Two small grants will make a huge difference at Fort Valley State University. Recently, the Henry A. Hunt Memorial Library received $7,000 from two organizations: United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Library (NAL) and the American Library Association. One grant will change the way agricultural and historical research is accessed at FVSU. The NAL awarded the university with a $4,000 Cooperative Agreement grant to help the library create a digital repository for the College of Agriculture’s research—which is made available through the Agriculture Network Information System’s website. According to Agriculture Network Information System (AgNIC), the Hunt Memorial Library conducts research in the area of chevon, also known as goat meat; however, there is no accessible collective database. AgNIC is a voluntary alliance of members based on the concept of “centers of excellence.” The member institutions are dedicated to enhancing collective information and services among the members and their partners for all those seeking agricultural information over the Internet. Last year, FVSU become the first 1890s land-grant institution and only historically black college and university to receive an AgNIC membership. Other members of the AgNIC alliance—University of Minnesota, Kansas State University and Colorado State University—are dedicated to collecting full-text and web-based agricultural information resources such as forestry, swine and tree fruit. All three universities have multiple catalogs based on studies conducted though FVSU’s goat research program. The research is a well renown among agricultural community little information is available on the web.
“When I travel and tell people I’m from Fort Valley State University, they already know about the goat research we’re doing on campus,” said Dr. Annie Payton, director of Hunt Memorial Library. That means most of its research documents are only available at FVSU. “When you conduct a Google search, most don’t find anything about the research that the College of Agriculture is doing here,” the director says.
