Prospectus for the Field of Agriculture at the Oklahoma State University Library: A Local Report for Ithaka S+R Research and Support Services

ABSTRACT

In 2016, the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Library was invited to participate in an Ithaka S+R research project with 19 other academic libraries from institutions with strong agricultural programs. This project documents agriculture research practices and needs and reflects a summary of findings from 10 interviews with OSU faculty researchers. This local report is to inform the Library's support for research of the OSU's agricultural faculty. The report was completed on December 1, 2016.     

Investigating the Research Practices of Agriculture Scholars: Findings From the University of Florida

ABSTRACT

The University of Florida (UF) George A. Smathers Libraries is one of 19 institutions that participated in an Ithaka S+R Research Support Services investigation of agricultural sciences. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of research support services based on one-on-one semistructured interviews with 15 faculty of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in 2016. A number of core themes emerged from the analysis of research practices in the local study at UF. Core themes included finding appropriate literature, data management issues and tools, repositories for sharing research products, and research dissemination. This report summarizes a subset of these results, focusing on themes related to academic library services that support agricultural scholars research needs.     

Reaching Out: Land Grant Library Services to Cooperative Extension Offices,Experiment Stations,and Agriculture Science Centers

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the need for agriculture librarians to more actively promote their services and library information resources to off campus extension and experiment station personnel. Services to off campus personnel include: conducting training sessions for them, providing e-mail reference, providing interlibrary loan and/or document delivery, providing access to periodical databases using a proxy server, and making visits to their off campus offices or research centers.     

Research Practices of Agricultural Scientists at The Ohio State University

ABSTRACT

The Ohio State University Libraries was one of 19 institutions collaborating in the Ithaka S+R Research Support Services for the Field of Agriculture study. Based on a series of individual, semistructured interviews with faculty researchers affiliated with the agricultural sciences at the Ohio State University, the study gathered information about current research practices. The study highlighted challenges of the agricultural research process and identified opportunities for improving research support services for agricultural scientists.     

Examining the Research Practices of Agricultural Scholars at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

ABSTRACT

During the spring and summer of 2016, the University of Minnesota Libraries joined 18 other institutions to participate in Ithaka S+R's Research Support Services Program to explore agricultural scholars' research focus, research methods, and publishing practices. This report summarizes our local findings, resulting from 16 interviews with University of Minnesota faculty from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences on the Twin Cities campus. It also offers suggestions for agriculture libraries and librarians based on the data we have gathered.     

Building on a Land-Grant Tradition: Engagement at the Mississippi State University Libraries

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the need for land-grant libraries to develop services and projects in support of the mission of their universities. Projects developed at the Mississippi State University Libraries are discussed from the perspective of “engaged” library services. These services include outreach activities to academic departments, core instructional initiatives, support services to extension personnel (ELL), collaborative collection development projects (DigiTop Plus) and projects designed to preserve the state's agricultural history (CHARM).     

Research Practices and Support Needs of Scholars in the Field of Agriculture at Cornell University

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of one of numerous and coordinated qualitative studies carried out at land-grant universities across the United States, to improve our understanding of agricultural research practices and identify new avenues for library services to meet the changing needs of agricultural faculty and research staff. We interviewed agricultural researchers across several departments at Cornell University about their research practices including research dissemination methods, data sharing, their use of primary and secondary resources, and current challenges in conducting agricultural research. Emerging themes included stakeholder engagement, collaboration and interdisciplinarity, the impact of technology, and research inputs and outputs.     

Activities of the Central Agricultural and Forestry Library

The Central Agricultural and Forestry Library, which is a part of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture in Prague, Czechoslovakia, is one of the largest agricultural libraries in the world. The users of the library include students, scientists, research workers, and farmers. The library services consist of loans, reprographic services, bibliographic services as well as bibliographic publications. A project on the automation of the library is currently underway. With respect to the present changing conditions in Czechoslovakia, the library concentrates its information sources on the development of the private sector within Czechoslovak agriculture.     

Organization of the Delivery of Scientific,Technical, and Economic Information to the Sector of Agriculture in the Slovak Republic

The hub of agricultural production and education, and the center of scientific and technological information dissemination relevant to Slovak agriculture is Nitra, located in the southwestern part of Slovakia. Preeminent among the libraries of the agricultural sector is the Slovak Agricultural Library in Nitra, which serves as the branch library of Ùvtiz in Prague and as the library for the University of Agriculture. In addition to providing traditional library and information services, library staff also provide analystical reports used for forecasting and policy development by the Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition.     

Exploring Librarian Roles in Support of One Health

The growing One Health movement recognizes connections among human, animal, and ecosystem health and encourages collaboration among these disciplines. Fostering a One Health perspective in students and faculty is a strategic initiative of the Medical Sciences Library at Texas A&M University, which provides human and animal medicine, public health, agriculture, and life sciences programs. Librarians implemented a four-pronged approach to pilot One Health strategies among user communities—including developing curriculum modules, redesigning library learning spaces, and developing new research services. Aggregate data and participant comments from these activities support the value and feasibility of librarian engagement in One Health initiatives.     

Agricultural Research Practices through a Local Lens: Adapting the Ithaka S + R Study for Your Campus

How do the research practices and challenges of agriculture scholars at the University of Idaho (U of I) contrast with those of their peers at other land grant universities? To answer that question, this paper compares qualitative data from U of I researchers to findings from a nationwide study of agricultural research practices. Because the U of I did not participate in the nationwide study, this local study provides a framework for identifying issues that are unique to researchers within our local context. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how a similar methodology can be used by library liaisons to better understand the challenges of researchers in any discipline and help determine which new and existing research support services best meet their needs.     

玛纳斯河流域农田生态系统服务功能价值评估

农田生态系统可为人类提供各种产品及多种间接生态系统服务功能.本文运用环境经济学,借助GIS技术,对玛纳斯河流域农田生态系统1976年和2005年两个时段的产品提供、气候调节、土壤保持、碳固定、02释放以及营养物质保持等6项生态系统服务功能价值进行了物质量及价值量的估算和分析.结果表明.农田生态系统服务功能总价值从1976年的352 219.4×104元上升到2005年的767 061.5×104元,29年间上升117%.根据两个时段农田生态系统服务功能价值的分析,农田生态系统的产品提供功能受人类技术和管理的影响较大,具有较高的提升潜力,其价值占总生态系统服务功能价值的比例从1976年的7%上升到2005年的39%;而间接生态系统服务功能体现了农田生态系统的自然属性,为人类提供了巨大的调节、支持服务功能,从1976年至2005年,其生态系统服务功能价值上升43%.玛纳斯河流域农田生态系统服务功能研究表明,农田生态系统具有多种生态系统服务功能,应该重视对农田生态系统各项生态系统服务功能价值的评估,从而达到干旱区流域社会、经济、自然生态系统的和谐发展.     

Seventeen Interviews With Virginia Tech CALS Faculty: State of Research and How Information Professionals Can Help

ABSTRACT

This article is a report of the 17 interviews conducted in 2016 at Virginia Tech by the agriculture librarian to examine the current state of research and how information professionals can support agricultural researchers. This is one of the reports connected with the larger Ithaka S+R Agriculture Project.     

From Their Mouths to Our Ears: Research Practices and Needs of Agricultural Scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

ABSTRACT

University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Libraries was one of 19 participants in a national study of the research practices and needs of agricultural researchers. Two UNL Libraries faculty members interviewed 11 UNL scholars during the summer of 2016. The ethnographic research approach revealed four core themes: interdisciplinarity and collaborations, scientific communication practices, scientific research data issues and practices, and challenges and opportunities. Illustrated by the sample of faculty comments presented here, the themes have direct implications for the UNL Libraries, while in other cases these point to concerns and opportunities for the university, the academy, and the nation.     

生态学视域下图书馆信息服务交互模型探究

从生态学视角研究图书馆信息服务交互活动,有可行性也有视角的独特性。在分析图书馆信息服务生态学交互特征的基础上,构建图书馆信息服务生态学交互模型,为图书馆信息服务的可持续发展提供一定的参考价值。     

Supporting the Research Practices of Agricultural Scientists at Oregon State University

ABSTRACT

As part of a cross-institutional collaboration organized by Ithaka S+R, Oregon State University Libraries faculty interviewed 15 faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences about their research, publishing, and information management practices. The work of Agricultural Sciences faculty is uniquely influenced by their regional geography and climate, as well as by their local and disciplinary communities of practice, which includes both growers and scholars. Findings showed that publishing decisions, access to research, barriers to access, and a systems thinking approach were influenced by behaviors and standards established by these various communities. Implications for the libraries' role in discovery, access, and dissemination are considered and discussed.     

Embedding the Agriculture Librarian in an Agriculture Residential College: A Case Study

In fall 2012, the agriculture librarian at Louisiana State University Libraries began to embed library instruction, resources, and services within the University's Agricultural Residential College. The purpose of the collaboration was to incorporate information literacy into the agriculture curriculum and to introduce 1st-year students to library services and resources. The collaboration resulted in a number of benefits for the agriculture librarian and the agriculture college. Sustaining the collaboration is a challenge with changes in leadership and program focus. This article will describe the agriculture librarian's embedding efforts, identify issues in sustaining such a high level of embedding, and discuss strategies for moving the collaboration forward.