
This Library Has Deep Roots on the FarmBy Brian Norris April 5, 1999Next week (April 11-17) is National Library Week, and one of the world's
most special libraries has "Agricultural" as its middle name. The
National Agricultural Library in
Beltsville, Md., is the world's largest library on the subject. NAL is part of the Agricultural Research
Service, USDA's chief scientific arm, and the librarys links to
scientific research are as plain as the views from its windows. The towering,
14-story library building looks west toward the labs and research fields of the
largest of ARS' 100-plus research locations--the 7,000-acre
Beltsville Agricultural Research
Center. When President Lincoln established USDAin 1862, he noted that its mission would include "to acquire and diffuse
among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected
with agriculture." Accordingly, the first U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture, Isaac Newton,
established an agricultural library in which "the most valuable works
would gradually accumulate by exchange, gift, and purchase, forming a rich mine
of knowledge." Since that time, NAL's knowledge media have shifted from paper and ink to
computers and cyberspace. Its clientele, once mainly U.S. scientists and
farmers, now is global. This "mine of knowledge" is no musty accumulation gathering dust
on the bookshelves. NAL handles 220,000 requests a year from scientists,
teachers, government officials, farmers, business leaders, students and others
around the nation and the world. The NAL treasure trove extends over 50 miles of bookshelves, with 3.3
million books, reports, databases, artifacts, audiovisuals, periodicals and
other items. Growing by upwards of 130,000 accessions each year, the library
has materials in about 75 languages. The computer age has brought NAL new ways of doing business, including
sending out most materials electronically. An extensive web site, offering
access to library staff, products and services, currently receives 11 million
"hits" a year. The web address is: Scientific contact: Pamela Q.J. André,
director, ARS National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Md., phone (301)
504-5248, fax (301) 504-7042, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |