News

The USAIN Professional Development Committee would like to announce this upcoming webinar to be presented by two of our members.

Understanding Historic U.S. Department of Agriculture Publications

The importance of government publications in the field of agriculture cannot be understated. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) continually publishes information aimed at farmers, consumers, and the general public. However, these myriad resources can prove challenging to identify and locate. While more information is online now, the difficulties of identifying and locating these agricultural documents are still present.

This webinar will provide an overview of historical resources from the USDA’s research-producing entities. It will connect librarians to these resources by recommending access points and defining certain publications’ limitations. We aim to acquaint agriculture librarians with federal publication distribution processes and introduce newer librarians to publications’ applicability to various reference interactions. We will provide opportunities for experienced librarians to contribute their tips for accessing this type of information and hope to increase everyone's confidence in locating USDA publications.

Learning Objective(s):

● Understand basic government publication organization and access

● Identify notable USDA publications and where to find them

● Understand key USDA subject areas and their publications

● Explore ongoing and developing issues with federal agricultural information

A link to a recording will be sent out following the session to attendees that register.

Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2023, 2-3pm EDT

Speakers:

● Helen Smith, Agricultural Sciences Librarian, Penn State University

● Jen Kirk, Government Information Librarian, Utah State University

Please complete this brief Google form to receive the registration link or recording.

Are you curious about enjoying and using all the plants in, around, and beyond your garden? Do you want to hear the importance of food sovereignty and learn how to make an impact in your local food community? Join USDA’s National Agricultural Library and the University of Minnesota's Doris Kirschner Cookbook Collection for a free webinar at 2 pm ET on Monday, August 7th: “Growing and Using Wild and Cultivated Plants.” Register now.

In this 60-minute webinar, join Heidi Rader and Molly Cerridwen share the importance of food sovereignty, starting with growing and using wild and cultivated plants. Learn the health benefits of incorporating wild plants into your diet from our two experts with traditional knowledge and indigenous perspective.  

• ·       Heidi Rader, Professor of Extension, Project Director of the Alaska Tribes Extension Program which promotes food sovereignty and security throughout Alaska.  She teaches virtual and hands-on workshops on health, wellness, food, and gardening. She partners with Tribes and Traditional Knowledge Holders to offer Tribally driven outreach. Heidi has filmed over 60 videos for a series called In the Alaska Garden with Heidi Rader and writes the blog, It Grows in Alaska
• ·       Molly Cerridwen, Owner & Operator of Shapeshifting Wellness, Yupík Traditional Healer, CIAYT, NMT, MPT, CMT, YACEP, ERYT500, Structural Integration Therapist, Educator. Molly is Yup’ik, Siberian Yup'ik, and Irish with ancestral ties to Qaluyaaq (Nelson Island, Alaska) and a member of Too Naaleł Denh (Manley Hot Springs Tribe). She performs Alaska Native traditional healing and yoga therapy clinic in Knik, AK.  She weaves traditional health-based practices with complementary and alternative medicine modalities to support each person where they are in their journey of wellness. As a Traditional Knowledge Holder, Molly shares her knowledge to all those willing to learn via workshops and talks. You can find her on Instagram @yupik_yogini or @shapeshiftingwellness or at ShapeshiftingWellness.com

This event will be live-streamed and captioned, and the recording will be posted to the National Agricultural Library website after the event. If you have any questions, please contact the National Agricultural Library.

The Professional Development Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 USAIN Research Fellows Award.

Inga Haugen of Virginia Tech received funding for “The New Farmers of America Research Guide,” to be funded for $4,000. “The New Farmers of Virginia materials will be found from the main collection, donated materials, and from our archives, gathered into a collection, and a preservation plan created, which may include a digitization plan.” Maggie Albro, University of Tennessee, and Hanwen Dong, University of Idaho’s proposal, “Using Digital Learning Objects for Instructional Support for Faculty in Agricultural Sciences: A Pilot Study” was also funded for $2,000. “This research project aims to understand better how agriculture faculty use digital learning objects (DLOs) in their current courses, emphasizing DLOs used for information literacy instruction.”

Congratulations! We look forward to hopefully hearing more about their research projects at USAIN 2024 in Michigan!

- USAIN Research Fellows Award committee members: Britt Foster, Brad Brazzeal, Andrea Kepsel, Kristen Mastel, and Kelly Weigand

Read the USAIN President's Annual Report highlighting accomplishments from June 1, 2022 - May 31, 2023.  We continue to grow and remain relevant thanks to all of you who volunteer your expertise and time. It's been an honor to serve as USAIN President this past year. I look forward to working with our new leadership team, led by Kiri DeBose.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Stapleton

USAIN President, 2022-2023

The importance of government publications in the field of agriculture cannot be
understated. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) continually publishes information aimed at farmers, consumers, and the general public. However, these myriad resourcescan prove challenging to identify and locate. While more information is online now, the difficulties of identifying and locating these agricultural documents are still present.

This webinar will provide an overview of historical resources from the USDA’s
research-producing entities. It will connect librarians to these resources by recommending access points and defining certain publications’ limitations. We aim to acquaint agriculture librarians with federal publication distribution processes and introduce newer librarians to publications’ applicability to various reference interactions. We will provide opportunities for experienced librarians to contribute their tips for accessing this type of information and hope to increase everyone's confidence in locating USDA publications.

Learning Objective(s):
● Understand basic government publication organization and access
● Identify notable USDA publications and where to find them
● Understand key USDA subject areas and their publications
● Explore ongoing and developing issues with federal agricultural information

A link to a recording will be sent out following the session to attendees that register.

Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2023, 2-3pm EDT

Speakers:
● Helen Smith, Agricultural Sciences Librarian, Penn State University
● Jen Kirk, Government Information Librarian, Utah State University

Please complete this brief Google form to receive the registration link or recording. 

May 18, May 25, June 1, and June 8 from 1:00pm – 4:00pm EDT the AgNIC Data Working Group is hosting a Data Carpentry workshop for member librarians.

The Carpentries is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives. They teach skills that are immediately useful for researchers, using lessons and datasets that allow researchers to quickly apply what they have learned to their own work. I am really excited about using the Data Carpentry curriculum here to help our AgNIC members become more efficient in their research.

This workshop is focused on Ecology data. The curriculum will include:

• Data Organization in Spreadsheets for Ecologists
• Data Cleaning with OpenRefine for Ecologists
• Data Management with SQL for Ecologists
• Data Analysis and Visualization in R for Ecologists

The target audience is learners who have little to no prior computational experience, and the instructors put a priority on creating a friendly environment to empower researchers and enable data-driven discovery. Even those with some experience will benefit, as the goal is to teach not only how to do analyses, but how to manage the process to make it as automated and reproducible as possible. For instance, after attending this workshop you will be able to:

• Organize and clean data
• Have a basic understanding of SQL
• Have a basic understanding of R

Space is limited and it will likely fill quickly. Visit the workshop webpage at https://gengrubber.github.io/2023-05-18-AgNIC_online/ for more information, and register at https://kstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9sK8jv3cMA0rZYy.

Questions? Send email to Carolyn Jackson at csjaxon@ksu.edu.

Ever wonder what goes into running a digital archive of agricultural literature from around the world? Representatives from AgEcon Search and agriRxiv will give overviews of their products and discuss the behind the scenes work that goes into managing them. Speakers will discuss the software platforms that they use and what their staff do to keep the archives up and running. They’ll also cover how they develop collection policies and promote their product to agricultural researchers. This webinar is hosted by the USAIN Agricultural Economics Research, Information, and Education (AERIE) IG.

When: Apr 27, 2023 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://ksu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqduuhqj8oG9KMVWtwQQvvtSVBKExdZ_be 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. A link to the meeting recording (available for 6 months) will be shared with registrants.

More about Speaker, argriRxiv, and AgEcon Search

Erika Newton and agriRxiv

Erika Newton is the Publisher for journals and research products at CABI, an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

Erika oversees the growing journals portfolio and the preprint server agriRxiv, a free, open access source of unpublished preprints across the agricultural sciences. Founded in 2017 by Open Access India (OAI) and relaunched through CABI in collaboration with OAI, agriRxiv benefits from CABI’s expertise in agriculture and the environment, providing a sustainable new home for agricultural preprints.

Linda Eells

Linda Eells is an Associate Librarian and Head of Waite Library in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. She is a Co-Director of the AgEcon Search repository with research interests including scholarly communication and open access, most recently focused on diversity and equity issues inherent in the publishing ecosystem.

Shannon Farrell

Shannon Farrell is the Interim Research Data Services Librarian and Co-Director of AgEcon Search. Shannon leads the University Libraries' Research Data Services Team, which is a group that is focused on campus-wide education and consultation around data management and data sharing. She is also a scientific data curator for the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM) and Co-Director of AgEcon Search, an open access repository that houses scholarly research in the fields of agricultural and applied economics.

AgEcon Search

AgEcon Search (AES) is a free, open access permanent archive of the digital scholarly works of agricultural and applied economics researchers worldwide, providing stewardship, reliable long-term access, and broad dissemination. Initiated in 1995 as a cooperative project of the University of Minnesota Department of Applied Economics and University of Minnesota Libraries with 50 papers, AES has evolved into an international resource with 180,000 papers with current and retrospective content in 15 languages from all over the world. Digitization projects have ensured the preservation and dissemination of thousands of research papers ranging from 1914 to the present. Our global reach is evident in the 15,000 daily visitors from over 170 countries, making us the largest free, digital library of literature in agricultural and applied economics in the world.

Hope you can join us!

Kendra Spahr and Livia Olsen

AERIE IG Co-Conveners

The USAIN Professional Development Committee is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2023 USAIN Research Fellows Award. We look forward to hearing from you!

A total of $4,000 in funding will be available to one or more USAIN members for financial support for conducting research on agricultural information. Examples of costs that could be covered by the award include (but are not limited to): transcription, travel to an institution for research, student worker support, etc. Funding requests may include up to 50% to be used towards the dissemination of USAIN Fellow research findings via conference fees or open access publishing. 

To apply, please complete the attached application to:

·  outline your proposed research or project 

·  describe what support is needed 

·  provide a research support justification demonstrating how this award will benefit your research objectives (and possibly USAIN and the profession)

·  give preliminary ideas of where you plan to disseminate the outcome or results of your project

Applications will be judged on the applicability of research to the USAIN mission, and adherence to application guidelines (see the rubric that is also attached).

Deadline is Friday, April 14, 2023.

Award recipients will be notified in June.

Send the completed application via email to: usain-research-fellows-g@vt.edu

Questions can be directed to Brad Brazzeal (bbrazzeal@library.msstate.edu), Andrea Kepsel (akepsel@msu.edu), Kristen Mastel (meye0539@umn.edu), or Kelly Weigand (kaj0050@auburn.edu).

Thank you for your interest in the USAIN Research Fellows Award!

Research_Fellows_Rubric_for_Award_2023.docx (1) (1).pdf

USAIN_Fellows_Application_2023 (002).docx

Please join USAIN's AHIIG (Animal Health Information Interest Group) Monday, April 3rd at 2:00pm EDT for a special presentation. A panel of North Carolina Cooperative Extension professionals will discuss their work and take questions related to disaster preparedness with animals.

Register and Submit Questions Here

- AHIIG Chairs, Hillary Fox and Tisha Mentnech (NC State University)

Reconnect with USAIN! We’re gathering online during our non-conference year. You’re invited to join our virtual informal networking event Wed. April 12th from 3-4 pm EDT. Gather with colleagues in small groups to share experiences on a variety of aspects of librarianship. Give Nitty Gritty tips on how you actually get your job done, connect over similar Research interests, find out how USAIN actually works, and join in some casual fun. If you’re thinking of coming, register online and fill out the survey to let us know your preference for discussion topics.

Event organizers: Helen Smith, Megan Kocher, Britt Foster, Kristen Mastel, Patricia Brandes, Suzanne Stapleton