The Farm Forestry and Agroforestry Research Library

Newsletter No. 1

September 2002

The Farm Forestry and Agroforestry Research Library is a project developed by the JointVenture Agroforestry Program and ANU Forestry. The project is currently building a database of farm forestry and agroforestry research that will be freely available to the agroforestry and farm forestry community; as well as producing a report on directions in farm forestry and agroforestry research in Australia. All people who provide us with information for the project will be sent a free copy of the database and reports on CD when they are completed.

A regular newsletter will be sent to the agroforestry and farm forestry community at different stages of the project, giving information on the progress of the project.

Current news and updates

The Library is now online at http://sres.anu.edu.au/associated/reslib/index.html. The website will be continually updated and provide many links to research on farm forestry in Australia, so bookmark it and keep watching as it develops.

 

We need your farm forestry and agroforestry knowledge The database for the project is being developed and we need researchers, practitioners, extension officers and other professionals to help us make the database as comprehensive as possible. The database will be freely available to all when completed. More details are given on page 2.

 

We need you to tell us about research needs We are asking farm forestry and agroforestry professionals to complete a survey about the priorities for agroforestry and farm forestry research in Australia. More details on page 2.

 

What is the Farm Forestry and Agroforestry Research Library?

 

The Library is a joint project between the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program, and ANU Forestry. It aims to provide extension officers, practitioners and researchers with access to information on agroforestry and farm forestry research through development of:

· A central webpage from which databases and websites containing information on farm forestry can be accessed and searched;

· A database of research on Australian farm forestry and agroforestry, downloadable from the project webpage;

·  A review of the current state of agroforestry and farm forestry research in Australia. The review will identify gaps in current research and research priorities for the future.

 

This should help you to reduce the time you spend hunting down information on agroforestry/farm forestry, and as a result improve your ability to implement improved farm forestry and agroforestry systems.

 

What we need to successfully complete the project…

 

(1) We need information for the project database

You can help us by letting us know of any research or information on agroforestry and farm forestry in Australia that should be included in the database being developed for the project. Everyone who helps us by providing information will receive a free copy of the database and accompanying project reports on CD.

 

Have you, or others you know, conducted a survey, a research trial, produced publications or reports, written papers, or produced other information on aspects of agroforestry and farm forestry? The work may never have been formally published, and may only exist in a report sitting in your office – we want to let other people know it exists through the project database.

 

It is easy to enter information into the database. All you need to do is fill in either:

·        The title and details of particular research projects, trials or surveys or other developments currently underway; or

·        The citation for any reports, papers (including conference papers and journal papers), theses or other publications produced, along with some keywords describing the research, its location if it hasn’t been widely distributed, and, where possible, an abstract.

 

You can enter this information by filling in the forms available on the Database page of the website. 

 

(2) We need you to take part in the survey of agroforestry and farm forestry professionals

Ever wanted to tell people what research needs to be done on agroforestry and farm forestry? Here’s your chance.

 

We want to know what information farm forestry and agroforestry practitioners, extension officers, researchers and other professionals need. What research and information on farm forestry would be most useful to you? What information is currently lacking?

 

You can complete a short survey which will identify priorities for future research into agroforestry and farm forestry. The survey form will be available from early October on Survey page of the project website

 

For more information on the project, contact:

 

Jacki Schirmer
ANU Forestry
Australian National University
ACT 0200
(02) 6125 2623

email: jacki.schirmer@anu.edu.au

Project homepage:  http://sres.anu.edu.au/associated/reslib/index.html