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TIC Annual Report 2009 Now Available
The third Annual Report of the Turfgrass Information Center is now available. The report is called TIC Annual Report 2009 and is linked from the TIC public website. Highlights for the year include:
- 1.3+ million search results presented
- 41% of TGIF records now link to full text
- 15,000+ new TGIF records
- 20 TIC-hosted websites for full-text content
- 60+ academic subscribers worldwide
- 10 organizations with blanket-access arrangements to TGIF
Let's talk at GIS in San Diego!
We hope to see many TGIF users, supporters, and, in particular, potential cooperators during the Golf Industry Show in San Diego later this week. In particular, here are some discussion points we'd like to talk with you about:
Cliff Haka, Director of the MSU Libraries, and I (Pete Cookingham) will be based out of the USGA Green Section booth, #2747, and look forward to seeing you there. Alternatively, email me (cooking1@msu.edu) if you'd like to have a sit down discussion before or after show hours; or we'd be glad to visit you if you're tied down on the show floor; or especially if you have to do duty time in a hospitality event.
- Digitization projects with organizations or publishers
- Blanket access agreements for groups or corporations
- Donor recognition opportunities online *this is a new possibility*
- Using TGIF
In any case, we do look forward to seeing many of you in San Diego!
Special thanks to the Green Section for carving out some space for us.
(poc)
TGIF Behind the Curtain: The Dynamics of Descriptives
Whether you are a long-time subscriber to the Turfgrass Information Center (TIC) or a more casual newcomer you may wonder how all this information on the topic of turfgrass appears here. Other questions such as why are there differences between one record and another or what exactly makes up a record may occur to users of the Turfgrass Information File (TGIF) at any stage of involvement. The purpose of this series of blog entries is to explain what is behind TGIF; and specifically this blog entry explores the topic of what makes up a descriptive record whether it is from a periodical, book or from the web.
TGIF is a database of turf related records for research items and management assembled and available by subscription or blanket arrangement. Before any additional data, such as indexing terms or abstracts are added, an initial descriptive record must be created by a TIC employee. Descriptive records come from a variety of sources including newsletters, magazines, scholarly journals, books or book chapters as well as articles from the Internet. The one commonality is the topic of turfgrass.
When inputting records, materials are prioritized by their publication date and the value and quantity of turf related materials contained in them. Current publications receive higher priorities, while older publications, dating from the mid 1980’s back to the 1800’s are “retro-processed”. Retro-processing is a important function within the database as it adds many valuable resources to TGIF that may be exclusive to the James B Beard Turfgrass Library Collection, the O.J. Noer Memorial Turfgrass Collection, institutional libraries or to turfgrass researchers/professionals personally. With both processes, TIC inputs recent information while simultaneously inputting and updating older records that are relevant to turfgrass.
Employees take each selected item and create a record for it within the database. We include vital information found within each item and that may include, but is not limited to:
-Title
-Author
-Author Affiliation
-Page Numbers and Length
-Section/Column names
-Additional Notes (such as pictures, tables, figures and graphs)
-Web URL and access conditionsAfter the descriptive portion of the record is complete, it is given a record number in the database. After all of the selected articles in a publication are input, the records then go to proofing where another descriptive employee ensures that all of the data is accurate and has been properly input and formatted.
Future blog entries will discuss abstracting, indexing, the record selection process, and more!
New Feature Quickly Identifies Records with Abstracts and Keywords
The default TGIF record display format is “Brief Table”. When this table display debuted several years ago, it vastly improved the space efficiency of how records were displayed. If users wanted more information than was being displayed in the table format, they would click the
button to see the additional information contained in the record, read the abstract or assess the assigned keywords. This could be frustrating to users, however, as not all records in TGIF have abstracts written or keywords assigned.
Now, TGIF users will be able to immediately tell if by pressing
will display under the
.
New Digital Archive Site – The Grass Roots
The Grass Roots is the Official Publication of the Wisconsin GCSA. The earliest versions of the now storied magazine began in the 1970’s as a simple membership newsletter. In 1984, Monroe Miller volunteered for the Editors position and the publication quickly expanded into a true educational and communications tool for the membership. During Mr. Miller’s tenure as Editor, information about turf research, reports on monthly meetings, national meetings, and the always anticipated feature articles were eagerly read by the membership. In 2008, Mr. Miller retired as Editor and the long time Business Manager of the Magazine David Brandenburg took over. Today’s Grass Roots is still published bi-monthly with content and features that most of our members read cover to cover to advance their careers and to stay informed of events and information throughout Wisconsin and beyond. The Grass Roots has received numerous awards from the GCSAA over the years for Best Chapter Publication with a volunteer editor. The success of this publication is due to quality writing, dedication by talented volunteers, and gracious support from companies in the turf industry that help offset the publication costs by advertising.
We hope you enjoy reading the archived editions of The Grass Roots. It provides a unique insight to the past of our industry, and details the actions of former members and decision makers that shaped the path to where we are today.
This restricted-access archive, an ongoing cooperative project of the Wisconsin Golf Course Superintendents Association and the Michigan State University Libraries, will feature The Grass Roots content from 1975 to the present less 1 month. WGCSA members may access it through the member-only section of the WGCSA website. TGIF subscribers may access it by logging in to TGIF, choose Browse Full-Text Journals, then click on The Grass Roots.
TIC Adds Over 15,000 Records in 2009!
Happy New Year!
TIC has concluded a stellar year in terms of record creation – 15,049 records were created for the year. This marks the largest number of records to be input for the entire decade, surpassing the next-highest year (2007) by almost 3,000 records. As the vast majority of the record creation work is handled by student employees, these dedicated people deserve a huge round of applause for a job well-done.
Not only was 2009 a year of record-breaking (ha-ha) achievements in terms of record creation, it also saw the addition of full-text searchability to tens of thousands of records through the “Dig Deeper” option, two new publicly-accessible electronic resources launched (On Course, current and prior year’s materials are public; and Proceedings of the Michigan Turfgrass Conference, a redesign and significant expansion of a previously-available resource), and significant staffing changes.
These highlights and more will be further detailed in the upcoming TIC Annual Report 2009 which should be available in February. Want to receive an electronic copy of this directly emailed to you? Sign up for the Sward newsletter by sending us an email and we will add you to the list!