Gardening books
Jane McGary (Mon, 30 Mar 2020 11:45:06 PDT)

"Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of
the flesh." --  Ecclesiastes xii:12

Probably the best way to house a collection of collections, as I think
we're discussing, would be to endow a special collection at an existing
institutional library where there is already a focus on botany and
horticulture. Here in the Pacific Northwest, that might be Oregon State
University in Corvallis. There are several likely institutions in other
parts of the country. However, the endowment would have to be large
enough to support the use of space and a certain number of staff hours,
in perpetuity.

There is a vast amount of useful information in old journals, too. Some
years ago I put together a volume titled "Rock Garden Plants of North
America" for NARGS (Timber Press, 1996). I read through the entire run
from the mid-1930s to that time of the /Bulletin/Rock Garden Quarterly
/and chose articles on specific groups of plants and on plant-viewing
trips to special sites. The latter were especially inspiring. Now the
journal is available online at http://www.nargs.org/, with an index I did (even
more work).

There is always, of course, the danger that digital resources might
become obsolete. I haven't updated my desktop computer for a few years,
and there are websites I can't use with it -- I have to turn to my newer
laptop with its very annoying, phone-friendly system, as I did the other
day to fill out my US census form. Just for physical comfort I prefer
the old desktop and its light-touch, full-size keyboard. And yes, I know
I could update it, but without drop-down menus and other things I'm used
to, I couldn't use it quickly. I do need words, though it was a relief
to get away from DOS prompts.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

On 3/30/2020 10:12 AM, Robin Hansen wrote:

Print matters. Most of you don't realize how poor internet service is in many parts of the US, assuming it even exists. This lack of internet service of good quality is not rare and occurs all over the world. Considering the hit the world economy has taken, damaging infrastructure, destroying jobs and lives and the extent of recovery needed to gain anything like our previous lives, it is worth searching for new homes for our print material.

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