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FOOD 

FOR 

THOUGHT 

NEWSLETTER OF THE FOOD, AGRICULTURE, & NUTRITION DIVISION OF THE SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION 

Volume 32, Number 3 ISSN: 0198-0246 Post-Conference Issue 2001 

A delay in the publication of FAN’s 

post-conference issue of Food for 

Thought has caused me to scrap most of 

my inaugural column (originally written in 

July) and begin anew. So much has 

transpired in our nation since I first put 

fingers to keyboard — the old column no 

longer seemed relevant. The September 

11 tragedy and subsequent events have 

no doubt caused many of you to reflect 

on life a little differently too. Our hearts 

go out to those FAN members whose lives 

were personally touched by the recent 

tragic events. 

As I reflect now on last June’s 

Conference, I do so with six-months 

hindsight — already midway between the 

2001 and 2002 Conferences. My eyes are, 

admittedly, more focused on Los Angeles; 

but because a large portion of this issue 

of Food for Thought is devoted to the San 

Antonio Conference, I want to take this 

opportunity to thank Carolyn Speakman 

for her leadership and hard work as FAN’s 

2000-01 Chair. As you are about to read, 

the FAN San Antonio conference 

activities were very well-planned and wellreceived 

— the programs were interesting 

and timely, the speakers were excellent, 

the food was great and abundant! 

(Carolyn, you are going to be a tough act 

to follow!) I’m sure those of you who had 

the opportunity to take the fabulous tour 

of the Texas Hill Country thoroughly 

enjoyed the day. And who amongst us 

was not utterly uplifted by the poetry of 

Michael Carey at the FAN Luncheon? I 

recall leaving San Antonio invigorated 

and ready to begin planning for Los 

Angeles! 

The 2002 Conference may seem like a 

long way off, but time has an uncanny 

habit of whizzing by before you know it. 

Food For Thought Vol. 32 No. 3 

From the Executive Chef 

By Anita Ezzo 

(ezzoa@msu.edu) 

The Preliminary Conference program will 

soon be going to press and will be 

published as a part of the February issue 

of Information Outlook. The new format 

will result in a greatly streamlined 

publication: only sessions with 

programming content directed to a 

conference-wide audience and ticketed 

events will be included in the preliminary 

program. Board/business meetings 

(except for ticketed ones) and evening 

receptions will not be listed. Rest assured, 

they are being offered and will appear in 

the final conference program, on the 

conference web site, and in all FAN’s preconference 

publicity. 

The 2002 Conference will be held from 

June 8 to 13 at the Los Angeles 

Convention Center. With the theme of 

“Putting Knowledge to Work,” Peter 

Drucker as the keynote speaker, and a 

conference-wide reception at the L. A. 

Public Library, the 2002 Conference 

promises to be a not-to-be-missed event! 

As usual, FAN is planning a full 

complement of programs: 

On Sunday, June 9 we’ll be holding a 

Board of Directors Meeting from 3:30-5:00 

p.m.. (an event that will not appear in the 

preliminary program but which 2001/02 

board and committee members should plan 

to attend), followed by FAN’s New 

Members and Student Reception from 

5:00-6:30 p.m. 

Monday, June 10 begins bright and 

early at 7:00 a.m. with our annual Business 

Meeting and Breakfast (Note: I did not 

pick this start time—it was moved to 

accommodate the Monday general 

session). The keynote session will be 

followed at 11:30 a.m. by a program jointly 

sponsored by the Advertising and 

Marketing Division that will examine the 

latest trends and tools in food marketing. 

At 3:30 p.m. we’ll hold a session related 

to organic foods/farming in which you’ll 

have an opportunity to learn more about 

the history and growth of the organics 

industry and the obstacles and 

opportunities affecting its future. 

You can sleep in on Tuesday, June 

11, but be sure to arrive on time for the 

9:30 a.m. session on Dietary Supplements 

and Functional Foods, a program jointly 

sponsored by the Biomedical & Life 

Sciences Division. The session will 

explore the nature of these products, 

issues regarding their safety and efficacy, 

and the U.S. government’s role in 

regulating them. After lunch and a 

leisurely stroll through the exhibits, we’ll 

have an opportunity to learn about the 

latest enhancements, products and 

services from vendors of food, agriculture, 

and nutrition information at our annual 

Vendor Update (3:30-5:00 p.m.). 

Wednesday, June 12 begins bright and 

early, again at 7:00 a.m., with a Board of 

Directors Meeting for 2002/03 FAN board/ 

committee members. SLA’s Closing Session 

and Annual Business Meeting with Doris 

Kearns Goodwin will be held from 9:00-11:30 

a.m. The FAN Luncheon will start at 12:00 

p.m. This is an event that you won’t want to 

miss! This year’s luncheon will feature the 

musical entertainment of Dr. Carl Winter, 

the “Elvis of E. Coli,” performing musical 

parodies of popular songs with a food 

science/food safety twist. You can get a 

preview at < http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu/ 

music.html >. Having had the opportunity 

to meet Dr. Winter and hear him perform, I 

can assure you, you will be thoroughly 

entertained! When you’ve stopped 

laughing, we’ll proceed to hear about new 

[ Continued On Next Page ] 

1

[Continued From Previous Page ] 

initiatives and current issues of the NAL, 

the CAL, the FAO, USAIN and AgNIC at 

our Agricultural Update which is scheduled 

from 2:00-3:30 p.m. 

On Thursday, June 13 it’s finally time 

to relax on FAN’s Wine and Olives Tour. 

We’ll set out a 10:00 a.m. for the 

Cucamonga Valley where we’ll have a tour 

and tasting at the J. Filippi Winery. Next 

we’ll head to Ontario Mills (California’s 

largest outlet mall) for some shopping and 

lunch on your own. Then it’s off to the 

Graber Olive House, a family-operated 

olive processing plant since 1894. We’ll 

tour the plant, visit the small museum of 

historic photos and equipment, and have 

an opportunity to sample and purchase 

olives, oils, dried fruits, nuts, candies and 

other goodies and gifts in the gift shop 

before returning to our hotels at 5:00 p.m. 

You’ll be getting additional details 

regarding all of FAN’s programs in the 

future; but I hope these highlights will 

send you running to your calendar to 

circle the dates June 8-13, 2002! I look 

forward to seeing all of you in Los 

Angeles! 

In This Issue: 

From the Executive Chef 1 

FAN Welcomes New Members 2 

Scholarship Award 2 

Awards Committee Report 3 

Distinguished Member 3 

FAN Chair Visits FAO Library 3 

SLA-FAN Email Discussion Group 3 

Business Meeting Minutes 4 

Treasurer's Report 5 

Call for Archives Material 5 

SLA 2002 Conference Web Address 5 

Hot Dog fun filled days 6 

Call: Distinguished Member 2002 7 

Library Tour: James J. Hill Library 8 

2001 Annual Conference Reports 11 

National Agricultural Library Update 18 

Canadian Agriculture Update 20 

Board of Directors/Committees 22 

FFT Annual Report 24 

FFT publication information 24 

In the Next Issue: 

An Analysis of Interdivisional Interests and 

Other Characteristics of FAN Members; a 

tour of the Institute of Environmental Science 

and Research (Christchurch, New Zealand); 

FAN 2001 Conference Tour Photos; Report 

of SLA MidWinter Conference; and the 

debut of our Biotechnology Column 


FAN Welcomes New Members 

Libba Reid Zak 

Richards Group 

Knowledge Resources 

8750 N Central Expy 

Dallas, TX 75231-6436 

Phone: 1-214-891-5285 

Email: libba_zak@richards.com 

Ms. Merrilynn R. Drews 

Nat'l Association of Convenience Stores 

Information Center 

1605 King Street 

Alexandria VA 22314-2792 

Phone: 1-703-684-3600 

Email: mdrews@cstorecentral.com 

Ms. Shirley Evans 

Food & Nutrition Information Center 

10301 Baltimore Avenue 

Room 304 

Beltsville, MD 20705-2326 

Phone: 1-301-504-5414 

Email: skevans@nal.usda.gov 

Ms. Mary R. Romasello 

Daily Herald 

Library 

155 East Algonquin 

Arlington Heights, IL 60006 

Phone: 1-847-427-4545 

Email: mtomasello@dailyherald.com 

Ms. Shira R. Honigstein 

CSC Consulting 

Research Network 

P. O. Box 590 

Wilton CT, 06897-0590 

Phone: 1-203-761-7533 

Email: shonigst@csc.com 

Shu Huang 

Canadian Wheat Board 

Library 

423 Main Street 

Winnipeg, MB R3B 1B3 Canada 

Phone: 1-204-983-3437 

Email: shu_huaang@cwb.ca 

Ms. Jennifer Dorpacz 

Covington & Burling 

Food and Drug Library 

1201 Pennsylvania Ave NW 

Washington, DC 20004-2401 

Phone: 1-202-662-6153 

Email: jkorpacz@cov.com 

Ms. Caitlin G. Tillman 

Harris Nesbitt 

Business Information Center 

111 W. Monroe St, #5C 

Chicago, IL 60603-4096 

Phone: 1-312-765-1288 

Email: caitlin.tillman@harrisbank.com 

Kathi Kholi 

Memorial Scholarship Award 

Emily Nielsen has been awarded 

$2000 and a complimentary membership 

in the Special Libraries Association 

(SLA) and the Food, Agriculture and 

Nutrition Division of SLA. The award is 

in honor of Kathi Kohli, a talented 

reference librarian at the Cargill 

Information Center who died in 1996. It 

is given to a College of St. Catherine 

student in the Graduate Library and 

Information Science program who has a 

strong interest in special librarianship. 

The recipient is selected based on 

interest in special librarianship, 

leadership activities, and overall 

academic achievement. 

Ms. Nielsen plans to graduate from 

the College of St. Catherine/Dominican 

University Graduate Library and 

Information Science program in December 

2001. She has a B.A. degree in English 

from the University of Minnesota. She 

is currently working as a Database 

Assistant at Goldsmith, Agio, Helms & 

Lynner, LLC, a private investment 

banking firm in Minneapolis, MN. 

Ms. Nielsen has been an active 

member of the Minnesota Chapter of 

SLA. She was one of the founders of the 

Student Chapter of SLA at the College of 

St. Catherine and is the Treasurer for the 

group. She is also Vice-Chair of the 

Internet Committee and the creator and 

manager of the Student Chapter's web 

site and listserv. 

The award is jointly funded by the 

Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Division 

of SLA and the Cargill Information Center 

for the purpose of encouraging careers in 

special libraries. The selection committee 

this year was Dean Dubbe, Kathi's 

widower; Donna Koening, President of 

the SLA Minnesota Chapter; and Cindy 

Acton, Reference Librarian in the Cargill 

Information Center. The announcement 

was made at the Annual Business 

Meeting of the Food, Agriculture and 

Nutrition Division of SLA held during the 

Annual SLA Conference this past June in 

San Antonio, Texas. 

2

Awards Committee Report 

By Amy L. Paster, Awards Committee Chair 

(alp4@psu.edu) 

The Kathi Kholi Memorial Scholarship (pg. 2) and FAN 

Distinguished Member (below) awards were distributed at the 

FAN Annual Breakfast Business Meeting held during the SLA 

Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas June 11, 2001. 

Congratulations to our recipients! Thank you to the other 

members of the committee (Cindy Cantrell, Janet Daly, Carolyn 

O’Reilly, Peter Sidney, and Carolyn Speakman) and to the FAN 

membership for their nominations. 

Remember it is never to early to start thinking of next year 

— the nomination announcement for the 2002 Distinguished 

Member is on page 7 of this FFT issue. 

FAN Distinguished Member 

Lillian Mesner is winner of 

the 2001 Food, Agriculture 

and Nutrition Division (FAN) 

Distinguished Member Award 

Lillian Mesner was 

awarded the 2001 FAN 

Distinguished Member Award 

at the Annual Business 

Meeting of the Food, 

Agriculture and Nutrition 

(FAN) Division held during the Annual SLA Conference this 

past June in San Antonio, Texas. To be eligible for this award 

nominees must be a member or former member of the FAN 

Division for at least five years, and must have demonstrated 

exemplary work for the Division, Chapter, and profession. 

Lil has been a member of FAN since 1983 and has served 

as Editor and Business Ad Manager for Food for Thought, 

the division bulletin. She has also contributed many hours 

of work in planning various programs for FAN conference 

sessions and always volunteers to write-up after conference 

reports for the bulletin. She was also an active member of 

the ITE division and the Kentucky Chapter of SLA before 

retiring from the Kentucky Libraries System in 2000. 

Lil began her career as a registered nurse in pediatrics at 

the St. Luke's Hospital in New York City. She also holds a 

B.S. degree in Human Development from Cornell, and earned 

her M.L.S. from the University of Maryland. In 1981 she 

joined the University of Kentucky Agriculture Library as a 

Technical Services Librarian responsible for cataloging, 

reference, collection development, teaching and collection 

conversion. She received tenure and serve on numerous 

library system committees. 

Lillian Mesner has dedicated many years of service to 

the library profession, including serving as an informal 

mentor to many library science students and colleagues. She 

has demonstrated leadership, and has provided both 

mentoring and professional skills for the betterment of the 

profession, both in public and private arenas. As stated in 

her nomination letter, "She is the standard by which many of 

her colleagues measure their worth as information 

professionals." 


FAN Chair Visits FAO Library 

By Anita Ezzo 

( ezzoa@msu.edu ) 

This past August, while vacationing in Rome, I had an 

opportunity to pay a visit to the David Lubin Memorial Library 

at the FAO. Many of you have heard about the renovations 

taking place in the Library and have been concerned about the 

impact on research collections. Some of you may even have 

written letters to Ambassador McGovern, urging support for 

the Library. My visit was prompted by FAN’s collective concerns 

about the future of this world-class agricultural collection and 

was made at the invitation of Dr. Anton Mangstl, Director of the 

Library and Documentation Systems Division of the FAO. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Mangstl was called away on business and 

was unable to keep our appointment; instead I met with Stephen 

Katz, Chief of the WAICENT/FAOINFO Dissemination 

Management Branch. 

Mr. Katz was aware of FAN’s concerns about the FAO 

Library and strove to assure me that the FAO remained committed 

to maintaining its print collection, while at the same time meeting 

the challenge of increasing access to FAO information resources 

through digital technologies. During my brief visit, I had an 

opportunity to review the renovation plans and tour the library 

facility where I got a firsthand look at the extraordinary 

international collection of works on agriculture, food and 

nutrition, and rural development. 

Like many great research libraries, the David Lubin Memorial 

Library is facing space and storage problems and the challenge 

of preserving thousands of volumes, already brown and brittle 

with age. While measures are being taken to minimize further 

decomposition and to digitize the most vulnerable works, the 

Library recognizes that “bolder steps” are needed. A color 

brochure, Ancient and Modern Harvests: Information for the 

New Millennium, accurately describes the plight of the 

collection and the steps that must be taken to ensure that 

priceless works are available to researchers for generations to 

come. It is clearly a monumental task. 

After thanking my hosts, I left the Library and headed toward 

the Roman Coliseum, just a short distance away. Reflecting on 

the major renovations that have enabled countless tourists to 

continue visiting this and other ancient ruins, I said a prayer 

that efforts to preserve the FAO Library’s scientific treasures 

might also meet with success. 

SLA-FAN Electronic Discussion Group 

SLA-FAN is a moderated electronic discussion group 

To subscribe: 

Send an email message to: listserv@lsv.uky.edu 

Leave the subject line blank 

In the body of the message: SUB SLA-FAN [your name] 

When you receive a response, just follow the instructions! 

Moderator: Pat Wilson (pwilson@pop.uky.edu) 

SLA-FAN is a moderated electronic discussion group 

3

FAN Business Meeting Minutes Monday, June 11, 2001 San Antonio, TX 

Presiding: Carolyn Speakman, Chair; Anita Ezzo, Chair-Elect; Peter Sidney, Secretary; Linda Maddux, Treasurer 

Call to order: 7:50 AM 

1) Secretary’s Report (Peter Sidney) 

Minutes from the 2000 Business Meeting were approved as distributed. They were published in the summer 2000 issue of Food 

for Thought (FFT). 

2) Treasurer’s Report (Linda Maddux) 

Copies are provided at each table. The balance last June was $39,501.39. We had $14,104.79 in income. We spent $12,658.21 

during the year. The closing balance at May 31, 2001 was $40,947.97. The full Treasurer’s Report will appear in the next FFT. 

3) Chair’s Report (Carolyn Speakman) 

a) David Bender is retiring as SLA Executive Director. In recognition of this SLA is creating an International 

Development Fund in his name. FAN is contributing $1500 to the fund. Jean Philippe Decraene is interested in 

talking to the SLA board about how the money will be used. He will be talking to Ann Abate about his ideas 

for using the money. Susan Klopper, board proctor, said use of the funds is left to the discretion of the board 

and the executive director. 

b) The Chair expressed her thanks to our sponsors for their fantastic support of FAN at this conference. A list of all 

the sponsors is available at each table. Carolyn encouraged everyone to stop by the sponsors’ exhibit booths to 

thank them. Representatives attending from ISI and the American Chemical Society (ACS), sponsors of the 

business meeting, were introduced and thanked. 

c) ACS presented FAN with a plaque at the FAN reception Sunday night. It will be kept by the Chair and passed on 

to each succeeding Chair in the future. 

d) FAN was recognized in the focus group session on conference planning for its joint sponsorship of a program on 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the Geography and Map Division. FAN is also sponsoring a joint 

program on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). 

e) Copies of the FAN strategic plan are on each of the tables. If you have any changes or suggestions to recommend, 

give them to Gracie Hale, Strategic Planning Chair, or Anita Ezzo, Chair-Elect. 

4) Committee Reports. None given at this meeting. 

5) Awards Committee 

a) FAN Distinguished Member Award (Carolyn Speakman) 

i) The award is sponsored by IFIS. 

ii) The award this year goes to Lillian Mesner, University of Kentucky. 

b) Kathi Kohli Memorial Scholarship (Peter Sidney) 

i) The award is provided jointly by Cargill and FAN. 

ii) The award this year goes to Emily Nielsen, a graduate student in the MLIS program of the College of 

St. Catherine and Dominican University. 

c) Retirements 

Grace Dote is retiring. 

6) Old Business 

a) Recognition of Officers and Committee Chairs (Carolyn Speakman) 

Carolyn presented certificates of appreciation and strawberry squeeze balls to officers and committee chairs that 

served FAN during the past year. 

b) Food for Thought (Heather Moberly) 

i) Heather asked for volunteers to write up reports of FAN conference sessions for publication in FFT. 

ii) FFT is going all-electronic, to be distributed in PDF format and posted to the FAN website. Members will 

be notified by an email to the FAN list when a new issue is available. 

iii) Thanks to those who advertised in FFT: John Wiley, Leatherhead, IFIS, Chemical Abstracts Service, 

Research Books Inc., Michigan Information Transfer Source. 

iv) Thanks to our mailers for 2000-2001: Laura Baird — General Mills, Peter Sidney — Cargill. 

7) New Business 

a) Nominations (Pat Wilson for Katie Clark) 

i) Slate of Nominees: Chair-Elect: Lutishoor Salisbury 

Treasurer: Mary Louise Pusch 

Secretary: Sharon Fujitani 

Directors: Kevin Adams, Pat Allen 

ii) Election of Officers. There were no nominations from the floor. The slate of officers was approved 

unanimously by acclamation, with Anita Ezzo as the Chair of FAN. 

iii) Carolyn Speakman expressed her thanks to the nominating committee (Katie Clark, Pat Wilson, Heather 

Moberly) and encouraged all members to think about serving on a committee or being an officer. 


4

) Installation of New Board 

The ceremonial mortar and pestle and the FAN chef’s hat were passed to Anita Ezzo, the new FAN chair for 2001- 

2002. 

8) Chair’s Remarks (Anita Ezzo) 

a) Anita said she is looking forward to the coming year as a learning experience and a chance to develop new skills. 

She knows she is not doing this alone and is counting on help from everyone. 

b) Possible programs for the 2002 conference in Los Angeles include: 

Food marketing, cosponsored with Advertising and Marketing 

Dietary supplements and functional foods, cosponsored with Biomedical 

Organic farming and foods 

Food resources on the web 

Adjourned: 8:30 AM Respectfully submitted by Peter Sidney, July 16, 2001 


Treasurer’s Report 

June 1, 2000 - May 31, 2001 

BALANCE (6/1/00) $39,501.39 

INCOME 

Bulletin Adv Inc $250.00 

Dues Allotment $2,950.00 

Interest Income $1,369.79 

Sponsorships: 

00 Conference $1,100.00 

01 Conference $8,435.00 

TOTAL INCOME $14,104.79 

EXPENSES 

Bulletin $616.33 

Meeting Expense: 

00 Conference Programs $6,455.75 

00 Conference Speaker $1,901.54 

01 Conference Dinner $465.00 

01 Conference Speaker $278.00 

01 Conference Tour $500.00 

Miscellaneous Expense: 

Distinguished Member $545.17 

Kohli Scholarship $1,000.00 

Other $882.81 

Postage & Supply $13.61 

TOTAL EXPENSES $12,658.21 

TOTAL BALANCE + INCOME - EXPENSES (5/31/01) $40,947.97 

FAN ARCHIVES REMINDER: 

If you are cycling off as an officer or committee chair and don't 

know what to do with the files that you have accumulated 

during your tenure please contact me. As the division archivist 

I can tell you which files get passed on to the incoming person, 

which files may be tossed, and which need to be mailed to me 

for inclusion in the official FAN archives. Thank you! 

Amy Paster 

FAN Archivist 

alp4@psu.edu 

814/865-3708 

SLA 2002 

Conference Website 

http://library.csun.edu/dhelfer/2002/welcome.html 

5

Every day is a hot dog fun-filled day in the Oscar Mayer Foods Division (Kraft Foods) Technology Information Group located in 

Madison, WI. Tom Whitemarsh (29 years at OM; MLS, 1972) and Jodi Patek (3 years at OM; MLS, 1998) complement each other’s 

information skills as perfectly as ketchup and mustard go with a hot dog! Our clients are scientists in many diverse disciplines: 

food science, meat science, microbiology, engineering, chemistry and sensory evaluation. Our information service philosophy is to 

treat our clients as our number one focus — they are our reason for being. We strive daily to provide top-notch technical 

information services based on efficiency, speed and cost effectiveness. We are part of the Kraft Foods Technology Information 

Group with colleagues in Glenview, IL; Tarrytown, NY; East Hanover, NJ and Munich, Germany. All of the technical information 

professionals serve the entire array of Kraft Foods products, such as Louis Rich, Boca, Tombstone Pizza, Kraft Cheese, Jell-O, Post 

Cereal and Oreos, to name just a few of the products. 


6


CALL FOR DISTINGUISHED MEMBER 2002 

Every year FAN recognizes a FAN member, or former member, who has contributed significantly to the division over the years. 

The selection of the recipient of the Distinguished Member Award is selected by the Award Committee based on nominations 

submitted by FAN members. 

Winners have included: 

1989 Rue Olson 

1990 Larry Walton 

1991 Robyn Frank 

1992 Jim Tchobanoff 

The criteria for the award are: 

1) Nominee must be a member or former member of the FAN Division for at least 5 years. 

2) Nominee must have demonstrated exemplary work for the Division, Chapter, and profession. 

The winner of the award will be chosen based on the merit described in the written application form. The honoree will receive 

an impressive plaque and $100. 

TIPS ON HOW TO SUBMIT A NOMINATION 

1) Identify a person for this honor by thinking and remembering FAN's various activities and the person or persons connected 

with them. 

2) Submit a biographical sketch and a description of activities and accomplishments for the nominee. If you don't have the 

information, you can contact other FAN members as well as the person's Chapter President and have them help you. 

FAN DISTINGUISHED MEMBER AWARD NOMINATION 

I/we submit the name of _______________________________ in nomination for the FAN Distinguished Member Award, 

recognizing that this is awarded to a member of the Association in acknowledgment of outstanding service or a specific 

contribution to the Association Division. 

A brief biographical sketch of the nominee, including their current mailing address is required. 

A brief description of activities and accomplishments which show the nominee's interest in the goals of the Special Libraries 

Association and the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division, and in special libraries or information science is required. 

Describe activities and provide dates where possible. 

Kevin Adams 

Institute of Environmental Science & 

Research 

27 Creyhe Road 

PO Box 29-181 

Christchurch, New Zealand 

Tel: 64-3-351-6019 

Fax: 64-3-351-0010 

Kadams@esr.cri.nz 

Robert Allen (Pat) 

Univ. of Illinois Library 

1301 West Gregory 

Mumford Hall MC 710 

Urbana, IL 61801 

Tel: 217-244-2245 

Fax: 217-333-0558 

allen2@uiuc.edu 

1993 Julia Peterson 

1994 Barbara McBride 

1995 Linda Hanrath 

1996 Carol Ann Vincent 

1997 Amy L. Paster 

NOMINATION DEADLINE IS APRIL 15, 2002 

Please mail, fax or email to a Committee Member : 

Carolyn Speakman (Chair) 

National Center for Food Safety & 

Technology 

11T Moffett Campus 

6502 South Archer 

Summit, IL 60501 

Tel: 708-563-8160 

Fax: 708-563-8164 

speakman@iit.edu 

1998 Sue Schultz 

1999 Dick Wallace 

2000 Kay Mowery 

2001 Lillian Mesner 


The Pennsylvania State University 

Life Sciences Library 

408 Paterno Library 

University Park, PA 16802-1811 

Tel: 814-876-3708 

Fax: 814-863-9684 

alp4@psu.edu 

Linda Hanrath 

William Wrigley Jr. Co. 

Library 

410 North Michigan Avenue 

Chicago, IL 60611-4211 

Tel: 312-645-3921 

Fax: 312-644-0081 

lhanrath@wrigley.com 

7

LEAVING A LEGACY FOR BUSINESS 

WHO WAS JAMES J. HILL? 

James J. Hill – The Empire Builder. In 1856, James J. Hill 

moved to St. Paul from a small farming community in Canada 

with little more than an eighth-grade education and $200 in his 

pocket. Over the next few decades, Hill became one of the 

nation’s preeminent business leaders and played a pivotal role 

in the economic development of the nation through his Great 

Northern Railroad and other business endeavors. Advisor to 

presidents and royalty, Hill built one of the nation’s great 

empires and his business savvy, talent and focus live on today 

in the James J. Hill Business Library. 

HISTORY OF THE HILL LIBRARY 

The James J. Hill Business Library – Leaving a Legacy. 

Competing with some of the most powerful, wealthy and 

politically connected businessmen of his time, Hill built his 

empire by having a sound and focused business strategy 

relying on a tool available to all, regardless of means: 

information. Later in life, when considering his legacy, Hill 

thought about this great equalizer that provided for his success 

and wanted to leave something behind for the next empire 

builder: 

In the average public library, the average student is well taken 

care of. The advance student, the original thinker, the man 

engaged in investigation and research, the serious author, is 

relatively unprovided with proper tools. 

James J. Hill 


FAN MEMBER LIBRARY TOUR: The James J. Hill Library 

by Braxton Haulcy 

( BHAULCY@JJHILL.ORG ) 

Although Hill was integral in the Library’s plans, he died 

prior to its opening and thus his widow and children completed 

Hill’s dream. In 1921, the James J. Hill Reference Library opened 

as one of the nation’s premier reference libraries. 

In the early 1970’s, the Library decided to focus on business 

reference rather than general reference. Today, the Library 

houses a world-class collection of applied and practical 

business information, and is one of the most comprehensive 

publicly accessible business information libraries in the country. 

Dedicated to helping patrons find the business information they 

need to succeed, the Library is a living collection of the latest 

business research, statistics and information. This, combined 

with the James J. Hill and Louis Hill manuscript collections, is 

one of the most significant business archives in the country 

(numbering more than five-million documents!). 

THE JAMES J. HILL LIBRARY TODAY 

Getting the work done. Access to the Library’s business 

collection and business knowledge experts is available free of 

charge via walk-in basis or online at < http://www.jjhill.org >. If 

you’re short on time, the Library also offers a variety of feebased 

research and consulting services ranging from simple 

literature searches and document delivery to customized highlevel 

analysis and consulting. 

In addition to general business research, Hill offers feebased 

research for the food and the consumer goods packaging 

industries. Hill Consulting began six years ago, when the James 

J. Hill Group purchased a fee-based consulting and research 

service as a way to extend the library’s services, and to provide 

financial support to enable the Library to continue its charitable 

mission to the public. 

The consulting team has nearly 70 years of combined 

experience and expertise in product development, consumer 

insights and current awareness, competitive intelligence, 

marketing research, corporate development, and technical and 

scientific research. The Hill Library houses one of the largest 

applied food industry collections in the U.S., specializing in all 

facets of the food industry including food manufacturing, food 

service, restaurants, retail grocery and agribusiness. The 

group’s consumer products division allows insight into 

consumer products companies and allied channels of 

distribution. 

With so much information now online, it’s exceptionally easy 

to simply dive in and drown. 

Alfred Glossbrenner 

To help patrons find what they are looking for, Hill Library 

members have access to: 

• Specialized online search help including the ability to have 

an online business specialist aid with a search live over the 

Internet; 

• Access to licensed content databases not found on the 

“free” Web; 

• Free or reduced-cost fees for special Hill business-building 

seminars; 

8


• Free parking when visiting the Hill Library, and; 

• The opportunity to hold a special event right at the Library. 

The Library annually helps thousands of small businesses, 

entrepreneurs, Fortune 1000 companies and students find the 

information they need to succeed in business. With its expert 

staff of trained business information specialists, the Library 

boasts a 96% patron satisfaction rate. In addition, the Hill Library 

provides curriculum and training to universities, colleges, high 

schools and associations on James J. Hill, his legacy and 

lessons, and how to access valid, relevant business information. 

In the age of “information overload”, the Hill Library is your 

business information lifeguard. 

Braxton Haulcy, Senior Consultant, Hill Food 

Consulting, has 20 years of industry experience. He has 

multidimensional experience in marketing research, 

corporate development, category management, and 

finance. Before joining Hill Food Consulting, Braxton 

worked with consumer giants Pillsbury and General Mills 

and marketing research giants Information Resources (IRI) 

and ACNielsen. At IRI he managed the syndicated 

marketing research for the Reynolds 

Tobacco and Sara Lee Hosiery accounts. At 

ACNielsen he managed the research and training 

needs for the Gold Medal Division and Category 

Management team at General Mills and later he 

managed the Pillsbury Totinos Pizza business 

account. Timmy The Cat , Braxton's Devon Rex, 

has been a favorite topic of discussion with 

attendees at the FAN New Members and Student 

Reception, sponsored by the James J. Hill Library, for the past several 

years. FFT couldn't resist requesting a photo. 

9


10

New Members and 

Student Reception 

By Anne S. Hurst 

(ahurst@arches.uga.edu) 

Sunday, June 10 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. 

On Sunday afternoon FAN's annual 

reception for new members and students 

was held at the San Antonio Marriott 

Rivercenter. The guests enjoyed Mexican 

hors d’oeuvres as they mingled with FAN 

members. The door prize, a bottle of 

Texas wine, was won by Jeffrey R. Stickle 

with Stacey Lazarow’s infant doing the 

drawing. FAN thanks the J. J. Hill Group 

for its sponsorship of this fun event. 

Genetically Modified Organisms 

(GMOs) — 

Regulatory & 

Environmental Concerns 

By Peter Sidney 

(peter_sidney@cargill.com) 

Monday, June 11 10:30 - 11:45 a.m. 

Dr. Suzanne Wuerthele, from the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency, 

presented an overview of the technology 

of genetic engineering. According to Dr. 

Wuerthele, genetic engineering is the 

most powerful technology ever known, 

the biological equivalent of splitting the 

atom. It raises profound social issues, 

as well as valid health and environmental 

questions. 

Genetic engineering — recombinant 

DNA transfer from one organism to 

another — is a complex lab process. 

Roundup Ready soybeans include 

bacteria for herbicide resistance and 

antibiotic resistance, a promoter gene 

from the petunia and also a virus as a 

promoter. It is difficult to force genes 

from one organism into another. 

Scientists use pressure, electrical current, 

chemicals or insertion of viral or bacterial 

genes. This disrupts the normal DNA 

sequence. Sometimes you can get a 

problem mutation in the cell. Are they 

going to behave the way we want them 

to? Will a viral or bacterial insertion turn 

on something we don’t want? Can the 

new organism transfer antibiotic 

resistance? 

Genetic engineering holds a great 

deal of promise. It holds the potential to 

create organisms with new traits for 

health and nutrition — “pharmafoods” 


and “nutraceuticals.” It may provide new 

sources of medical products such as 

tomatoes that are a vaccine against 

rabies. It may provide entirely new 

products such as synthesized human milk 

or organs for transplantation (e.g., pigs 

with human surface sell proteins on their 

livers). It holds promise for repairing 

genetic defects. 

There are some valid concerns raised 

by genetic engineering. Biotechnology 

is adding things that have never been 

part of the food supply. The Food and 

Drug Administration says that as long 

as genetically engineered foods are 

“substantially equivalent” no long term 

testing or labeling of these foods is 

needed. There is an argument for labeling 

to know who has eaten things with 

foreign genes. 

Health concerns include 

introduction of allergens (soybeans with 

a Brazil nut gene), toxins being turned on 

by foreign genes, loss of nutritional value, 

and new diseases caused by leftover 

viral sequences that are usually 

quiescent. There are also environmental 

concerns, including introduction of 

exotic species, genetic contamination, 

product residues, downstream ecological 

effects, and new plant diseases. 

Dr. Iain Swadling, from the 

International Food Information Service 

(IFIS), reviewed GMO regulation in the 

U.S., the European Union (EU), Australia 

and New Zealand, as well as international 

provisions. There has been relatively 

little concern about GMOs in the U.S. In 

a recent survey only 22% of U.S. 

respondents said they were concerned. 

In the U.S., regulation is shared among 

the USDA Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS), 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

and Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA). 

GM foods in the U.S. are regulated 

the same way as other conventional food 

products. FDA asks if GM foods are 

different in structure or function. If not, 

no pre-market approval or special labeling 

is required. If they differ significantly in 

composition, nutritional value or safety, 

they must be labeled. Claims meant to 

persuade customers to buy GM products 

(e.g. non-GM) can be made but must be 

substantiated. “GM-Free” cannot be 

claimed, because it is seen as misleading. 

The EU is skeptical about GM safety. 

This is partly due to a general lack of 

trust in EU food regulatory organizations 

among consumers there. On a national 

level, GMOs are regulated by national 

food regulatory agencies. At the EU 

community level, they are regulated by 

scientific committees. A 1% threshold 

has been set for accidental presence of 

GMOs (contamination) in foods. 

Imported foods containing GMOs need 

to be approved for marketing. 

In Australia and New Zealand 

opinion is similar to the U.S. Regulation 

there is similar to the EU. Highly refined 

foods are exempt from labeling. 

Processing aids are also exempt except 

where there is GM material present in the 

final product. 

FFT & FANWeb Enhanced Content 

Dr. Suzanne Wuerthele 

Genetic Engineering, the Revolution 

PowerPoint Slides 

http://www.sla.org/division/dfan/ 

GE_handouts.html 

Dr. Iain Swadling 

Genetically Modified Foods 

Outline and PowerPoint Slides 


geneng.html 

Cruising Down The River 

By Catherine Jeanjean 

(cajeanje@lib.ksu.edu) 

Monday, June 11 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. 

On Monday June 11, the FAN 

Dinner Cruise set sail. Three river boats, 

each holding 20 excited, hungry 

librarians and guests departed from the 

Casa Rio restaurant at 7 p.m. 

Participants were treated to a wonderful 

Tex-Mex dinner including salads with 

guacamole, tacos, enchiladas and 

tamales. Following the salad course, the 

boats returned to the Casa Rio so diners 

could purchase beverages and stretch 

their legs. 

Each boat was operated by a 

knowledgeable tour guide who provided 

educational and entertaining 

commentary about the River Walk and 

downtown San Antonio as we enjoyed 

our dinners. Highlights of the cruise 

included such sites as Wedding Island 

and the outdoor theatre, historical 

details about the River Walk and San 

Antonio and the envious looks we got 

11

from pedestrians and other tourists 

(eyeing our delicious dinners) as we 

cruised by. 

This was a most enjoyable way to 

spend the evening, dining, enjoying the 

river walk, spending time with friends 

and meeting new colleagues. On behalf 

of everyone who participated in the 

dinner cruise I would like to thank Pat 

Arnold for organizing this wonderful 

event. I would also like to thank 

Copyright Clearing House for 

sponsoring the dinner cruise and for 

providing the super prize of a digital 

camera. 

International Food Standards 

By Margaret Merrill 

(mmerrill@vt.edu) 

Tuesday, June 12 9:00 - 10:15 a.m. 

Author's Caveat – what one hears and 

what was actually said sometimes don’t 

exactly match. Please check the Codex 

Commission and the USDA Codex web 

sites to confirm details. 

"International Food Standards or 

Demystifying Codex Alimentarius" 

Patrick J. Clerkin, USDA 

Codex Alimentarius Commission 

http://www.codexalimentarius.net/ 

USDA Food Safety & Inspection Service 

Codex Alimentarius web site: 

< http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/codex/ > 

U.S. Codex Office, Room 4861, South 

Building, USDA 

The U.S. Codex web site contains 

documents, archives, agendas, reports, 

etc. of all Codex meetings. Conference 

Room documents are not archived 

electronically, but one can often get them 

in paper from the U.S. Codex office. Public 

meetings and hearings are announced on 

the web site. In addition, comments and 

other information can be submitted to the 

U.S. Codex delegates via the comments 

link. 

“The Codex Alimentarius 

Commission was created in 1962 by two 

U.N. organizations, the Food and 

Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the 

World Health Organization (WHO). 

Codex is the major international 

mechanism for encouraging fair 

international trade in food while 


promoting the health and economic 

interests of consumers. Within the 

United States, Codex activities are 

coordinated by officials from the United 

States Department of Agriculture 

(USDA), Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA), and Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA).” 

All documents of the Codex 

Commission are kept in five languages – 

English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and 

Arabic. 

The Codex Commission is the FAO’s 

Food Standards Committee. The 

standards promulgated by this committee 

have to be enacted by member countries 

before they become enforceable in that 

country. These standards cover food 

quality, food safety, and consumer 

protection. They help facilitate trade in 

foodstuffs between nations. 

The World Trade Organization 

(WTO) has had a major influence on the 

Codex. 

The SPS agreement is a food and 

phytosanitary safety agreement for the 

protection of consumers. “Level of 

protection” is the key phrase. This level 

is set by each nation. SPS specifically 

references the Codex, the International 

Plant Protection Convention (which is 

currently being revised), and the OID 

(epizootics). 

WTO members are supposed to use 

these three standards as a basis for 

setting the “level of protection.” Cases 

involving the Codex and other trade 

issues go to the WTO court, which is 

composed of panels made up of 

scientists. The basic rule of thumb for 

nations is that one does not take a case 

to the WTO court unless you KNOW that 

you can win. For example, the Codex 

does not require cheese to be made from 

pasteurized milk. The United States does 

require this. This U.S. provision could 

be challenged. However, the US believes 

that, in the face of a court challenge, it 

can show that based on scientific 

evidence there is sufficient risk to warrant 

the requirement. 

TBT agreement – Technical Barriers 

to Trade: The Codex standards do not 

officially reference this agreement, but it 

is generally used. 

Organization or structure of the 

Codex Commission: There is a plenary 

body consisting of representatives of the 

governments of the 165 member nations. 

These delegations include government 

officials, consumers, industry, and 

academia because they bring whatever 

advisors they may need with them. Nongovernmental 

members from the US have 

to pay their own way – the U.S. 

government does not pick up their costs. 

The daily work of the Commission is done 

by a Secretariat of international civil 

servants. 

Observers: International 

governmental organizations and 

International NGOs attend as observers. 

The tradition of the Codex allows them 

to put forward their points of view at 

every stage except the final decision. 

The final decisions are made by the 

member governments. Observer status 

is a good opportunity for professional 

organizations to get their ideas heard. 

The Codex Commission meets every 

two years. Ninety-plus countries 

generally attend. Often attendees are 

simply representing their governments 

and are not free to initiate anything. 

However, by the time something gets to 

the Codex Commission itself, it generally 

can not be changed – it can only be 

approved or rejected. 

The Executive Committee of the 

Codex Commission meets annually. It is 

composed of one chair and three vice 

chairs. Members are selected from the 

seven geographical regions – Africa, 

Asia, Europe, Latin America & the 

Caribbean, North America, Southwest 

Pacific, and the Near East. 

In addition to the Executive 

Committee, there are several specialized 

committees (see organizational chart < 

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/codex/>). 

However , the Codex Commission is 

organized into twelve Commodity 

Committees, nine General Subject 

Committees, six Regional Coordinating 

Committees, and several ad hoc 

Intergovernmental Task Forces. 

The Subject Committees establish 

criteria for all commodities and review 

commodity committee decisions. For 

example, there are standards currently 

being written for nutritional supplements 

that are very controversial. 

The six Regional Coordinating 

Committees (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin 

America and the Caribbean, Near East, 

North America and South West Pacific) 

safe guard the interests and needs of their 

own region. 

In addition to the standing 

committees there are Expert Committees, 

12

such as the Joint FAO/WHO Expert 

Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) 

or the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on 

Pesticide Residues (JMPR). These 

committees are charged with specific 

topic or challenge. 

The Ad hoc Intergovernmental Task 

Forces, such as the Task force on foods 

derived from biotechnology, are relatively 

independent and take orders only from 

the Director of the Codex. 

A Codex standard is established 

through the eight step Codex Elaboration 

procedure . 

1. The Commission decides to elaborate 

a worldwide Codex standard and also 

decides which subsidiary body or other 

body should undertake the work. Where 

work is assigned is very political and has 

definite influence on the standard which 

is promulgated. 

2. The Secretariat arranges for the 

preparation of a proposed draft standard. 

3. The proposed draft standard is sent 

to member governments. 

4. Comments are received by the body 

responsible for the standard. 

5. Proposed draft goes to the Secretariat 

for approval or rejection. 

6. Draft standard is sent by the 

Secretariat to members for comments and 

critiques. 

7. Subsidiary body meets and revises 

Standard. 

8. Standard is sent to members for 

adoption. 

This process is very, very slow – it 

may take 4-10 years 

Issues currently being elaborated 

are: mandatory labeling of foods 

containing biotechnology ingredients; 

traceability of foods; country of origin 

labeling; aflatoxin M in milk; and risk 

analysis principles. For this latter, 

Europe follows the “precautionary 

principle” in assessing risk, while the U.S. 

does not. 


Patrick J. Clerkin 

International Food Standards From 

Farm to Table 

PowerPoint Slides 


SpecLib.htm 


Applications in GIS — 

Toxicology, Agriculture, 

Insurance and Environmental 

Management 

By Pat Allen 

(allen2@uiuc.edu) 

Tuesday, June 12 1:30 - 2:24 p.m. 

This session, sponsored by a 

number of divisions, was very well 

attended. The divisions sponsoring this 

event were FAN, Geography and Map 

Division, Environmental and Resource 

Management Division, and Chemistry 

Division. Its focus on the importance of 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to 

libraries crosses many disciplinary 

boundaries. GIS is a type of software 

that processes geographically 

referenced data to aid in decision making 

and visualizing data. The processing 

that goes on behind the visual interface 

is similar to that of a spreadsheet and 

database. The moderator for this 

session was Loren Mendelsohn, Chief, 

Science and Engineering Library, City 

College of New York. 

GIS has been a popular topic in 

libraries since the ARL GIS Literacy 

Project. This project, sponsored by the 

Association of Research Libraries and 

ESRI, was intended to introduce 

librarians and library users to GIS 

software and data. It took place in the 

early to mid nineties. Most participants 

in that project tended to be map 

librarians. There are many uses of GIS 

in libraries in many disciplines, so this 

cross-disciplinary presentation was well 

received. GIS operations are useful for 

agriculture, environmental analysis, 

urban planning, natural resource 

management, and many other 

interdisciplinary ventures. 

The presenter, Allison Atkins 

Denton, is the Assistant Dean for 

Special Projects and GIS at Galvin 

Library, Illinois Institute of Technology 

(IIT). She has worked there in past 

years to create a GIS Lab that serves 

both the public and her institution's 

users. The GIS Lab at IIT was 

sponsored by a grant from the state of 

Illinois. As her institution is in Chicago, 

many users from the local community are 

in need of GIS services. The next issue 

of Food for Thought will include a write 

up of her presentation from Allison 

Atkins Denton. 

Agricultural Update 

by Valerie Perry 

( vperry@uky.edu ) 

Wednesday, June 13 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. 

Moderator: Pat Wilson 

Presenters: Jean-Philippe Decraene 

, Food 

and Agriculture Organization of the 

United Nations; Bill MacLennan 

, Canadian 

Agriculture Library; Amy Paster 

, United States 

Agricultural Information Network; and 

Gary McCone 

, National 

Agricultural Library. 

Food and Agriculture Organization of 

the United Nations (FAO) 

• Codex Alimentarius web site 

 

“The Codex Alimentarius system 

presents a unique opportunity for all 

countries to join the international 

community in formulating and 

harmonizing food standards and 

ensuring global implementation. It also 

allows them a role in the development 

of codes governing hygienic processing 

practices and recommendations relating 

to compliance with those standards.” 

This new resource is temporarily 

available at no charge. 

• Information Finder 

 

A new tool to search FAO documents, 

publications, web pages, photos and 

press releases. Search types include 

keyword, advanced, and free text (with 

wild cards). You may also “browse by 

topic using FAO Subject Gateways.” 

• Corporate Document Repository 

 

“The FAO Corporate Document 

Repository houses FAO documents and 

publications, as well as selected non- 

FAO publications, in electronic format. 

It enables users to easily access the 

accumulated knowledge and information 

produced by FAO directly on the 

Internet.” 

• FAO Terminology web site 

 

“FAOTERM is a multilingual 

terminological database in Arabic, 

Chinese, English, French and Spanish. 

It covers FAO’s specialized subjects: 

agriculture, biology, forestry, fisheries, 

13

economics, statistics, nutrition, etc. 

Names of international organizations, 

official titles, the structure of FAO, 

acronyms, statutory bodies, meetings, 

staff titles, etc., as well as some 

definitions, have also been incorporated 

into the database.” 

• Publications Catalogue 

 

“This catalog is intended as a source of 

reference for experts and lay people, 

farmers, trainers and researchers, as well 

as for booksellers and librarians, and 

includes titles available in English, 

French and Spanish. Titles are listed with 

ISBN or FAO job number and 

alphabetical listings by title and by series 

are provided.” The catalogue is updated 

twice monthly. 

Canadian Agriculture Library (CAL) 

• Staffing Changes 

“The Chief of Technical Services has 

taken a two-year assignment at the 

National Library of Canada. Her 

position is being filled by Ingrit 

Monasterios, who had been the Chief of 

Marketing and Partnerships. Hélène 

Carrier, [the] assistant director, has taken 

on additional areas of responsibility from 

the information management side of 

[the] Directorate.” 

• Document Delivery 

“The most significant change has been 

the negotiation of a new Document 

Delivery License under the new 

Canadian Copyright Law.” For Profit 

patrons will now pay a copyright fee for 

any requests. 

• Desktop Tools 

Desktop access tools have increased 

significantly, including Harvard Manage 

Mentor, Econlit, Current Contents 

Connect, NetLibrary, eShaman, (A 

computer literature database), Boardwise 

(the web access to documents of the 

Conference Board of Canada), and 

additional electronic journals through 

Science Direct. 

• Systems 

The CAL “web site has been redesigned 

to comply with the Common Look and 

Feel an initiative by the Canadian 

government to have all government web 

sites use the same basic design.” In a 

pilot project, the CAL has digitized 35 

Departmental Historical Series 

publications and made them accessible 


online. 

• International 

“[CAL] director, Victor Desroches, 

hosted a meeting of IICA in October. 

[CAL has] become a member of CDRS, 

the Collaborative Digital Reference 

Service. Through the PROCINORTE 

Project agreement negotiated last year 

[CAL has] supplied duplicate runs of 

some journals to the UAAAN 

(Universidad Autonoma Agraria 

Antonio Narro).” 

• Canadian Rural Information Service 

(CRIS) 

“CRIS received a further six months of 

funding to continue two remote sites, 

Glenavon, Saskatchewan and Flower's 

Cove, Newfoundland. Staff at these 

sites help residents identify their 

information needs, locate information on 

government programs and services and 

refer clients to other resources when 

necessary. Staff also provide an 

outreach information service to 

surrounding communities.” 

• Full report: pg. 20 of this FFT issue 

United States Agricultural Information 

Network (USAIN) 

• The USAIN Board met July 2000 at 

the ALA Annual Conference. 

• Chris Long & Associates has been 

hired as the organization’s Business 

Manager. 

• USAIN has incorporated as a 

nonprofit organization in the state of 

Ohio. 

• Membership currently includes 127 

individuals and 26 institutions. 

• 2001 Conference 

The 2001 Conference took place April 

20-23, 2001 and was hosted by North 

Carolina State University in Raleigh, 

North Carolina. The theme was 

“Extending Our Reach: Redefining and 

Promoting Agricultural Information 

through Partnerships.” Debbie Currie 

and Amy Paster cochaired the 

conference. Several persons were 

honored at the Awards Dinner. Honorary 

Membership Awards were bestowed 

upon Nancy Eaton, Sam Demas, and Jan 

Kennedy Olsen. Pamela Q.J. Andre 

received the award for outstanding 

Service to the Profession. Conference 

scholarships were awarded to Allison 

Level and Suzi Teghtmeyer. For more 

information, please refer to the 2001 

Conference web site . 

• Future Conferences 

The next conference will be held in April 

2003 at the University of Illinois in 

Urbana, Illinois. In May 2005, USAIN will 

hold an international joint conference 

with IAALD at the University of 

Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Due 

to conflicts with ACRL conferences, 

later conferences will be held in evennumbered 

years, starting with 2006. 

• USAIN will be collaborating with 

ALA/STS on a joint mentoring program. 

• The Tomato Juice database will now 

be called Agzines: a Harvest of Free 

Agricultural Journals. 

• Letters of Support 

USAIN sent a letter of support for the 

FAO Library. USAIN also sent a letter 

to NAL recommending that USAIN play 

a role in selecting the new NAL Director. 

• 2001-2002 Executive Council 

President: Amy L. Paster 

President-Elect: Dana W.R. Boden 

Past President: Diana Farmer 

Secretary/Treasurer: Norma Kobzina 

NAL Representative: Mike Esman 

Directors: Carla Casler, Mike Haddock 

& Luti Salisbury, Katie Clark, Heather 

Moberly, and Dana Smith 

National Agricultural Library (NAL) 

• Pamela Q.J. Andre’s Retirement 

Pamela Q.J. Andre retired on June 1, 

2001 as Director of the National 

Agriculture Library, a position she held 

for seventeen years. “NAL is now 

recruiting for a new director, and the 

announcement may be found on the 

NAL web site . 

• Acquisition of New Electronic 

Library Management System 

“NAL will be replacing its automated 

library system installed over thirteen 

years ago with a new electronic library 

management system.” 

• NAL to Host Tribal College 

Librarians 

NAL “will host the Eighth Annual Tribal 

College Librarians Professional 

Development Institute in Beltsville, 

Maryland, July 9-13, 2001. Thirty-six 

librarians and library technicians from 

twenty-eight of the Tribal Colleges will 

participate in the institute.” 

14

• Blue Ribbon Panel 

“An Interagency Panel was convened 

last year to review NAL’s management, 

staff, organization, and programs. The 

final report will be completed by the end 

of the year, and the panel’s 

recommendations reported to the 

Secretary of Agriculture.” 

• Addition of Retrospective Indexing 

Records to AGRICOLA 

“On May 15, 2001, [NAL] completed a 

project to add 1,091,702 retrospective 

indexing records created in the years 

1970-1978 to its AGRICOLA database.” 

• Older Serials Records Added to ISIS 

Catalog 

“Over 9,000 records describing older 

serial titles published between 1862-1950 

and held in the collection at NAL have 

been added to NAL’s ISIS online public 

access catalog.” 

• AGRICOLA Backlog 

NAL’s “Technical Services Division has 

just successfully completed the 

elimination of a 19,000 article” backlog 

and plans “to eliminate the current 

backlog of six-month old articles by 

August 31.” 

• AgNIC 

“AgNIC continues to seek additional 

partners, and welcomed three new 

partners over the past year (University 

of Illinois, Agricultural Information and 

Documentation System for America and 

University of Maryland).” 

• Funding for Library Subscriptions 

“The NAL materials budget has received 

no increases for paper journal 

subscriptions since 1995 and was 

reduced in 2001 by over 13%.” 

• Full report: pg. 18 of this FFT issue 

FAN Luncheon 

By Gracie Hale 

(ghale@ca.uky.edu) 

Wednesday, June 13 

11:30a.m. - 12:45 p.m. 

Farming looks mighty easy when your 

plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand 

miles from the corn field. 

Dwight Eisenhower, 1956. 

The above quote from President 

Eisenhower isn't particularly 

complimentary to writers - but it does 

serve to illustrate the perceived gulf 

between the world of the farm and that 


of the written word. At the FAN 

luncheon in San Antonio, attendants 

were introduced to the work of poet and 

farmer Michael A. Carey. Carey uses the 

plow and the pencil to bridge his two 

worlds. 

Carey's presentation entitled 

"Reading and Writing the Land" detailed 

his move from New York City to Iowa in 

the 1970's and described how that move 

affected both his writing and his life. 

He compared his life and the 

character of his poetry as he wrote it 

while living in the city with how it 

changed once he and his wife moved to 

Iowa to run the family farm. Carey 

discovered that his written work began 

to take on the rhythms of his physical 

labor on the farm. His written work 

slowed and lengthened in response to 

the nature of his work in the fields. He 

had learned to read the land and to write 

about it. 

Iowa also gave Carey a sense of 

connection to past and future 

generations. Living in a house that still 

contained items used by previous 

generations infused a sense of 

continuity into him and his poetry. His 

relationship with the land, the 

community and its history, and the 

process of farming became enmeshed in 

his poetry. 


Michael Carey 

Reading and Writing the Land 

Speech text 


carey.html 

Vendor Update 

Photography: Heather Sherman 

(heather.sherman@isi.net) 

& Amy Paster (alp4@psu.edu) 

Wednesday, June 13 2:30-4:00 p.m. 

As a change of pace, we invited the 

vendors participating in the FAN Vendor 

Update to submit their own summaries. 

CABI Publishing 

CABI Publishing is one of the world’s 

foremost publishers in agriculture, forestry, 

veterinary science and related disciplines 

to the applied life sciences. We offer 

Internet products, journals, CD-ROMs and 

approximately 60 new book titles per year. 

CABI is a dynamic and growing division of 

CAB International; a not-for-profit 

international organization dedicated to 

improving human welfare worldwide 

through the disclosure, utilization and 

conception of scientific knowledge in 

support of sustainable development. 

Known to be at the forefront of today’s 

developments in electronic publishing, 

CABI has created original, cutting-edge 

online subject communities that are 

necessary for veterinarians 

(animalscience.com), ecological farmers 

(organic-research.com) and agricultural 

engineers (agbiotechnet.com). For desktop 

access to the world’s most comprehensive 

abstract database on agriculture and applied 

life sciences there is CABDirect. It is a fully 

searchable database with a 28-year archive 

and over 3.5 million records. These 

products provide rapid access to the most 

current research available, with links to fulltext 

articles. 

Journals published by CABI are 

available in print and on the Internet 

including Abstract (ex. Agroforestry 

Abstracts and Review of Agricultural 

Entomology) and News & Information 

journals (ex. Index of Current Research on 

Pigs). Many Primary & Review journals 

(ex. Animal Health Research Reviews) are 

published on behalf of learned societies 

worldwide. 

CAB Abstracts and it’s wide range of 

subsets offer the definitive tools for 

researchers, professors, students and those 

who work in the fields associated with the 

applied life sciences. 

For more information or to register for 

a free trial please visit our web site < http:/ 

/www.cabi-publishing.org > or contact: Tara 

Donagher at email: t.donagher@cabi.org or 

telephone: 1-800-528-4841 ext. 101. 

Chemical Abstract Services 

Rebecca Wolf, CAS 

15

The 4 cornerstones to STN (The Scientific and Technical 

Information Network) include: 

· CONTENT from more than 200 databases 

· Convenient ACCESS 

· Superb SUPPORT 

· Integration with THE WEB 

STN includes classic FAN databases such as Agricola and 

FSTA, and also databases for regulatory, pharmaceutical, and 

toxicological information. Recently loaded databases include: 

PASCAL, Prous’ Synthline, DIOGENES, and several trademark 

databases. 

Recent database enhancements include: 

· Derwent World Patent Index for nonsubscribers 

(WPINDEX): searchable by chemical structure 

· Chemlist: Spanish Chemical Names in EINECS; Swiss and 

Philippines inventories added 

· Medline: reloaded with the 2000 MeSH. 

· CAplus: bibliographic and abstract data from 1947-1966 

searchable and displayable; new Lexicon 

STN may be accessed in 3 convenient ways. Traditional 

STN Express with Discover and STN on the Web provide 

professional searchers with powerful command line searching 

across more than 200 databases. For infrequent searchers, STN 

Easy provides an intuitive Web interface to the most popular 

databases. 

The recently released STN Express with Discover! 6.0 

provides easy-to-use tools for creating reports and tables. STN 

on the Web now offers an alert assistant and additional transcript 

options. The redesigned STN Easy includes a new CAS Number 

search tab. 

To support customers’ needs, hundreds of scientists and 

technical experts provide worldwide technical support and 

customer service and also E-seminars, Webcasts, and STNews. 

STN integrates access to the Web in several ways: 

· ChemPort provides access to full-text from 137 publishers 

and 2700 journals! 

· A new service, reference linking, provides links from five 

publishers’ journals to CAS database records. 

· Our new escience page carries your STN Easy search terms 

to our escience page where you can search the web using 

ChemIndustry.com or Google. 

As a special promotion for FAN members, those who send 

CAS an email about why using STN is FANtastic will receive a 

free gift. The first five responders will receive Express with 

Discover! 6.0 free. Send your email to rwolff@cas.org 

IFIS 

The International Food Information Service (IFIS) is proud to 

announce that in October 2001 it will launch Food Science Central 

, an engaging and 

informative web site for the world food science, food technology, 

and food–nutrition community. 

The foundation of Food Science Central will be a web 

implementation of the complete (1969-present) Food Science and 

Technology Abstracts (FSTA) database, provided directly from 

IFIS for the first time. This implementation will deliver new features 

and services, including a powerful, easy-to-use search interface; 


links from FSTA records to the online scientific literature; an online 

thesaurus and dictionary; and weekly alerting services notifying 

relevant users of the latest additions to FSTA. 

Linked to FSTA, will be the launch of a new online mini-review 

journal, FSTA Bulletin, which will report and interpret advances in 

key areas of the food sciences. 

Food Science Central will also be a platform for an exciting mix 

of new scientific information products and services. Registration will 

be simple and free, and includes unrestricted access to many 

resources, including: 

• FoodInfo Online, an informative and frequently updated online 

magazine publishing reports and articles of interest to specialists 

and nonspecialists alike in the food sciences community 

• a database of more than 2,300 evaluated and checked links 

to resources on the Internet 

• daily reports on key papers published in leading food 

sciences journals 

• reviews of key web sites 

• a daily data feed from FSTA, keeping an eye on what’s new 

in patents, standards, and books 

For further information, please contact Polly Catchpole, 

International Food Information Service, Lane End House, 

Shinfield Road, Shinfield, Reading RG2 9BB, UK. Telephone 

+44 (0)118 988 3895; Email p.catchpole@ifis.org 

Dr. Iain Swadling, IFIS 

[From left] Joseph Barrett, CABI Publishing; 

Dr. Iain Swadling, IFIS; and Heather Sherman, ISI 

ISI 

ISI offers comprehensive content to address FAN’s research 

needs. ISI’s Web of Knowledge is an integrated platform offering 

access to: 

journals, patents, proceedings, chemistry and evaluated web 

content. It also provides links to full text and gene sequencing 

information. 

16

The following sources are available: 

• Current Contents Connect ® 

• BIOSIS ® Previews 

• CAB ABSTRACTS TM (Coming soon) 

• Web of Science ® (Cited/Citing 

Reference navigation) 

• ISI Proceedings SM 

• Derwent Innovations Index SM (Patents) 

• ISI Chemistry(SM) (Reactions & 

Compounds) 

Features include: 

· Desktop web access; 

· Weekly alerts; 

· Users click to CITED or CITING 

references; 

· Link to the NCBI gene and protein 

sequences and your full text subscriptions; 

· Email search results to your 

colleagues; 

· Search the full text of preprints, funding 

data, and research activities; 

· Search expertly evaluated web sites 

that have scientific relevance; 

· Document ordering to your specifics 

· Easily export records into bibliographic 

management databases such as Reference 

Manager®, ProCite®, and EndNote® 

Sample Scientific Disciplines 

• Agricultural Chemistry 

• Animal Sciences 

• Biotechnology 

• Food Science/Nutrition 

• Entomology/Pest Control 

• Nutrition & Metabolism 

• Microbiology 

Talk to us to learn more about how the 

ISI Web of Knowledge can benefit your 

organization, contact: 

heather.sherman@isinet.com, 

james.quigley@isinet.com, or 

christopher.petty@isinet.com 

LEXIS - NEXIS 

Martha Farley & Susan Cramer, 

Lexis-Nexis 


The LexisNexis U.S. Corporate and 

Federal Markets group is comprised of 

the LexisNexis news and business 

information service and additional 

operating units and Congressional 

Information Service Inc. U.S. Corporate 

and Federal Markets provides decisionsupport 

information and services to 

professionals in the business, 

government and academic markets, 

including information professionals, 

corporate and government attorneys, 

CIO's, corporate strategists as well as 

professionals in competitive intelligence, 

marketing, fraud detection, public 

relations, finance and other corporate 

functions. LexisNexis provides valueadded 

information that is relevant, timely, 

customized and consistent. 

Through qualifying, warehousing, 

processing, packaging and delivering 

information in a variety of ways, 

LexisNexis makes authoritative 

information quick and easy to access. 

NERAC 

Kevin Bouley, President 

 

Those unfamiliar with Nerac 

inevitably ask, “What exactly is a 

‘Nerac’?” Good question. The Cliffs 

Notes answer is this: “We help people 

locate scientific and technical 

information.” Is there more to us than 

that? Absolutely. 

Think of Nerac as the ultimate 

people-powered search engine. Going 

beyond the Internet, Nerac’s nearly 90 

experts search the world’s foremost 

scientific, technical, patent and business 

databases to provide customized 

information. Nerac hires top scientists 

and engineers to conduct searches 

because we believe that customers 

receive the best results from someone 

who speaks their language. 

A customer in search of genetically 

modified products might work with 

Shanon Trueman, an agricultural expert 

with seven years experience. Need 

background information on 

bioremediation? John Ingersoll, a 

molecular biologist with fifteen years in 

the field can help. A customer 

conducting market research on food 

additives might talk to Dennis Cronin, a 

top business specialist, with nine years 

of search experience. 

A recent report from Outsell listed 

Nerac as one of the top ten information 

aggregators in the Scientific, Technical 

and Medical (STM) marketplace. We are 

thrilled to be recognized as a key player 

in the information industry. As Nerac 

continues to grow, we’re looking forward 

to helping more people find the 

information they need. 

FAN Tour: Texas Hill Country 

Article By Lillian Mesner 

(lillian@mesners.com) 

Our day did not get off to a very 

auspicious start; the times for the trip 

were printed incorrectly in the Conference 

Program. Some people had to drop out 

because of the need to meet planes in 

the late afternoon. But, after we got our 

bus there and solved a small equipment 

problem, we were on our way up U.S. 281. 

On the way, a number of us talked 

about the fact that many of us had rather 

preconceived notions about Texas. To 

wit: the movies taught us that Texas is 

one big, dusty, ranch, and the program 

Dallas taught us that Texas was all 

ranches with wealthy, white Anglos on 

them. However, neither of these was 

what we found. 

We got off of U.S. 281 at Johnson 

City, which was named for LBJ’s 

grandfather. 

The Johnson family has been in the 

area for a long time. About five miles 

west of Johnson City, we came to the LBJ 

ranch which is a spread that straddles 

the Pedernales River. The Pedernales 

(which a Texan pronounces in a way that 

I couldn’t replicate) 

is a shallow river about a few hundred 

yards wide on the ranch and it runs very 

close to the main house. LBJ wanted the 

state of Texas and the National Park 

Service to try and work cooperatively, so 

he willed the property to both the state 

17

and National Park Service. The state half 

looks very much like a state park and it 

has a visitor’s center where we saw a film 

and shopped, and the federal half is the 

land with the homesite and working 

ranch. Lady Bird Johnson has lifetime 

rights to the property and lives there, 

although she was not in residence the 

day we were there. 

The really interesting part was the 

home site property. We had to be let in 

by the Secret Service who viewed our 

park tour bus by camera before the gates 

magically swung open. It was spooky. 

The first place we went was to see a 

replica of the house where LBJ was born. 

It was a small house with a breeze way 

through the middle and positioned to get 

all of the prevailing breezes. That was 

the only air conditioning in those days. 

We went on to the main house which is a 

lovely, rambling, white ranch house with 

lawns and chairs under gorgeous oldgrowth 

trees. It was completely 

understandable why the Johnsons 

headed for the ranch whenever they got 

the chance. The house had a lot of 

enhancements that could not be seen 

from the outside, but it was large enough 

for LBJ to house important guests and 

working parties. The family cemetery is 

very near the home and there had been a 

burial a few days before we came. Up in 

the front of the cemetery was a group of 

headstones that belonged to LBJ and his 

parents and family. There is a space just 

to his right that is for Lady Bird. 

Other features of the home place was 

the working ranch with cattle barns and 

other agricultural buildings. Men were 

working around the place when we were 

there. There is also a landing strip that is 

still in use and there is a special building 

with glass walls that houses all of LBJ’s 

favorite vehicles. The two white 

convertibles that always showed up in 

news pictures were there as was an 

antique fire engine that apparently was 

used on the ranch at one time, and a small, 

German-built convertible that was an 

amphibious vehicle. It looked like a mini 

version of the landing craft called 

“Ducks” that were used in the W.W. II. 

The little amphibious convertible 

was the source of a couple of good 

stories about LBJ. He got a big kick out 

of riding people around the ranch in it 

and then driving right into the river 

without his guests realizing that the car 

floated. He tried this on a couple of 


Secret Service agents one day. He drove 

straight for the river and yelled “I can’t 

stop. I’ve lost the brakes and we’re going 

in!” Right before the car hit the water, 

the agents jumped out and LBJ went in. 

He sat in the middle of the river laughing 

at the top of his lungs and gave the 

agents a bad time for not protecting the 

President for the rest of the day. The 

white convertibles were his favorite 

vehicles and one of the reasons for that 

was that they were just the right width to 

be able to drive right into the cattle barns 

and go right through to the other side. 

He would drive in and talk to the hands 

and then just take off. The best story 

that our tour guide told us was about 

what LBJ liked to do while at the ranch. 

He would get up in the morning and have 

breakfast and then figure out some chore 

that had to be done that day like working 

on a fence. He’d go do the chore and at 

the end of the day he’d feel good because 

he could set a goal, work at it and 

complete it. This gave him a lot of 

satisfaction because he couldn’t do this 

in Washington. He rarely felt that he 

accomplished anything. 

After we left the ranch, we continued 

on west and got to Fredricksburg, which 

is an old town settled by the many 

German immigrants that first came to that 

area. It is a beautiful town and gets a lot 

of tourists. One of the attractions is the 

museum for the Pacific War in World War 

II. It’s in the home where Admiral William 

(Bull) Halsey was born. We had lunch at 

a german restaurant and then went on to 

a winery. The Hill Country is really 

beautiful and looks like a lot of 

midwestern areas. It’s a good fruit 

growing area which is why we saw so 

many stands selling fresh peaches along 

the way. Our last stop was at an herb 

farm, also near Fredricksburg. 

Our trip to San Antonio was along a 

scenic route and was really beautiful. 

The only thing that could have made the 

trip better would have been if the fabled 

wild flowers that the Hill Country is 

famous for would have been in bloom. 

We got to see the vestiges of them, but 

your our guide said that they are at their 

best at the end of April and beginning of 

May. That’s a reason for a return trip. 

National Agricultural Library 

Update Summer 2001 

Pamela Q.J. Andre Retires as National 

Agricultural Library Director 

Pamela Q. J. André retired on June 1, 

2001 as Director of the National Library, a 

position she had held for 7 years. 

Prior to her appointment as director, 

André held the post of Associate Director 

for Automation at NAL, where she guided 

NAL’s program to apply electronic 

technology to library operations. In 

particular, she was instrumental in the 

success of the National Agricultural Text 

Digitizing Project in which selected portions 

of the NAL collection were placed on 

compact discs and distributed to land-grant 

libraries nationwide. She also led the 

library’s efforts to make NAL services and 

products available on the Internet. 

Before her appointment at NAL in 1984, 

André held a variety of positions at the 

Library of Congress As a computer 

systems analyst, she worked on the 

development of that library’s bibliographic 

computer system. She was later the 

Assistant Chief of the MARC Editorial 

Division. In 1982, she was named to the 

management team for the Optical Disk Pilot 

Project. 

André received her bachelors degree 

from the University of New Hampshire and 

Masters Degree in Library and Information 

Science from the University of Maryland. 

She received many awards during her 

career, including the USDA Special Service 

Award in 1990 and NAL Special Service 

Awards in 1989 and 1992. She has published 

numerous articles in the area of library 

automation and is a noted speaker on issues 

related to the use of new computer 

technologies in libraries. 

NAL is now recruiting for a new 

director, and the announcement may be 

found at < http://www.ars.usda.gov/afm2/ 

divisions/hrd/vacancy/01-03.htm >. 

Acquisition of New Electronic 

Library Management System 

NAL will be replacing its automated 

library system installed over 13 years ago 

with a new electronic library management 

system. The Library has secured funding 

to begin the purchase of major components 

of the system this fiscal year. The entire 

process of purchasing and converting to a 

new system is expected to take at least 18 

months until we are operational under a 

new system. This is a high priority project 

for NAL and will involve all units of the 

18

library as we implement new automated 

support for acquisitions, serials 

management, including holdings data, 

cataloging/indexing, interlibrary loan, 

circulation, document delivery and a Webbased 

online public catalog. 

NAL To Host 

Tribal College Librarians 

The National Agricultural Library will 

host the Eighth Annual Tribal College 

Librarians Professional Development 

Institute in Beltsville, Maryland, July 9-13, 

2001. Thirty-six librarians and library 

technicians from twenty-eight of the Tribal 

Colleges will participate in the institute 

which is usually held at Montana State 

University. The institute program will 

include presentations on Native American 

culture and history, site visits to federal 

information resources like the Library of 

Congress, the National Library of Medicine, 

the National Archives and Records 

Administration and the Cultural Resources 

Center of the National Museum of the 

American Indian, as well as presentations 

by a number of federal agencies such as 

the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of 

Indian Education Programs, the Department 

of Education’s Office of Indian Education, 

and the National Park Service’s Tribal 

Preservation Program. Native American 

organizations will also be making 

presentations, e.g., the American Indian 

Higher Education Consortium, the National 

Indian Education Association, and the 

National Congress of American Indians. 

NAL Co-Produces Video History of 

Rice Breeding Breakthroughs 

Cornell University and the National 

Agricultural Library teamed up with AgCom 

International to produce a video history of 

Dr. Hank Beachell’s contribution to rice 

breeding. Beachell is a legend in American 

agriculture whose work helped create the 

“Green Revolution,” that saved millions 

worldwide from the scourge of starvation. 

Precious Seeds: The Legacy of Hank 

Beachell and Fellow Rice Scientists 

documents the remarkable achievements of 

Dr. Henry M. “Hank” Beachell, a softspoken 

94-year-old scientist who received 

the World Food Prize in 1996. Rice makes 

up more than half of all food eaten by one 

of every three persons on earth. Globally, 

average rice yields and production have 

doubled over the past 25 years, and 

improved rice varieties now keep alive at 

least 1 billion persons in developing 

countries. “Forty years ago, we were on 

the verge of starvation in Asia, and through 


increased rice production, we were able to 

avoid that,” Beachell recalls in the video. 

“Now we’re facing a similar period. What 

can we do now to start a program to feed 

the rice world 40 years from now?” The 

Video History, 27:38 long, is excellent 

viewing for students of agriculture, biology, 

world development and geography. 

The video is available online < http:// 

ars-genome.cornell.edu/rice/beachell.html > 

or on loan from the NAL collection. It can 

also be purchased from AgCom 

International . 

Blue Ribbon Panel 

An Interagency Panel (“Blue Ribbon 

Panel”) was convened last year to review 

NAL’s management, staff, organization, and 

programs. The distinguished panel is 

chaired by Dr. Larry Vanderhoef, Chancellor, 

University of California at Davis. The Panel 

conducted a series of surveys during 

December and January to obtain input from 

customers, Library Directors, Librarians, 

and the NAL staff. On March 12, the Blue 

Ribbon Panel met in Washington, D.C. to 

review the preliminary findings from the 

various surveys, as well as other task group 

reports. The meeting was held at the office 

of the National Commission on Libraries 

and Information Science. The final report 

will be completed by the end of the year, 

and the panel’s recommendations reported 

to the Secretary of Agriculture. 

NAL Hosts Invasive Species 

Invasivespecies.gov is an online 

information system to facilitate access to 

and exchange of data and information on 

invasive species. The National Agricultural 

Library developed the Web site in 

collaboration with the U.S. Department of 

the Interior, to follow through on Executive 

Order 13112 on Invasive Species. The site 

was launched in July 2000, and today 

includes links to more than 3,500 unique 

information resources. You can find 

information on more than 50 invasive 

species; on local, State, and Federal 

contacts and programs; and extensive links 

to press releases, fact sheets, calendars, 

newsletters, laws, regulations, and much 

more. 

Addition of Retrospective 

Indexing Records to AGRICOLA 

On May 15, 2001, the National 

Agricultural Library completed a project to 

add 1,091,702 retrospective indexing 

records created in the years 1970 - 1978 to 

its AGRICOLA database. The addition of 

these records establishes a complete master 

AGRICOLA database at NAL. Detailed 

information about the format and contents 

of these records can be found at NAL’s 

AGRICOLA Web site . 

Older Serials Records 

Added to ISIS Catalog 

Over 9,000 records describing older 

serial titles published between 1862 - 1950 

and held in the collection at NAL have been 

added to NAL’s ISIS online public access 

catalog. Most of these records are older 

USDA bulletins and series that have not 

previously been announced in any online 

database. The converted records contain 

all of the descriptive information from the 

original manual cards, but the cataloging 

was not upgraded to current standards and 

has not been distributed to OCLC or other 

bibliographic utilities. 

AGRICOLA Backlog 

The National Agricultural Library’s 

Technical Services Division (TSD) has just 

successfully completed the elimination of a 

19,000 article ISIS/AGRICOLA keying 

backlog by mobilizing staff within TSD and 

other parts of the Library. These records 

had been indexed, but awaited keyboarding 

and release to the ISIS/AGRICOLA 

database. 

Despite this success, there is another 

AGRICOLA backlog to be addressed. 

About 8,000 articles need to be indexed 

and keyed into ISIS/AGRICOLA. To make 

these citations available in AGRICOLA as 

quickly as possible, TSD is keying records 

into ISIS/AGRICOLA without descriptors 

(subject terms) for all articles published 

more than six months ago. It is estimated 

that about 3,000-4,000 of the titles in the 

backlog are more than six months old. 

Indexers will try to index the remainder of 

the 8,000 articles, but for the foreseeable 

future the six month guideline will remain in 

effect. This decision was made to enforce 

our commitment to AGRICOLA’s timeliness 

even in the face of reduced staff resources. 

AGRICOLA subject category codes 

for each indexed title will be taken from a 

journal’s serial cataloging record except in 

a few instances where staff have determined 

that the use of these codes will be 

detrimental to retrieval of records. 

Abstracts, when available, will be added to 

these records. The presence of abstracts 

will increase subject access by expanding 

the text word searching capability of these 

records. 

It is our goal to eliminate the current 

backlog of six-month old articles by August 

19

31. If you have any comments or concerns 

about this policy, please feel free to contact 

us. 

Agronomy Journal CD-ROM 

In cooperation with the American 

Society of Agronomy the National 

Agricultural Library’s National Agricultural 

Text Digitizing Program (NATDP) has 

produced the AGRONOMY JOURNAL 

(Vol. 36-41) CD-ROM. The CD-ROM 

contains Volumes 36 through 40 of the 

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 

OF AGRONOMY, and Volumes 40 through 

41 of the AGRONOMY JOURNAL, 

covering the years 1944 to 1949. The 

database is composed of page images 

linked to searchable, bibliographic data for 

all articles, notes, obituaries, and some 

meeting reports. Most of the bibliographic 

records were downloaded from NAL’s 

AGRICOLA database. Additional records 

were added by NATDP to provide access 

to sections which are not journal articles or 

were not listed in the table of contents. A 

“HOST RECORD” was added for each 

journal issue. It provides access to the title 

page, the table of contents, and some 

additional pages. The database contains 

1071 records and about 6000 page images. 

Curtis Botanical CD-ROM 

The National Agricultural Library’s 

National Agricultural Text Digitizing 

Program (NATDP) has produced the Curtis 

Botanical Prints (1787-1807) CD-ROM 

containing Volumes 1 through 26 (covering 

the years 1787 to 1807) of The Botanical 

Magazine, later known as Curtis’s 

Botanical Magazine. The database 

consists of digital images of the 

hand-colored plates of ornamental plants, 

as well as digital page images of each plate’s 

accompanying notes on taxonomy, 

cultivation methods, and other useful 

information. Metadata records for each 

plate are included for search and retrieval. 

The database contains 1060 records, and 

the metadata records and page images make 

up the bulk of the database. 

AgNIC 

The Agriculture Network Information 

Center (AgNIC) brought up a new software 

and system “architecture” August 7, 2000. 

Now that the bugs in the system have been 

largely worked out, we have begun to create 

other AgNIC databases at partner sites. 

Called “centroids” these databases will 

make AgNIC a truly distributed system. Not 

all partners will have a database; only those 

who want to maintain one. 


AgNIC continues to seek additional 

partners, and welcomed three new partners 

over the past year: 

• University of Illinois (corn, soybeans, 

agricultural communications) 

• SIDALC (Agricultural Information 

and Documentation System for America) 

(South & Central American agriculture) 

• University of Maryland (dairy, 

biotechnology, poultry) 

The AgNIC Alliance met at NAL in 

March this year, with 54 participants 

including a representative of the Food and 

Agriculture Organization of the United 

Nations (FAO). 

AgNIC is participating in an effort to 

define a metadata standard for agricultural 

resources. The Alliance is reviewing one 

proposal currently and anticipates one new 

one within the summer. 

AgNIC’s focus over the next few 

months will be to: 

• develop general reference guidelines 

• develop an annual plan 

• develop an “orientation manual” 

• populate the AgNIC database(s) 

• complete a calendar database to 

replace the existing calendar files 

(AgCal) 

Shortfall in Funding for 

Library Subscriptions 

The NAL materials budget has received 

no increases for paper journal subscriptions 

since 1995 and was reduced in 2001 by over 

13%. Serial subscriptions have been 

canceled each year since 1997 to stay 

within the budget. The titles canceled 

thus far have been either duplicates or in 

subjects outside of NAL’s core collecting 

responsibility, such as youth 

development, family studies, library 

science, or general interest. The Library’s 

holdings in chemistry and non-veterinary 

medicine were reviewed, and some titles 

in those subjects were canceled if 

available elsewhere or published in non- 

English languages. If there are no 

increases in the materials budget for the 

upcoming year, NAL will be canceling 

more titles in subjects collected at the 

research level, such as chemistry, general 

economics, biology and microbiology. 

Usage data and information on other 

library’s holdings will be used in making 

the decisions. 

Canadian Agriculture Library 

Update Summer 2001 

Staff 

To begin we have had some 

significant changes in personnel. Our 

Chief of Technical Services has taken a 

two year assignment at the National 

Library of Canada. Her position is being 

filled by Ingrit Monasterios, who had 

been the Chief of Marketing and 

Partnerships. Hélène Carrier, our 

assistant director, has taken on 

additional areas of responsibility from 

the information management side of our 

Directorate, in part replacing someone 

else who has taken an assignment 

elsewhere. We have created a new 

position responsible for marketing and 

training who will report to the Chief of 

Public Services. Other changes in 

responsibilities and the reporting 

structure are anticipated. 

Knowledge and Information Centre 

Our Knowledge and Information 

Centre has been enlarged by the 

incorporation of unused lobby space 

and brightened by the addition of 

artworks on loan from the Canadian Art 

Bank. We have collaborated with the IT 

training section to make computer selflearning 

materials available through the 

library circulation system. Several 

successful wellness sessions have been 

held over lunchtime. Our Human 

Resources Branch has been using our 

facilities to run weekly orientation 

sessions for new employees. These 

initiatives have helped increase the 

library profile among Department staff. 

Document Delivery 

Our external document delivery 

operation continues to expand due to 

our partnership with CISTI, the 

Canadian Institute for Scientific and 

Technical Information. 

The most significant change has 

been the negotiation of a new Document 

Delivery License under the new 

Canadian Copyright Law. This has 

necessitated the addition of a copyright 

fee to any requests received from "For 

Profit" patrons. Internally the majority 

of our document requests are now 

delivered electronically. Several of our 

branch libraries have begun using the 

Pigasus Wings ILL software to help 

mange their library loans service. 

20

Desk Top Tools 

Through cost-sharing and partnerships with other 

branches of the department we have been able to greatly 

expand our desktop access tools. In addition to our ERL 

server in the past year we have added Harvard Manage 

Mentor, Econlit, Current Contents Connect, NetLibrary, 

eShaman, (A computer literature database) and Boardwise, the 

web access to documents of the Conference Board of Canada. 

We have expanded our access to Science Direct and continue 

to expand access to electronic journals. 

Systems 

Our web site has been redesigned to comply with the 

"Common Look and Feel" an initiative by the Canadian 

government to have all government web sites use the same 

basic design. 

We have just completed an upgrade of our Advance 

catalogue system to version 6.8. which should improve our 

Intranet web access. 

We have as a pilot project digitized the 35 publications in 

our Departmental Historical Series and have made them 

available on our web site. 

International 

Our director, Victor Desroches, hosted a meeting of IICA 

in October. We have become a member of CDRS, the 

collaborative Digital Reference Service. 

Through the PROCINORTE Project agreement negotiated 

last year we have supplied duplicate runs of some journals to 

the UAAAN (Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro). 

Related Services 

As part of the Government on Line project, our Public 

Information Requests Service has been preparing an FAQ 

document which will eventually be made available on our 

public web site. 

Canadian Rural Information Service (CRIS) 

Information Service - continues as the point of access to 

information on Government of Canada activities on rural issues 

such as the Rural Dialogue and the Canadian Rural Partnership 

Pilot projects Initiative and provides the value-added resources 

of professional staff to assist rural clients with information 

needs. 

Service Canada Pilot project 

CRIS received a further six months of funding to continue 

two remote sites, Glenavon, Saskatchewan and Flower's Cove, 

Newfoundland. Staff at these sites help residents identify their 

information needs, locate information on government 

programmes and services and refer clients to other resources 

when necessary. Staff also provide an outreach information 

service to surrounding communities. 

CRIS is working with Industry Canada and partners in the 

communities to provide the service, Southeast Regional Library 

District in Saskatchewan and the Northern Peninsula/Labrador 

South School District in New Foundland. The sites have been 

in operation for 15 months. 


21

Chair 

Anita Ezzo 

100 Library 

Michigan State University 

East Lansing, MI 48824-1048 

Tel: 517-353-9184 

Fax: 517-432-8050 

ezzoa@msu.edu 

Chair Elect 

Lutishoor Salisbury (Luti) 

University of Arkansas Libraries 

Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201 

Tel: 501-575-8418 

Fax: 501-575-4592 

lsalisbu@mail.uark.edu 

Past Chair 

Carolyn Speakman 

National Center for Food Safety &Technology 


6502 S. Archer 


Tel: 708-563-8160 

Fax: 708-563-8164 


Secretary 

Sharon Fujitani 

CA Polytechnic State University 

Library Reference Department 

San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 

Tel: 805-756-1105 

Fax: 805-756-1415 

sfujitan@calpoly.edu 

Treasurer 

Mary Louise Pusch 

Cargill Inc. 

Information Center. 

PO Box 5670 

Minneapolis, MN 55440-5670 

Tel: 952-742-6788 

Fax: 952-742-6062 

mary-louise_pusch@cargill.com 

Director 

Kevin Adams 

Institute of Environmental Science & Research 


PO Box 29-181 


Tel: 64-3-351-6019 

Fax: 64-3-351-0010 


Director 


University of Illinois Library 

1301 W. Gregory 



Tel: 217-244-2245 

Fax: 217-333-0558 



FAN Division Board of Directors/Committees 

Bulletin Editor 

Heather K Moberly 

102 McElroy Hall 

Oklahoma State University 

Stillwater, OK 74078 

Tel: 405-744-6655 

Fax: 405-744-5609 

moberlh@okstate.edu 

Bulletin Ad Manager 

Linda Maddux 

Willamette University 

Hatfield Library 

900 State Street 

Salem, OR 97301-3922 

Tel: 503-370-6525 

Fax: 503-370-6141 

lmaddux@willamette.edu 

Archivist 






Tel: 814-876-3708 

Fax: 814-863-9684 

alp4@psu.edu 

Membership/Directory Committee 

Anne S. Hurst (Chair) 

University of Georgia Libraries 

Science Library 

Athens, GA 30602-7412 

Tel: 706-542-0155 

Fax: 706-542-7907 

ahurst@arches.uga.edu 

Catherine Jeanjean 

Kansas State University 

126 Hale Library 

Manhattan, KS 66506-1200 

Tel: 785-532-7414 

Fax: 785-532-6144 

cajeanje@lib.ksu.edu 

Fan Web Page Committee 

Susan Hocker (Chair) 

Brill Science Library 

Miami University 

Oxford, OH 45056 

Tel: 513-529-7206 

Fax: 513-529-1736 

shocker@lib.muohio.edu 

Kevin Adams 



PO Box 29-181 


Tel: 64-3-351-6019 

Fax: 64-3-351-0010 


Jean-Philippe Decraene 

Food & Agriculture Organ. of the UN 

Sales and Marketing Group 

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 

00100 Rome Italy 

Tel: 39-065705-2689 

Fax: 39-065705-3360 

JeanPhilippe.Decreane@fao.org 

Duncan McClusky 

College of Agric & Environ Sci 

Campus at Tifton-Library 

PO Box 748 

Tifton, GA 31793-0748 

Tel: 912-386-3833 

Fax: 912-386-7005 

mcclusky@tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu 

International Relations Committee 

Jean-Philippe Decraene 

Food & Agriculture Organ. of the UN 

Sales and Marketing Group 

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 

00100 Rome Italy 

Tel: 39-065705-2689 

Fax: 39-065705-3360 

JeanPhilippe.Decreane@fao.org 

Kevin Adams 



PO Box 29-181 


Tel: 64-3-351-6019 

Fax: 64-3-351-0010 


Nominating Committee 

Linda Maddux 



900 State Street 

Salem, OR 97301-3922 

Tel: 503-370-6525 

Fax: 503-370-6141 

lmaddux@willamette.edu 

Alice Marksberry 

University of Kentucky 

CAER Library 

2540 Research Park Drive 

Lexington, KY 40511-8410 

Tel: 859-257-0308 

Fax: 859-257-0302/0220 

alice@caer.uky.edu 

Dana Smith 

Information and Library Resources Group 

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. 

7300 NW 62nd. Ave. Box 1004 

Johnston, IA 50131-9410 

Tel: 515-270-4199 

Fax: 515-253-2184 

Dana.Smith@pioneer.com 

22

Public Relations Committee 

Stacey Lazarow 

The Iams Company 

R&D Information Research Services 

PO Box 189 

6571 State Route 503 North 

Lewisburg, OH 45338 

Tel: 937-415-8920 

Fax: 937-415-5945 

stacey.lazarow@iams.com 

Procedures Manual Committee 

Pat Wilson (Chair) 


William T. Young Library 

500 South Limestone 


Tel: 859-257-0500 x2171 

Fax: 859-257-9686 

pwilson@pop.uky.edu 

Carolyn Speakman 

National Center for Food Safety & Technology 




Tel: 708-563-8160 

Fax: 708-563-8164 


Lutishoor Salisbury (Luti) 

University of Arkansas Libraries 

Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201 

Tel: 501-575-8418 

Fax: 501-575-4592 

lsalisbu@mail.uark.edu 

Strategic Planning Committee 

Maria A. Porta (Chair) 

Univ. of Illinois-Urbana 

Agriculture Library 

1301 W. Gregory Dr. 

Urbana, IL 61801-3681 

Tel: 217-333-7687 

Fax: 217-333-0058 

mporta@uiuc.edu 

Sharon Schwerzel 

Florida State University 

Dirac Science Library 

Tallahassee, FL 32306-4140 

Tel: 850-644-5534 

Fax: 850-644-0025 

sschwerz@mailer.fsu.edu 

Sue Schultz 

American Farm Bureau Federation 

Public Policy Division 

225 Touhy Ave. 

Park Ridge, IL 60068-5874 

Tel: 847-685-8781 

Fax: 847-685-8969 

sue@fb.com 


FAN Division Board of Directors/Committees 

Vendor Relations/Event Management 

Kara Pedersen 

Farm Bureau Management Corp. 

Library 

5400 University Avenue 

W. Des Moines, IA 50266-5950 

Tel: 515-225-5477 

Fax: 515-225-5419 

kpedersen@ifbf.org 

Valerie Perry 

Agricultural Information Center 

N24 Agriculture Science Bldg North 



Tel: 859-257-2758 

Fax: 859-323-4719 

vperry@pop.uky.edu 

Discussion List Coordinator 

Pat Wilson 


William T. Young Library 

500 South Limestone 


Tel: 859-257-0500 x2171 

Fax: 859-257-9686 

pwilson@pop.uky.edu 

Bylaws Committee 

Richard Wallace (Chair) 

A E Staley Manufacturing Co. 

Research Library 

2200 E. Eldorado Street 

Decatur, IL 62521-1578 

Tel: 217-421-3283 

Fax: 217-421-2519 

rewallace@tlna.com 

Sue Schultz 

American Farm Bureau Federation 

Public Policy Division 

225 Touhy Avenue 

Park Ridge, IL 60068-5874 

Tel: 847-685-8781 

Fax: 847-685-8969 

sue@fb.com 

Awards Committee 

Carolyn Speakman (Chair) 

National Center for Food Safety & Technology 




Tel: 708-563-8160 

Fax: 708-563-8164 


Jean-Philippe Decraene and Kevin Adams 

at the 2001 SLA Conference 

Kevin Adams 



PO Box 29-181 


Tel: 64-3-351-6019 

Fax: 64-3-351-0010 



Univ. of Illinois Library 

1301 West Gregory 



Tel: 217-244-2245 

Fax: 217-333-0558 







Tel: 814-876-3708 

Fax: 814-863-9684 

alp4@psu.edu 

Linda Hanrath 

William Wrigley Jr. Co. 

Library 

410 North Michigan Avenue 

Chicago, IL 60611-4211 

Tel: 312-645-3921 

Fax: 312-644-0081 

lhanrath@wrigley.com 

Los Angeles Conference Committee 

Margaret Merrill 

Virginia Tech University 

University Libraries 

PO Box 90001 

Blacksburg, VA 24062-9001 

Tel: 540-231-2322 

Fax: 540-231-7808 

mmerrill@vt.edu 

23

FFT Publication Deadlines: 

Vol 32 No 4 (MidWinter) Jan 15 2002 

Vol 33 No 1 (Pre-Conference) Mar 15 2002 

Vol 33 No 2 (Post-Conference) Jul 15 2002 

Vol 33 No 3 (Fall) Oct 15 2002 

Vol 33 No 4 (MidWinter) Dec 15 2002 

Advertising: 

Ad copy needs to be black and white 

positive and may be submitted in paper or 

electronic format. 

Advertising Rates: 

Full Page: $125/issue $375/volume 

Half Page: $75/issue $225/volume 

Quarter Page: $40/issue $120/volume 

Please send submissions to: 

Editor: 

Heather K. Moberly 

102 McElroy Hall 

Oklahoma State University 

Stillwater, OK 74078-2013 

Voice: 405-744-6655 

Fax: 405-744-5609 

Email: moberlh@okstate.edu 

Ariel: 139.78.19.173 

Assistant Editor / Ad Manager: 

Linda Maddux 



900 Salem St 

Salem, OR 97301-3922 

Voice: 503-370-6525 

Fax: 503-370-6141 

Email: lmaddux@willamette.edu 

About SLA: Headquartered in 

Washington, D.C., the Special Libraries 

Association (SLA) is the international 

association representing the interests of 

thousands of information professionals 

in sixty countries. Special librarians are 

information resource experts who collect, 

analyze, evaluate, package, and 

disseminate information to facilitate 

accurate decision-making in corporate, 

academic, and government settings. The 

Association offers a variety of programs 

and services designed to help its 

members serve their customers more 

effectively and succeed in an 

increasingly challenging environment of 

information management and technology. 

SLA is committed to the professional 

growth and success of its membership. 


Special Libraries Association assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions 

advanced by the contributors to the Association's publications. Editorial views do not 

necessarily represent the official position of the Special Libraries Association. 

Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the products by the Special 

Libraries Association. 

Subscription Information 

Electronic subscriptions are free. To request email notification of new issues, send a 

message to the FFT Editor with the subject line "SUBSCRIBE FFT." Additionally, notice 

of new issues will be sent to the SLA-FAN electronic discussion list. 

Paper subscriptions are available at no charge to SLA-FAN members. Nonmembers may 

subscribe at a cost of $10 per volume. Requests for paper subscription should be made 

to the FFT Editor and must be "renewed" each year. Checks in US currency should be 

made payable to SLA/FAN and sent to the FAN Treasurer. 

Membership of the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division is approximately 335 

individuals. The FAN newsletter is also mailed to Board Members and Executive Office 

Staff of the Special Libraries Association. We reserve the right to make editorial changes 

as needed for appropriate space constraints or stylistic reasons. 

Food for Thought is published quarterly for the Food, Agriculture & Nutrition Division of 

the Special Libraries Association. 

Food for Thought Annual Report 

By Heather Moberly (moberlh@okstate.edu) 

& Linda Maddux (lmaddux@willamette.edu) 

Many thanks to the our members and their companies who volunteered to 

duplicate and mail issues of FFT in the past year: Laura Baird at General Mills and 

Peter Sidney at Cargill, Inc. 

We gratefully acknowledge our advertisers from the past year: John Wiley 

& Sons; Leatherhead Food RA; Michigan Information Transfer Service (MITS); 

Chemical Abstract Service (CAS); Research Books, Inc., and IFIS. 

The FAN Board approved an increase in FFT advertising rates: Full Page 

$125/issue or $375/volume, Half Page $75/issue or $225/volume, and Quarter Page 

$40/issue or $120/volume. 

The FAN Board reviewed the results of the survey of "Food For Thought 

Format and Distribution Survey" conducted last year. Forty surveys were returned: 

four respondents prefer paper, nineteen prefer electronic, seventeen had no preference 

of format, and three will probably not read FFT if electronic only. The FAN Board 

has approved the transition of FFT from a paper format to an electronic format. 

The electronic publication will be available initially only in a pdf format. An 

html version is being planned in the near future. A print copy of the pdf file will be 

the copy of record for the FAN archives. Print copies will be available at no charge 

to FAN members. Requests need to be sent to the Editor and must be "renewed" 

each year. Paper subscriptions will be available to nonmembers for $10 per year. 

Notice of electronic copies will be sent to the SLA-FAN electronic discussion group 

and to a separately maintained mailing list maintained by the Editor. Please see 

Subscription Information on this page for details. 

Members have expressed interest in helping to develop regularly occurring 

columns. Suggestions include: tours of FAN member libraries, updates from related 

organizations and associations, new and notable resources, subject articles of interest, 

and targeted information from vendors. Please contact the Editor if you are interested 

in a editing a column or submitting a piece for a future issue. 

24

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