FYI - A link to the USDA National Agricultural Library
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AFSIC - Organic Roots On-Line Database
The Organic Roots Project is an ongoing effort of the Alternative Farming
Systems Information Center (AFSIC) at the National Agricultural Library.
There are two critical parts to this project:
o Searching for historic but extremely pertinent information on organic
farming.
o Making this information available to growers and researchers on-linein
full text.
A recent addition to the Organic Roots Project is the Organic Agriculture
Information Access database -- http://www.hti.umich.edu/n/nal/http://www.hti.umich.edu/n/nal/> . This is an electronic collection of
historic United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publications related
to organic agriculture. There are now 186 full text and searchable
documents in the database which were published before 1942 (before synthetic
chemicals became widely used). Each publication contains state-of-the-art
information and data on organic farming that is as relevant for today's
agriculture as it was when first published.
Access to this data is open to all and is intended to provide growers with
new ideas on crop production without chemicals, as well as help researchers
conserve scarce resources by avoiding unintended duplication. The items in
this collection were selected by AFSIC Librarians, who also developed
metadata on each publication to aid in discovery and searching. The online
database is a collaborative effort between AFSIC and the University of
Michigan. Funding for this project has been provided by the USDA National
Organic Program and the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Program.
Bill Thomas, Coordinator
USDA National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Avenue, room 122
Beltsville, MD 20705
v: 301-504-5724
f: 301-504-6927
e: wthomas@nal.usda.gov
w: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/
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Diane Dodge, Ramsey County
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