Agricultural Economics Reference Organization
Meeting
Oregon State University
September 25-27, 1997
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Agricultural Economics Reference Organization Meeting Oregon State University September 25-27, 1997 |
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INTRODUCTION: Sandy Sears, Conference Host, Emery Castle Reading Room Librarian. WELCOME: Dr. Bill Boggess - Department Chair, Ag. and Resource Economics, welcomed us to the Department and the State of Oregon. Dr. Richard Johnston - Chair of the Emery Castle Reading Room policy committee. Economics and Ag. Economics together. Dr. Emery Castle - Former Department Chairman and President of Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C. |
II. PARTICIPANT INTRODUCTIONS
III. GREY LITERATURE IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
Louise Letnes - University of Minnesota/St. Paul, Grace Dote - University of California/Berkeley, Linda Davis - University of Wisconsin/Madison, Jodee Kawasaki - Montana State University.
Grey Literature is literature which is "semi-published"
- not formally published or available. Many times it is difficult
to trace. The problems of tracing in the electronic medium are
becoming great. Many of the extension and experiment station publications
are considered grey literature. (Handouts.)
IV. SURVEY OF AERO WEB PAGES
Debra Moore - Iowa State University.
Each participant provided a list of the most important and
useful web pages each has found in the past year. Deb compiled
the list into categories, asked members to discuss sites that
were very important to all of us. (Handout.)
V. FAVORITE PRINT/ELECTRONIC RESOURCE SHARING
All participants. Each participant provided favorite reference
sources. This is ALWAYS rated as one of the most important and
valuable sessions of every conference. This is especially true
for those from small reading rooms who have limited resources.
Now that many of the reference resources are electronic, all members
have equal access without the concerns for cost. (Handouts.)
VI. COPYRIGHT LAWS
Anita Battiste - University of Florida, Rebecca Bernthal - University of Nebraska, Judith Dow - Michigan State University.
A copyright is the right of the author to control what he/she has created, i.e., intellectual property. A copyright exists as soon as a work is published in any form without the copyright registered mark or even the registration. It is required that two copies of work be sent to the copyright office within three months of publication. Cannot copyright: Thoughts or ideas; Individual words - short phrases; Words that are common property; U.S. Government publications (unless by a contract person); Quasi-government publications; Laws. At universities, the Fair Use clause of the copyright law is tested daily in all our libraries. There is no clear way to interpret it, so we all interpret in our own way dependent upon the situation. Publishers who feel their copyrights have been unfairly "used" will legally go after illegal users with deep pockets (universities). There are many copyright questions not answered, i.e., what about electronic medium and what about selling a book at a garage sale? (Handouts.)
VII. EMERY N. CASTLE READING ROOM TOUR
Tour led by host Sandy Sears.
VIII. REFERENCE SURVEY
Janet Wilson - South Dakota State University.
She provided a journal list (grid) with all the journals from
all participating schools. We are to check it and send any corrections
to her. The list is a good source for Inter Library Loan between
departments. (Handouts.)
IX. NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS)
Brent Mai - Purdue University.
This new industry classification system will take the place
of the SIC codes. It was developed after NAFTA began. Eleven new
sectors will be added to the code scheme, including Semiconductor,
Food and Health, Pet Care, Gas Stations which sell food, Pagers
and Cellular Phones, Bed and Breakfasts, etc. These are all industries
that are new and thriving in all three NAFTA countries. The first
NAICS Codes will be published in 1999; the data is gathered beginning
in 1997. All federal agencies will move to NAICS by 2002. The
new code is 6 digits as opposed to 4 digit SIC. Informative Web
Sites are: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
and http://http.tamu.edu/~jennyb/naics.html.
(Handouts.)
X. CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE AND NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE
Red Rowley - State Statistician, Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA.
The focus of the session was the 1997 Census of Agriculture
which will no longer be part of the Census Bureau. Hence forth,
it will be part of NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Service).
Hopefully the consistent year-by-year data will be better and
each farmer will deal with only one federal agency instead of
two. They (NASS) have a toll free number for farmers 1/888-4AGSTAT.
The 1997 Census will be published in hard copy, internet access
and CDROM. The website for NASS is:
www.usda.gov/nass or email: nass@nass.usda.gov.
XI. UPDATES
ERS - Marilynn Riley, NAL - Wayne Olson, AgEcon Search - Louise Letnes, USAIN - Judith Dow and Anita Battiste.
ERS is moving to DuPont Circle from New York Avenue in Washington, D.C. Also, ERS is changing to NTIS as the publisher of its materials. NTIS has a long term collection of ERS materials and is willing to provide old or photocopies of old publications.
AgEcon Search has
grown dramatically in the past year. There are 341 (80 in July
1996) full-text papers and 55 abstracts on line. There have been
16,957 papers downloaded since July 1996 and 18,107 abstracts
viewed.
XII. AGNIC - Agriculture Network Information Center
Wayne Olson - National Agricultural Library (NAL), Rebecca Bernthal - University of Nebraska/Lincoln.
AgNIC is a distributed
network on the Internet established by NAL
in collaboration with several land-grant university libraries
(University of Nebraska) to provide a focal point for seamless
internet access to agriculture-related information, subject area
experts and other resources. AgNIC's customers include the national
and international public and private sector components of agriculture,
as well as private citizens. (Handouts.)
XIII. COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN THE ELECTRONIC ERA
Luti Salisbury - University of Arkansas, Margaret Merrill - Virginia Polytech Institute and State University.
Integrating electronic formats into a library collection is
not easy; in the electronic environment there are many ways of
accessing information, but whereas with print, there is only one.
Luti, "The sense of permanence is elusive." Some of
the services on the web are Uncover, Journal Services, Agricola
and others. The biggest problem with electronic formats is archiving.
This problem hasn't been successfully handled. Another consideration
is the cost. There are always limited funds to access lots of
data. Margaret stated that we are obsessed with technology, but
the electronic world is not consistent and reliable. She said,
"I'm beginning to hate electronic journals."
XIV. STAHLBUSH ISLAND FARMS, INC. (Friday evening)
Bill and Karla Chambers (owners) hosted our group at
their lovely farm/processing plant. Their website at http://www.stahlbush.com
describes them as "premium processors of fruit and vegetable
purees, IQF (individually quick frozen) vegetables and fruit,
and non-frozen dried fruit. We also offer custom processing of
organic, sustainable and conventional fruits and vegetables in
a Kosher certified facility. Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc., is
an environmentally friendly farming and food processing operation.
Our goal is to grow and process the highest quality food products
available in the marketplace, while at the same time, improve
our natural resources - our soil and our water. At Stahlbush we
have specific practices that ensure this sustainable approach."
All of us who attended this informative tour were highly impressed
with these young, responsible land stewards.
XV. Saturday TOUR OF OSU HATFIELD MARINE SCIENCE CENTER (public and private wings), MARILYN GUINN LIBRARY.
Toured center with Len Gassner who gave us an in-depth
look at the public and the private research components of the
center. We visited with Guinn's librarian Janet Webster regarding
the comprehensive collection of marine studies which are used
by the Oregon State community, the local federal marine facilities
and the general public.
The meeting ended with a dinner on Saturday evening. We thanked Sandy Sears for an informative, educational and, certainly, enjoyable workshop. We look forward to our next meeting at the University of Florida in Spring 1999.
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