Forestry Information at Oxford

Roger Mills

Oxford University Library Services

History

Botany 1621Botany 1621Agriculture 1870Agriculture 1870Forestry 1905Forestry 1905 Imperial Forestry Institute 1924Imperial Forestry Institute 1924Present ‘Worthington’ building 1950Present ‘Worthington’ building 1950Plant Sciences 1985Plant Sciences 1985OULS 2000OULS 2000

Forestry and Empire

SIR WILLIAM SCHLICHSchlich spent 19 years in India and founded

the journal Indian Forester (1874) and the Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun (1877)

Inspector-General of Forests in India 1883, succeeding Sir Dietrich Brandis (1824-1907)

Moved to Royal Indian Engineering College in England as professor of forestry in 1885

Became British subject 1886

Forestry at Oxford

Forestry School originally at Royal Indian Engineering College moved to Oxford from Coopers Hill, Windsor in 1905

Sir William Schlich moved with it – and brought his library

Schlich

With grandson Humphrey Searle - composer, d. 1982

Imperial Forestry Institute

Founded 1924Schlich’s successor, R.S. Troup,

became first directorLibrary collected field reports from

Imperial Forest Service and began indexing them in Current Monthly Record of Forestry Literature

IUFRO and information

International Association of Forest Research Institutes founded 1893 (renamed International Union of Forest Research Organizations 1929)

Article 2 of 1929 Statutes: …to work…for the unification of terminology…to provide for the creation of an international forest bibliography…

Secretariat in Vienna

Flury and Troup

Forest Bibliography: an International Decimal Classification on the basis of Melvil Dewey’s system published in German 1933, translated into French and English 1936 (‘Flury System’)

Prepared by Dr Philipp Flury (Birmensdorf) (secretary of the Bibliograpical Committee)

Chaired by Prof RS Troup (Oxford)

Imperial Forestry Bureau

Began publishing Forestry Abstracts 1938Developed Oxford System of Decimal

Classification for ForestryWorked with FAO and IUFRO in developing

terminologiesAs CABI has a formal partnership with

Oxford University

Information Products

CAB Abstracts / TREECD / ForestScience

ProspectForestry CompendiumGFIS

Microfilm and Digitisation

Microfilming programme 1964-1998

Succeeded by: Oxford Digital Library for Forestry

in association with: Commonwealth Forestry Association CABI FAO OFI

Herbaria

Xylarium (Wood collection)

IdentificationTestingProperties

Some samples now being digitised

Library http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/isbes/

200,000 items4000 microfilms6000 serialsWorldwide enquiry serviceDocument deliveryTrainingConsultancy

Forest Research

Dept of Plant Sciences http://www.plants.ox.ac.uk Oxford University Centre for the Environment (OUCE)

http://www.ouce.ox.ac.uk Environmental Change Institute UK Climate Impacts Programme

UK Forestry Commission http://www.forestry.gov.uk/research

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew http://www.kew.org/ Natural England http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/

Forest Science Database

Available on subscription from CABIAbstracts all forest-related literature

held by OFIS

http://www.cabi.org/AllOtherProducts.asp?SubjectArea=&PID=114#

Forestry Compendium

Available on subscription from CABISearchable encyclopaedia of information

from many sources

http://www.cabi.org/AllOtherProducts.asp?SubjectArea=&PID=105

PROSPECT

Wood Properties DatabaseFree download from

http://www.plants.ox.ac.uk/ofi/prospect/index.htm

International Activities

IUFROCABIFAOBritish CouncilWorld Bank

IUFRO Information Services and Knowledge Organization: Unit

6.03.00 – aims:to create networks among information professionals to coordinate efforts in the field of information

services to contribute to the organization of knowledge

through terminology, classification and indexing to evaluate and introduce latest technologies in

communication and information services to strengthen the geographical diversity of

information exchange, partly through partnerships

http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-6/60000/60300/

Conferences

Presentations, sessions and side events at major scientific congresses, e.g.IUFRO CongressWorld Forestry Congress

Technical sessions for information specialistsOne-off eventsWithin larger conferences

Networks

International Directory of Forest Information Services: Libraries, Documentation Centres and Subject Specialists

Online at http://iufro.forintek.ca/Free registration

http://iufro.forintek.ca/

GFIS

Global Forest Information Servicewww.gfis.netOxford is information provider and was

member of development task forceInternational support to be provided

through library network

GFDCGlobal Forest Decimal ClassificationA tool for organising and retrieving electronic

and paper documentsRevision of ‘Oxford Decimal Classification for

Forestry’ 1953Recommendations for further revisions can

be made via websiteAvailable in English and German; French and

Spanish versions in preparationProposals for other languages welcome

http://iufro.forintek.ca/GFDCDefault.aspx

Consultancy

Setting up forest information networks Ghana Forestry Information NetworkICFRE (Indian Council of Forestry Research

and Education)

Training

Graduate traineesInternsProfessional Fellows

Publishing

Contributions to information science literature

Distribution of OFI PublicationsCreation of digital archive

OFI Publications - then

…and now

Available from

www.nhbs.com

At your service!www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/isbes/forestry