STRAIT to the future

8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference

From farm gate to subject gateway

Ruth McIntyre and Ling Heang
Kondinin Group

Keywords: agriculture; classification schemes; thesaurus construction

Abstract

The development of resources to support a fee-based information service, including a large body of indexed material, and a collection of information on a defined subject area, led to the identification of the need for standardised national tools for classifying, indexing and applying subject headings to agricultural extension information.

The authors have been funded to develop a thesaurus of agricultural extension terms, and to update the Agdex classification scheme. This project has been carried out over a two-year period, with input from other information specialists from all parts of Australia. The products are widely accepted, and are set to become standards for managing agricultural extension information in Australia and are being applied to printed and digital material.

The development process will be described, including applying for funding, consultation with participants, review by industry and adoption.

Introduction

This paper is an account of the development of a thesaurus and classification scheme for Australian agriculture. This is a short story, which takes place in a period of less than five years.

The story begins in the setting of Kondinin Group, a not-for-profit information provider for Australian farmers and agribusiness. As a preamble to the story we will briefly describe Kondinin Group, then discuss the process that led to Kondinin Group deciding to develop and publish the thesaurus and classification scheme, then describe the process of updating the classification scheme and the development of the thesaurus.

Kondinin Group

Kondinin Group's raison d'etre is to provide information to farmers. It was formed in 1955 by a group of farmers in the Kondinin and Corrigin Shires on the WA wheatbelt, 280km east of Perth, who were dissatisfied with the information supplied by the Department of Agriculture and other traditional sources.

Originally Kondinin Group shared pasture improvement information, then started to collect and develop information from farm machinery appraisals. Most farmers don't see other farmers as their competition - their challenges come from the weather conditions, financial and government institutions and the international commodity markets, so they are generally very willing to share their knowledge and experiences with their neighbours and colleagues.

Kondinin Group gradually expanded to other parts of the wheatbelt and in 1977 the Group's first machinery evaluation report was published - this information was so interesting to many farmers that Kondinin Group began to expand rapidly, and its reputation of the 'farmers' watchdog' was established.

Kondinin Group now has a membership of 20 000, with its head office in Perth and branch offices in Wagga Wagga, NSW and Toowoomba, Qld. Kondinin Group is a not-for-profit organisation, and has a staff of 38.

The Group publishes a 90-page monthly magazine called Farming Ahead, which among other farming related articles includes an original Rural Research Report each month. We also publish a weekly commodity marketing newsletter, Profarmer, substantial manuals on topics of interest to farmers, and the Workboot Series of children's books and teachers' kits, as well as providing an information service, FarmLine.

The success of Kondinin Group hinges on one of the essential tools of best practice - feedback. Each year we survey our members in detail through the National Agricultural Survey (NAS), to find out their information requirements, and for background information for our Research Reports and manuals, and to identify research topics for the next twelve months. During the year we also survey members on specific topics - seeking their opinions on subjects ranging from the comfort of ute seats to minimum tillage.

FarmLine information service

It was on the basis of feedback from farmers that the Group established a fee-based information service for farmers. Following two years of planning and seeking support for the project, the real work of establishing the FarmLine information service began in January 1995. At this stage the Group's first librarian, Ruth McIntyre, was appointed. The service was launched on a pilot basis in April 1995, then fully launched in September 1995.

From experience we have found it most practical to have staff with agricultural science and farming backgrounds taking FarmLine inquiries - they can relate well to the inquirers and have a good grasp of the issues.

Inquiries to FarmLine are made by phone and fax, and sometimes by e-mail these days. A FarmLine officer takes responsibility for each inquiry and searches our collections, including our Reference Database, and other sources for information and responds to the inquiry with a written report and copies of relevant information. One or more relevant personal contacts who the inquirer may talk the issue over with are included with the information.

Agricultural extension information

As we were preparing to launch FarmLine, the issue of sourcing agricultural extension information loomed very large.

By comparison with information providers in other industries, for example medicine and law, as providers of practical 'agricultural extension' information, Kondinin Group works in quite a difficult information environment.

Agricultural research information is relatively easy to come by - international and Australian databases of published research and work in progress serve the research community well. Extension information isn't so readily available. Very little extension information that is generated overseas is of value to Australian farmers - as the climate, soil and farming practices in Australia are quite different from anywhere else. Each state Department of Agriculture or Primary Industries produces information of relevance to primary producers in its state, and this information is provided to farmers by extension/development officers, and by various direct mail and phone/fax services, and now through the Internet.

However that's where Kondinin Group steps in - to coordinate information on a national level, as there is no national formal communication mechanism to distribute information to Australia's approximately 90 000 broadacre farmers. These farmers are generally small businessmen who have very specific information needs.

Organisation of the FarmLine collection

To support the FarmLine information service, a collection of information was developed in record time, just over three months. The first steps taken were to acquire as much information as possible from the various state Departments of Primary Industries and Agriculture. This could be delivered to our clients by post or fax - with copyright clearance provided by our document delivery licence with the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Most of this information was received already classified, using the Agdex classification scheme. We opted to organise our collection using this classification scheme, as it is infinitely more detailed for this subject area than any other classification scheme, having been specifically developed with agricultural extension in mind.

As mentioned earlier, the provision of Australian agricultural extension information isn't well supported by commercial databases and structures. For FarmLine to have ready access to the material in our collections, we needed to create our own database of indexed articles. Kondinin Group's reputation is founded on the machinery information in its magazine and manuals. To access all this information, we individually indexed every article in the current Kondinin Group manuals and our magazine since 1990 and developed a database of publications that we call the Reference Database. In the Reference Database we also index other selected agricultural extension publications. We now have 32 000 records in this database.

The choice of thesaurus to be used for indexing was quite straightforward. The CAB Thesaurus (CAB)[i] had already been selected as the most useful by several state Departments of Agriculture and the detail and currency it was able to offer far surpassed anything else that we were aware of. We quickly found that the CAB Thesaurus, which originated in the UK, and includes additions from the USA, had some serious shortcomings for our purposes - for example industries that are strong in Australia, such as wool, were not covered in sufficient detail. Other terminology was not appropriate to Australia - for example to an Australian farmer a combine is a seeding machine, in the UK and USA it is a harvester.

We also needed to allow for the client focus of FarmLine. FarmLine operators tend to search our databases using the language that the inquiry is made in. If we were to index the information using rather stilted terminology, rather than the terminology used every day in the industry, there is no way the FarmLine operators could track it down. These factors led to the development of an in-house keyword list based on the CAB Thesaurus - currently our keyword list includes 3 500 terms from the CAB Thesaurus, 1 700 brand names (including machinery models) and 2 000 original terms specific to Australian agricultural extension.

Thesaurus and classification project

By mid-1996 we were progressing well developing our FarmLine collections. However we were also realising the shortcomings of the current tools available to librarians and information specialists working in our industry - the lack of a standard thesaurus to index and catalogue Australian agricultural extension literature, and the out-dated nature of the Agdex classification scheme. Whilst being aware of these shortcomings we were also looking ahead to the next phase of FarmLine - online access to the FarmLine information service.

As a logical foundation to sound information management for agricultural industries we applied to the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) for funding to develop and publish our thesaurus, and to update the Agdex classification scheme, to include new technologies and commodities. This process of applying for funds was very arduous - not least because this was a new area for the funding body to be involved in. Before funding was granted we were required to contact all of the state Departments of Primary Industries and Agriculture and other agricultural information providers for their feedback on the proposed project, and indications of their level of support.

Of course this was a wonderful opportunity for networking in our industry. Even if the research funds were not granted the very fact that Kondinin Group was interested in undertaking some research and development in this field was a very good public relations exercise. As a new player in the agricultural information management scene we had previously been regarded with a degree of scepticism.

In September 1997 substantial funding for our thesaurus and classification project over a twenty-one month period was approved. Ruth McIntyre was to be principal investigator for the project, and Ling Heang the other major researcher.

Project management

While Ruth McIntyre and Ling Heang have worked co-operatively on this project, to manage the project effectively it was decided that Ruth would handle all the communications for the project, and take principal responsibility for developing the revised edition of Agdex, and Ling would be responsible for developing the thesaurus.

Our research grant from RIRDC was on the condition that we encourage participation by as much of the industry as possible. We have always been very positive about this aspect of the project, as we regard 'ownership' by potential users as crucial to the adoption of the products.

In December 1997 we sent an initial survey to all the likely interested parties. Those who expressed an interest in either or both aspects of the project were then sent a detailed survey on the relevant aspects of the project. In the first half of this year we held meetings with the participating organisations - the most extensive of these were workshops held at the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland, with representatives from the DPI and Infoscan Pty.

Following those meetings we developed an e-mail discussion group for each aspect of the project. This has meant there is a high level of consultation, with debate on some obscure terms, for example, derived breeds of beef cattle versus stabilised cross breeds and combination breeds.

Drafts of both the updated classification scheme and the thesaurus were sent to all interested participants in the project in late 1998, and returned in February, to enable recommendations, if accepted, to be included in the published versions.

Agdex classification scheme

The updating of the Agdex classification scheme has been quite contentious - with opinions varying in the small circle of agricultural information providers as to whether it was worth revising. With the development of electronically stored information the value of classification schemes is being widely questioned.

Agdex was originally developed in the USA and published in 1959, to enable extension officers and farmers to file their information efficiently. In the 1970s Agdex was adapted for use in Australia as a co-operative project by the state Departments of Agriculture, in particular NSW Agriculture and Agriculture Western Australia. Agriculture WA published the most recent edition in 1980 [ii]. We visualise the new edition of Agdex being used in the future by information services and extension officers, rather than by farmers.

However the application of Agdex may be greater than we anticipated, at least in Western Australia. A recent Agriculture WA survey of farmers on their use of Agdex found that 59% didn't file their information in Agdex order, which suggests that 41% of WA farmers do use Agdex. This is a higher figure than we had anticipated[iii].. From our survey in December 1997 we are also aware that there is a high level of interest in Agdex among extension officers.

Even in this age of electronic retrieval of information there is still a need to classify and locate printed versions of information - the value of browsing through like material shelved together should not be underestimated. To do this successfully the classification scheme needs to be up-to-date, and Agdex was well and truly out-of-date - as modern farming technology, for example global positioning systems, computers and genetic engineering were not included. Similarly, new commodities were omitted - bush tucker, dairy sheep and emu farming. Another reason for updating Agdex is to assist information specialists and extension officers to relate new information to earlier information - the language may change, however the classification number will provide a link.

Major revisions have been made to several areas of Agdex:

• The vegetation category, which includes native vegetation ranging from forest trees to mosses and mangroves, has been totally redesigned.
• Indigenous plants and animals have been added to enterprise categories to cater for the production of bush tucker, and fruit has been restructured, reducing the European accent of the scheme, and allowing more space for tropical and subtropical fruit.
• Computers are now in the engineering category. Many classifiers had slipped computers into economics, as financial software was one of the first widely used applications of computers on farms.
• An index has been added, to enable users to readily find some of the more obscure terms.

These revisions have been made in consultation with a wide range of participants in the project, particularly in government departments and Kondinin Group's Projects Team.

Kondinin Group published the revised printed edition of Agdex in July 1999, in print and on disc. The full title of this edition is Agdex Adapted for Use in Australia: A Classification Scheme for Agricultural Extension Information. A fee for service online version will be available on our website. This online version will enable subscribers to classify new technologies and industries, and to make suggestions for terms for which they are not able to identify suitable numbers.

Agterms Thesaurus

The full title of the thesaurus published in July 1999 is Agterms Thesaurus for Australian Agricultural Extension Information.

Agterms is to be used in conjunction with the CAB Thesaurus. Most terms in Agterms will be related to a term in CAB Thesaurus, and this relationship will be indicated in Agterms. We have received a positive response from CAB International concerning Agterms.

As with Agdex, Agterms was published in print form and on disc by Kondinin Group in July 1999, and will also be available on a fee for service basis on our website, with a facility for subscribers to suggest new terms for inclusion.

Developing Agterms

The first step in Agterms' development was to analyse the existing keyword list developed for Kondinin Group's Reference Database of indexed articles. All terms originating in the CAB Thesaurus, as well as all personal, brand and model names were removed. Once that step was completed, and concurrently with the consultative process with other organisations, we reviewed the terms, and developed hierarchical relationships between the terms in Agterms and the CAB Thesaurus.

While it was necessary to include terms in Agterms from all aspects of Australian agricultural industries, there were several categories that required more attention:

• Industries that are more highly developed in Australia than in other countries, particularly the wool industry required more detailed terms in Agterms.
• Industries unique to Australia including native foods, flowers and weeds have required original terms to be developed. A number of publications from RIRDC were extremely useful as references for native foods and flowers.
• Various activities relevant to bushfires and bushfire prevention are also included. The Emergency Management Authority kindly allowed us to use the terminology about bushfire management from the Australian Emergency Management Terms Thesaurus[iv].
• Including climatic regions of Australia has been a challenging task. There are two types of weather grouping from the Bureau of Meteorology - one for the meteorological districts and the other is used to calculate district rainfall levels. The meteorological districts grouping was selected as it was used by farmers, in keeping with the selection of terms preferred by extension officers and farmers throughout Agterms.
• Terminology that varies from region to region was a particular challenge. In general, generic terms were selected, despite those terms not being used colloquially in all states. Issues of regional terminology were particularly thorny, and often very amusing for the e-mail discussion group. The classic example was the need to choose between Salvation Jane and Paterson's Curse. Paterson's Curse was chosen because it is widely used in all states except South Australia.

From our December 1997 survey we are aware that Agterms will be widely used by agricultural librarians in Australia. We are particularly pleased that Infoscan Pty has requested that we include their Australian Bibliography of Agriculture (ABOA) identifiers in Agterms. Infoscan produces the premier agricultural research databases in Australia, as published on the Agriculture and Natural Resources[v]. CD-ROM as well as on the Infoscan web site. The ABOA identifiers are a list of terms that Infoscan found it necessary to develop to supplement the CAB Thesaurus, in much the same way as we were supplementing the CAB Thesaurus.

The consultative process

Fortunately Kondinin Group has a team of Project Officers who have expertise in farm machinery. The Project Team proved invaluable, as the wide range of machinery used in various Australian agricultural industries, and the innovative nature of Australian farmers in modifying farm machinery, meant that there was a broad range of terminology to describe the different components of tillage, harvesting, spraying and baling equipment.

We found constant consultation through the e-mail discussion group was extremely useful. For example, when compiling climatic regions for Australia, e-mails were forwarded to a number of climate specialists who helped resolve the issues.

The inclusion of scientific names (if available) after common names required a high level of attention. Fortunately, there are a large number of guidebooks addressing the various names used in different states. The Agterms discussion group proved useful to gain recommendations regarding reference publications.

When the draft Agterms was completed we were fortunate to have a team of participants to review the publication. Also, a half-day workshop was held with the staff of the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment. This workshop reaffirmed that Agterms will be a useful tool for the management of Australian agricultural extension information. Discussions were also held with the key personnel of Agrigate, the agriculture Internet gateway currently being developed by the Universities of Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland, CSIRO and other participants. Kondinin Group's Project Team (via telephone conferencing) and the FarmLine team of Kondinin Group also offered suggestions to improve Agterms.

A protocol for including new terms in Agterms has been established. A clear procedure for contributors and users is an essential part of the development of Agterms.

Participants not from the field of information management frequently asked how new terms were selected and included. When indexing an article CAB Thesaurus was referred to first, and new terms were considered when there was no existing term. The majority of these were terms required to describe Australian industry.

It is normal practice for librarians to include new terms in a print version of a thesaurus by penciling the terms into the thesaurus in the appropriate alphabetical sequence. This practice often needed to be explained to professionals from other disciplines.

Another frequent question is how a thesaurus is different from a keyword list or an index. This often lead to a lengthy discussion about the use of each aspect of the elements involve, and the development of hierarchies.

The future of Agdex and Agterms

The title of this paper is From Farm Gate to Subject Gateway. The service we are providing through the FarmLine information service is as close to the farm gate as any librarian is likely to get - in fact we are often through the farm gate, hearing sound effects of the farm on the phone as we talk with our clients.

In contrast to this down-to-earth contact, we are planning to integrate the Agterms thesaurus with our information databases to provide farmers with an Internet gateway to agricultural extension information. There are also other major web site developers in the agricultural information sector who are considering adopting Agterms and possibly Agdex as tools to improve the delivery of information on their web sites.

Conclusion

In 1976, just after Agdex was first published in Australia, the Society of Agricultural Editors met in Sydney, and unanimously agreed that Agdex be adopted Australia-wide to classify agricultural extension information. As mentioned earlier, Agdex was not updated after the 1980 edition and as a result of getting out-of-date the various state departments were drifting away from using Agdex.

With Kondinin Group taking on the task of updating of the classification scheme, interest in its use has been revitalised. A case in point is Agriculture Western Australia, who has recently confirmed their continued use of Agdex. Thus with the updating of Agdex, we are again making available a standard which can be used by information providers Australia-wide.

With the publication of Agterms, for the first time Australian cataloguers and indexers will have a standard thesaurus. Each cataloguer and indexer no longer has to 'reinvent the wheel' - agreed terms will be supplied to make their tasks more manageable, efficient and consistent.

Having updated Agdex and created Agterms we are both very excited about the prospects of these two standards, and are very keen to see the continuation of this project on a long-term basis. We regard this project as foundation work for sound information management for agriculture, and indeed believe we have provided tools that will lead agricultural information 'Strait to the Future'.

Authors

Ruth McIntyre BA (USyd) Dip Lib (UNSW) has had a long career in agricultural information, having been Librarian at the CSIRO Pastoral Research Laboratory in Armidale (NSW) and WA Farmers Federation. Ruth is currently Information Resources Manager of Kondinin Group, where she has worked since January 1995.
Ruth has been active in ALIA Special Libraries Section (WA Group) for several years, was ACLIS WA National Councillor July 1997 - December 1998, and is currently a member of ALIA WA Branch Council. In October 1998 Ruth became President of the Agricultural Information Association for Australasia, and in December 1998 she was awarded the ALIA Special Libraries Section (WA Group) Special Librarian of the Year.

Ling Heang MAppSci (Curtin) is currently Indexer at the Kondinin Group. Ling has worked in a range of information centres in Australia and Malaysia including a public library, a state library and a mining library. She has also been involved in online database production as well as working as a freelance researcher.
Ling is an active member of ALIA Special Libraries Section (WA Group). She was a committee member for two years prior to being elected President in 1998. She is also actively involved in Women in Publishing, the Australian Society of Indexers and the Society of Editors.

How can I buy an internet copy of that Agdex?

Kondinin Group published the revised printed edition of Agdex in July 1999, in print and on disc. The full title of this edition is Agdex Adapted for Use in Australia: A Classification Scheme for Agricultural Extension Information. A fee for service online version will be available on our website. This online version will enable subscribers to classify new technologies and industries, and to make suggestions for terms for which they are not able to identify suitable numbers.

References

i CAB Thesaurus, 1995 ed, Wallingford, CAB International
ii AGDEX - adapted for use in Australia, 2nd ed, 1980, South Perth, Western Australian Department of Agriculture
iii Watt, P; Kubicki, T (1998) Communications embracing new technologies. WA Journal of Agriculture,38(4), 99-102
iv Emergency management terms thesaurus - Australian Emergency Manuals Series Part 1: the fundamental manual, 1998. Emergency Management Australia
v Agriculture and Natural Resources CD-ROM, 1999, Melbourne, RMIT Publishing with Infoscan Pty