University Libraries has digitized over 34,000 pages of content for its latest digital collection, the Arkansas Extension Circulars. An award from Project CERES, whose name honors the ancient goddess of agriculture and also evokes the term ‘series,’ provided funding for the project.
The Arkansas Agricultural Extension Service began publishing the Arkansas Extension Circulars in the 1880s. These popular publications covered myriad agriculture-related topics: sewing, gardening and caring for livestock among them. Now, users worldwide can access these guides online.
“One great thing about the Arkansas Extension Circulars is that there are modern-day applications for these publications,” said primary investigator Necia Parker-Gibson. “For example, aspiring gardeners who want to avoid using current herbicides and pesticides can look to the circulars for best practices on doing just that.”
The Circulars are the first in a three-part digitization series. Currently, the Libraries’ Digital Services Unit is working on digitizing the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin. Rather than serving as how-to guides, the Bulletin shows the results of research experiments in agriculture. For example, the best practices for peanut cultivation – a crop of critical importance during the World Wars – or the results of interplanting cowpeas with corn can be found in the Bulletin. An award from Project CERES funded this project, as well.
The Libraries’ third and most recent Project CERES award will fund the digitization of Arkansas Extension Miscellaneous Publications, the third collection of the Arkansas Extension digitization series. These miscellaneous publications include documents such as insect identification guides, surveys of house plans considered appropriate for Arkansas, and documents related to social services, nutrition, gardening and animal care.
“These documents can be used to take a look at historical research, and they also have sociological implications,” said Martha Parker, chief organizer of digitization.
Once digitization is complete, each collection will be provided to the Center for Research Libraries. These collections are organic, meaning new material is made available on the Libraries’ website as soon as it is digitized.
“We are grateful to Project CERES for funding these collections, which will be able to serve many more people now that they are being digitized and made available online,” said Carolyn Henderson Allen, dean of University Libraries.