Bargyla Rateaver wrote:
> It was a good idea of yours to list so many good sources, esp since most people
> would never think of looking there.
> Incidentally, I got a big kick out of noting, when all those famous people
> were being taped, that it never even occurred to them, to include me, or it did
> occur and was vetoed, in spite of the fact that I started the organic movement
> in Calif, most certainly made more noise about organics than anybody else
> around, except Robert Rodale.
> I got a real bang out of reading something somewhere, years ago, complaining
> about "Rateaver and Rodale"--imagine my being classed with such a big name--oh,
> oh.
>
> Mary Gold wrote:
>
> > Michele,
> >
> > Thanks for the focus on "loss of cultural memory", and the encouragement to
> > us here at the National Ag. Library! I have appreciated the whole sanet-mg
> > exchange on old ag publications. As an ag librarian and a history major, I
> > am doubly aware of the treasures that lie on the shelves above my office,
> > and the "community of knowledge" (I like that term) that they represent.
> > Each time I venture into the stacks I am amazed at what I find. There
> > doesn't seem to be any aspect of food and fiber production that hasn't been
> > addressed before. (In fact, I have come to believe that if I can't find
> > something there it's because I haven't looked hard enough... just need more
> > hours in the day.) I have stopped being surprised by the depth of
> > information (some of it decades old) on every "new" concept that I am
> > researching. I too, lament the waning of attention paid to these resources.
> >
> > The National Agricultural Library Reference staff and the Alternative
> > Farming Systems Information Center have worked to make some of the wonderful
> > information here more accessible to the public. Resources permitting (I
> > also like the large check with many zeros image!), we will continue the
> > effort. Some of the work done here includes:
> >
> > GUIDE TO HISTORICAL RESEARCH AT THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY: THE
> > GENERAL COLLECTION (Special Reference Briefs: SRB 94-02), by Susan Chapman,
> > Reference and User Services Branch [This publication is designed as an
> > entree to historical research at the National Agricultural Library, not as a
> > comprehensive bibliography. Only a small number of the thousands of books
> > and articles of historical interest have been included. Although the
> > collection is worldwide in scope, containing material in some 75 languages,
> > emphasis is on American agriculture and on English language publications.
> >
> > The Guide is divided into two sections: the General Collection, and
> > Additional Resources. In addition to works dealing exclusively with
> > agriculture, a limited number of selected materials in general history, the
> > history of science, medicine, and technology, and general biography have
> > been included. An update is in process.]
> > http://www.nal.usda.gov/ref/history.htm
> >
> > The NAL Reference Staff have also put together indexes to the following USDA
> > series:
> > [none are available on the website yet; however, very limited supplies of
> > hardcopy versions are available on request. Reference and AFSIC staff can
> > also search for specific topics and titles in these series on request.]
> >
> > Index to USDA Miscellaneous Publications, Numbers 1-1479, compiled by Ellen
> > Kay Miller. NAL, 1992. 109 p. NAL call no.: aS21.A99 1992 [Misc.
> > Publications began publication in 1927]
> >
> > Index to USDA Technical Bulletins, Numbers 1-1802, compiled by Ellen Kay
> > Miller. NAL, 1993. 120 p. NAL call no.: aZ5073.I52 1993 [Technical Bulletins
> > began publication in 1927]
> >
> > USDA Agriculture Handbooks: Numbers 1-690, compiled by Ellen Kay Miller.
> > NAL, 1992. 55 p. NAL call no.: S501.2 [Handbooks began publication in 1950]
> >
> > Index to USDA Agricultural Information Bulletins, Numbers 1-649, compiled by
> > Ellen Kay Miller. NAL, 1992. NAL call no.: aS21.A74M54 1992 [Ag. Info.
> > Bulletins began publication in 1949]
> >
> > NAL, along with a consortium of other agricultural libraries, has also been
> > active in several Preservation projects (digital and microfilm) of historic
> > materials.
> > http://www.nal.usda.gov/preservation/
> >
> > Finally, NAL does accept donations of older books and journals, video tapes,
> > etc. For their policies see: Gift and Exchange Program
> > http://www.nal.usda.gov/acq/gift_and_exchange.html
> >
> > AFSIC Resources:
> >
> > Tracing the Evolution of Organic/Sustainable Agriculture: A Selected and
> > Annotated Bibliography, compiled by Jane Potter Gates. Bibliographies and
> > Literature of Agriculture (BLA) no. 72. NAL, November 1988.
> > http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/tracing.htm
> >
> > During the late 80s and early 90s, Jane Gates worked on a series of "oral
> > histories", videotaped interviews with "people who have provided leadership
> > and inspiration in the field of alternative or sustainable agriculture."
> > Interviewees include Wes Jackson, Fred Kirschenmann, William Lockeretz,
> > Patrick Madden, James Duke, Robert Rodale, Paul O'Connell, Dick Thompson,
> > Jayne MacLean, Charles Francis, and Garth Youngberg. The tapes are
> > available through Interlibrary Loan, or can be viewed here at NAL.
> >
> > AFSIC recently published Vegetables and Fruits: A Guide to Heirloom
> > Varieties and Community-Based Stewardship, by Suzanne DeMuth. NAL, September
> > 1998. (3 Volumes.) It is a wonderful resource on historic American
> > vegetable and fruit varieties. Volume 3 addresses older publications in
> > particular related to varieties. All three volumes (Volume 1. Annotated
> > Bibliography; Volume 2. Resource Organizations; Volume 3. Historical
> > Supplement) are available in hardcopy from our office or can be read via our
> > website: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/heirloom/heirloom.htm
> >
> > Although I am an enthusiastic advocate of making this knowledge
> > electronically available, there is something special about leafing through
> > the old volumes of planting guides, market plans, and field studies. Here
> > at the Library, I can actually do that. Most of the documents indexed in
> > the above publications can be requested, leafed through, read, and
> > photocopied in the NAL Reference area. The National Agricultural Library is
> > open to the public every weekday, 8 to 4:30. Within the US, the materials
> > can also be requested through Interlibrary Loan.
> >
> > Thanks from Abiola, Andy, Jane and me for your message, Michelle. And
> > thanks for giving me the chance to pass along information about the candle
> > burners here at the Library and AFSIC.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Mary
> >
> > Mary V. Gold
> > Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
> > National Agricultural Library, ARS, USDA
> > 10301 Baltimore Ave., Room 304
> > Beltsville MD 20705-2351
> > phone: 301-504-6559
> > fax: 301-504-6409
> > e-mail: mgold@nal.usda.gov
> > http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Misha [mailto:mgs23@pacbell.net]
> > Sent: Monday, August 09, 1999 12:43 AM
> > To: SANET-mg
> > Subject: Old ag publications and the cost of memory
> >
> > Howdy, all--
> >
> > An interesting issue that Larry London seeded here re: the value of
> > older ag publications, many of which, because they predate chemical
> > intensive methods, contain rich humus for us sustaggies...and anyone
> > concerned with agricultural practices invented sometime prior to last
> > year by Corporation X in "university-industry partnership" with Land
> > Grant Z.
> >
> > A few thoughts.
> >
> > 1) Many land grant college of ag libraries have large holdings of
> > these old publications; some are being decatalogued and disposed of
> > at a frightening rate. When I was at UW-Madison, ag library staff
> > were pressured to make room for new publications, and that often
> > means that older ones go to Cutter collections...or the dumpster or
> > book sales.
> >
> > But at Madison's ag library--Steenbock--there were a number of folks
> > with the good sense to know what riches these publications contained,
> > and to foresee a day when people might once again care about what's
> > in them. There were several folks engaged in trying to raise money to
> > get these crumbling old ag publications into electronic format, so
> > their contents would be preserved in that medium. If I remember
> > correctly, there was a multi-land-grant initiative on this--and my
> > notes on this are back in Madison. I'm cc'ing this note to Gretchen
> > Farwell, the assistant director of Steenbock and a long-time advocate
> > of sustainable ag information systems. If she replies, I'll post any
> > helpful info to the group, or she can. Gretchen, thanks in advance.
> >
> > 2) The loss of cultural memory in agriculture, to my view, is no less
> > important than the loss of, say, a language. I always think of the
> > National Yiddish Book Center, founded out of the efforts of one man,
> > Aaron Lansky, who while a student of Yiddish literature in Montreal
> > realized that countless books in Yiddish were being discarded. These
> > books--the property and cultural memory of people who had survived
> > the /pogroms/ of eastern Europe, the Holocaust, and Stalin's
> > "reforms"--were sometimes discarded by the children or grandchildren
> > of those people, either because they couldn't read them, or didn't
> > see the value in them. Lansky made it his life's work to collect
> > these books, and he recruited other young people to do this also. In
> > 1980 he founded the NYBC (a loft in a building in New York, I seem to
> > remember), and it grew from this early collection of cast-off books
> > to a cultural center in Amherst, MA, with holdings of 1.4 million
> > books in a language that has been revitalized, largely thanks to his
> > efforts. (In 1980, Yiddish experts believed that there were perhaps
> > 70,000 extant books in the language worldwide; they were off by some
> > orders of magnitude.) The NYBC has also built Yiddish book
> > collections at scholarly libraries all over the world, as it has come
> > across duplicate editions of books. Thus the written cultural memory
> > of a people in diaspora has been preserved, and allowed to find its
> > way back into living memory.
> >
> > Who is doing this for old ag publications? Who is going to farm
> > auctions to look for old treatises on husbandry, mechanicking,
> > breeding, etc.? How often does it happen that an elder ag agent
> > passes away, or surviving widow/er does, and a lifetime collection of
> > books and periodicals is lost? Or a rural library closes, ditto?
> > Where are the regional or state or private holdings of these
> > materials, and who is talking to their collectors? Who is developing
> > annotated bibliographies of the catalogued and uncatalogued materials?
> >
> > The luminous and wonderful Walworth Co., WI, ag agent Lee Cunningham
> > and I have had this discussion several times over the course of the
> > past 5 or 6 years. He makes it part of his calling to give a home to
> > old ag publications that he finds, or that people offer him. He said
> > that people come to him because they try to donate books to their
> > local libraries and are told that the libraries don't have the
> > resources of shelf space or cataloguing labor to bring the books into
> > their collections.
> >
> > Of course preference for those resources goes to Danielle Steel or
> > Tom Clancy best sellers, since libraries now must justify their
> > existence by stocking what the customers want. And libraries no
> > longer collect books to preserve them. They are subject to vast
> > economies of preference, taste, revenues, and technological capacity.
> > In other words, demand means shelf space--in libraries, as in
> > supermarkets.
> >
> > So I ask again--who is doing this for pre-high-chemical/high-tech ag
> > books? Who in sustainable agriculture should assess and speak on
> > behalf of this loss of cultural memory? I know that the National
> > Agricultural Library does what it can--but when's the last time those
> > folks had the resources to publicize NAL's holdings of those
> > materials, or make them available in more easily replicable media, or
> > develop user's guides or navigational guides to what's out there?
> >
> > I have serious concerns that most of sustainable ag's resources--both
> > at the national and regional level--are being targeted at the
> > production of new information via research funding. And that very
> > little, if any, is being targeted at the creation of KNOWLEDGE
> > COMMUNITIES or that preserve that information, and put it into
> > context--a context that includes not only the new findings, but the
> > older ones as well. Or KNOWLEDGE NAVIGATION TOOLS that allow people
> > to access this information.
> >
> > Efforts to do this have struggled uphill like a VW Beetle in the
> > Rocky Mts., running with a hot # 3 cylinder and worn-down points.
> > Look at the struggles that the Alternative Farming Systems
> > Information Center at NAL faces--AFSIC's staff for years now have
> > tried to fill some of this role, doing carefully honed Agricola
> > searches of NAL holdings to help us seekers of information know
> > what's available. A service like that, Dan Glickman should be handing
> > them big foamcore-mounted checks at press conferences, saying thank
> > you with numbers with many zeroes behind it.
> >
> > 3) Finally, I've said this before (Cramer, you can plug your ears,
> > because you've heard this rant more than a couple dozen times :^) but
> > the consolidation of the publishing and telecommunications industry,
> > coupled with the privatization of Extension, promises DISASTER for
> > sustainable ag and the cultural memory we are trying to build with
> > current sustag information products. If public institutions don't
> > take up this slack, then sustainable ag information and
> > communications will inevitably go to the highest private or corporate
> > bidder. Wanna start making some guesses as to who that could be?
> >
> > Our information products are highly unlikely to able to either
> > maintain market share *or* exist on a cost-recovery basis. Unless, of
> > course, sustainable ag is recast as something to sell to the masses
> > (mainstream farmers) and the cutting-edge nature of it is
> > blunted...or forgotten..
> >
> > Robert Rodale knew this--he was happy to publish /The New Farm/ and
> > let other publications pay for it. I've heard him blasted as a poor
> > businessman, but he certainly knew how to build an effective
> > knowledge network.
> >
> > We in sustag have limited ability, in a fragmented way, to create
> > information products within our various organizations...but then
> > these products are so dispersed, and the organizations so poorly
> > networked, that I see us as the equivalent of mediaeval monastic
> > libraries in the Dark Ages. A bunch of people scattered across the
> > world, trying to keep our respective little candles burning in a
> > howling cultural/economic wind. The Internet has been one of the only
> > ways we've had to talk to each other, and many of us here on SANET
> > got here in the good old days, when universal access was still a
> > principle of Internetworking. (AOL kissed that good bye, for
> > everyone, in a big way by equating access with how much money they
> > could make getting as many people as possible "on the Net" to look
> > for--never mind.)
> >
> > The physics of publishing are increasingly moving in the same
> > direction as everything else in the economy: cheap, mass scale
> > products or costly, luxury ones. Finding publishers who will produce
> > and then market a book (never mind a pamphlet or CD or video) with a
> > limited-at-best readership grows ever more difficult. Niche
> > publishers struggle along till their well-intentioned people burn out
> > under the heat of their own efforts.
> >
> > This is why ATTRA is such an EXPONENTIALLY IMPORTANT INITIATIVE.
> > Their library of sustainable-farmer-oriented literature could prove
> > to be one of the most critical cultural resources in the nation
> > someday. Not to mention the perfect information and knowledge
> > complement to NAL's holdings of scholarly literature.
> >
> > This is why the Sustainable Farming Connection Web site was such a
> > BRILLIANT IDEA (though it never got the resource support it needed to
> > get it truly off the ground and sustain it as it deserves).
> >
> > Enough for now. Larry, thanks for seeding the topic. I wish we could
> > all mosey across the street to The Sand Bar, the little neighborhood
> > pub that advertises itself as "on the edge of Western civilization,"
> > and put our feet up, and talk about this stuff till the wee hours.
> >
> > Lacking the luxury of realtime conversation amongst us all...gods,
> > I'm grateful for this Internet group. Thanks Andy, Abioli, Jane, and
> > USDA/NAL. We often neglect to bow in your direction.
> >
> > And thanks, all, for listening.
> >
> > Writing from lands end, I wish you all
> >
> > peace
> > misha
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Michele Gale-Sinex
> > Communications manager
> > Center for Integrated Ag Systems, UW-Madison
> > http://www.wisc.edu
> > UW voice mail: 608-262-8018
> > Home office: 415-504-6474 (504-MISH)
> > Home office fax: Same as above, phone first for enabling
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > We're not against ideas. We're against people spreading them.
> > --Augusto Pinochet
> >
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