Got this interesting email from Rosslynn Pieters:
All libraries have a history, just like every seed has a story. As a blogger interested in library science, you’re surely a history buff of sorts. And an organizational wiz, for sure. Well, Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), the premier member-supported nonprofit organization for saving and sharing the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, is currently also working on saving and preserving the Heritage Farm library.
What started in 1975 as a homegrown organization by cofounder Diane Ott Whealy, has blossomed into a very active nonprofit with a professional library. While field staff preserves the vegetable and fruit plants, staff librarians and volunteers preserve a collection of books and manuscripts whose topics include sustainable agriculture, organic gardening, genetic diversity and the international food supply. Most recently the library acquired about 500 historically important – and many rare, with some dating as far back as 1586 – books from the library of Robert Becker, a professor at Cornell University. Bill Musser, lead librarian at SSE , is on a quest to download all 4,000 volumes into Library World using the LC classification system. The online library, dubbed “Rosco” in memory of a beloved farm dog at SSE’s Heritage Farm, is available at http://opac.libraryworld.com/opac/signin?libraryname=seedsavers.
