltsville, Maryland, and housed in the fifteen story Abraham Lincoln building. NAL's collection of over 3.5 million items makes it the largest agricultural library in the world. NAL's budget, $20 million, is modest when compared to the larger libraries. The Library is staffed by 175 people. NAL is part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with a total budget of 74 billion dollars and staff of nearly 100,000 people. One would think the budget of the USDA is shrinking because the numbers of people farming land has shrunk from forty percent of the country's population down to two percent. Today there are around 2 million farms with an average size of approximately 500 acres. The department uses a system of extension services with most of the research being distributed across the country at a "land-grant university" in each state. The USDA website contains many interesting links. The USDA has broadened its areas of service to include natural resources, nutrition, and food safety, to mention a few. Many changes have occurred within farming. Farming has gone high tech with "precision farming," boosting crop yields and reducing waste by using satellite maps and computers to match seed, fertilizer and crop protector applications to local soil conditions. Farming cost has increased to where an average tractor costs $97,000 to $170,000. Farmers are older, the average age being around 55, and because of the type of work, a dangerous occupation. Another service from the library is called "Plant Disease Announcements." At the end of September, 2002, the following announcement was made: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has not ruled out the possibility of widespread testing of Canadian fields for potato mop-top virus, following recent developments. Alain Boucher, seed potato specialist for the CFIA, in Moncton, N.B., was cited as confirming his agency will consider testing Canadian fields since it is conceivable, based on vast movements of potatoes north and south of the border, that Canadian provinces may have received some infected seed potatoes. There are no confirmed cases in Canada, but at least 2 seed lots were sent north from the U.S., and the CFIA is beginning trace backs on those shipments. It is also possible that some of the progeny from those potatoes could have been shipped back across the U.S. border. Other reports come from all over the world, such as from Lebanon to Australia. This system is an e-mail system called "ProMed" and is maintained so specialists can report their findings. ProMed is supported by the International Society for Infectious Diseases and has human, animal and plant reports. For example, today it was announced ANTHRAX VACCINATION, HUMANUSA, with three areas for use of the vaccination. Primary library responsibilities include building and organization of materials, both a national and international mandate for service, building a comprehensive information network, and development of specialized subject services. I must confess that I've never used the AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) database before. Using this database was easy, turned up useful bibliographic records, (water and Colorado) and other records that you wonder why are they doing this. For example, one article was titled: "Water Composition and loss of body color and form mutants of the German Cockroach (Dictyoptera: Balttellidae)." The abstract for this article stated: "Body water composition and rates of water loss were determined for adult males of five body color or form mutants of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.). Body water content ranged from 68.4% for a yellow body strain to 74.7% for the balloon wing strain." The above article, strangely reminds me of a house, more specifically the kitchen, I lived in while doing my undergraduate work with five other male students in Honolulu, Hawaii. On second thought, let's stick with our article about NAL's user population. Statistically, there were 24,200 people that earned Bachelors degrees in agriculture and natural resources in 1999-2000. That figure is holding steady for the past five years. There were 4,300 who earned Master's degrees and nearly 1,200 who earned PhDs in this category that year. Compared to medicine, these figures are relatively small. A colleague and I were talking about the most famous farmer in the US. Two that came to mind were Old McDonald (story character) and Johnny Appleseed. A search of the database revealed that Old McDonald does not appear but Johnny Appleseed generated five titles. Actually, the man's name was John Chapman who had unconventional religious beliefs and was quite a character. Only one record was retrieved when Bill Clinton's name was submitted. John Deere, as in tractor resulted in 121 records. Most were studies of the equipment and done at the land grant school. NAL has six information centers dealing with special topics: Alternative Farming, Animal Welfare, Food and Nutrition, Rural Information, Technology Transfer and Water Quality Information Centers. For example, the Rural Information Center "provides information and referral services to local, state, and federal government officials; community organizations; rural electric and telephone cooperatives; libraries; businesses; and, rural citizens working to maintain the vitality of America's rural areas." The Animal Welfare Center offers advice and links to laws for a variety of animal including ones that are in Zoos, circuses and captured. One publication is titled: "A Reference Source for the Recognition & Alleviation of Pain & Distress in Animals" but was not in full text. Many of the publications are bibliographies (listing of other books, magazines, etc. where specific subject-related information can be found.) Another service from the library is its AgNIC (Agriculture Network Information Center). AgNIC is a guide to quality agricultural information on the Internet as selected by the National Agricultural Library, land-grant universities, and other institutions. For example, under forestry are a number of informative sites, including one from Colorado State University dealing with forestry. I found the NAL link website for acarology, which is the study of mites and ticks. A quick review of this list failed to find any experts here in Colorado which was OK with me. Finally, last year a comprehensive study "Report on the National Agricultural Library 2001," was completed. Not surprisingly, some of the recommendations read like this: "Establish a national grant program on the NLM model," "database to a level equivalent with the NLM." What does the future hold for NAL? Surprisingly, even though fewer people are involved with agriculture, society's needs (population explosion) and opportunities (plant modification) are great. It is unlikely that NAL's budget will be increased dramatically. The direction for this national treasury is up to the USDA and leadership within the Library. |
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