About this Bibliography
This bibliography results from a project to microfilm significant source materials bearing the history of Wisconsin agriculture and rural life through 1945. This was the Wisconsin portion of the National Preservation Project for Agricultural Literature, a program of the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN) funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH Grant No. PA-22859-96.) Work on the project began in July 1996 and it was completed in December 1998. Further information on the National Preservation Project for Agricultural Literature is available at http://www.usain.org/Preservation/preservinitiative.html.
The first task of the Wisconsin project was to identify candidate material for preservation. The search was limited to printed monographic or serial publications that were not adequately preserved previously. This excluded manuscript and archival material, daily and weekly newspapers, legislative and census documents, agricultural experiment station and extension service publications, commercially-published county histories, and (with some exceptions), very brief pamphlets. With such major exclusions, this bibliography cannot be considered comprehensive.
Sources from which the bibliography were drawn are:
- Catalogs and shelflists of the libraries on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, especially the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, Steenbock Memorial Library, and Memorial Library,
- The online catalog the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., which includes the holdings of thousands of libraries around the world,
- The online catalog of the Research Library Group, which includes many of the United States libraries not included in the OCLC catalog,
- The catalog of the Milwaukee Public Library,
- Dissertation Abstracts International,
- A variety of published and manuscript bibliographies dealing with agriculture and/or Wisconsin, and
- Contacts with librarians throughout the state.
The list of candidate publications was reviewed by a panel consisting of William Cronon, Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies; John O. ("Jack") Holzhueter, Researcher and Editor at the Wisconsin Historical Society; John Jenkins, University Historian, University of Wisconsin-Madison; George Sledge, Emeritus Professor/Associate Dean, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and John Koch, the Steenbock Memorial Library Librarian who compiled the initial working bibliography. Each reviewer received a list of 492 serials and a list of 1856 monographs or pamphlets. (A separate list of 1300 theses and dissertations was not reviewed, since the reviewers agreed that there was more than enough material to preserve without including them.) The results were tabulated, and an attempt was made to arrange for the microfilming as much of the high-ranking material as possible. Chris Anders of Steenbock Library assisted in compiling the initial bibliography and tabulating the rankings. Sue Baumgartner of Steenbock Library supervised the acquisition of material chosen for microfilming, colating and preparation for microfilming, and return of materials to lending libraries.
On the bibliographies, microfilmed material is indicated by USAIN. Copies of films were deposited in the University of Wisconsin Memorial Library Microforms/Media Center and the United States National Agricultural Library.
When appropriate, a code indicates where the item is held
- ARCHIVES - University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives and Records Management Service, 434 Steenbock Library, 550 Babcock Dr., Madison, WI 53706; 608-262-0428
- GEOL - University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology and Geophysics Library, 1215 W. Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706; 608-262-8956
- GIANNINI - Library, The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 248 Giannini Hall #3310, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3310; 510-642-7121
- MAXKADE - Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, 901 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI 53705; 608-262-7546
- MEM - University
of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Library, 728 State St., Madison,
WI 53706; 608-262-3193
- MILWPUB - Milwaukee Public
Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53233, 414-286-3000
- PLANTPATH - University of Wisconsin-Madison Plant Pathology Library, 584 Russell Labs, 1630 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706; 608-262-8698
- SML - Steenbock Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550 Babcock Dr., Madison, WI 53706; 608-262-9635
- USAIN - These are available in microfilm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Library Microforms/Media Center and through the United States National Agricultural Library.
- WHS - Wisconsin Historical Society Library, 816 State St., Madison, WI 53706; 608-264-6535
University of Wisconsin-Madison master's and doctoral theses and dissertations are held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Library. Bachelor's theses in historical topics are usually held by the Wisconsin Historical Society Library. Bachelor's theses in non-historical topics are usually held by University of Wisconsin Archives.