Forestry Information at Oxford Roger Mills Oxford University Library Services

History  Botany 1621  Agriculture 1870  Forestry 1905  Imperial Forestry Institute 1924  Present ‘Worthington’ building 1950  Plant Sciences 1985  OULS 2000

Forestry and Empire  SIR WILLIAM SCHLICH  Schlich spent 19 years in India and founded the journal Indian Forester (1874) and the Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun (1877)  Inspector-General of Forests in India 1883, succeeding Sir Dietrich Brandis ( )  Moved to Royal Indian Engineering College in England as professor of forestry in 1885  Became British subject 1886

Forestry at Oxford  Forestry School originally at Royal Indian Engineering College moved to Oxford from Coopers Hill, Windsor in 1905  Sir William Schlich moved with it – and brought his library

Schlich  With grandson Humphrey Searle - composer, d. 1982

Imperial Forestry Institute  Founded 1924  Schlich’s successor, R.S. Troup, became first director  Library collected field reports from Imperial Forest Service and began indexing them in Current Monthly Record of Forestry Literature

IUFRO and information  International Association of Forest Research Institutes founded 1893 (renamed International Union of Forest Research Organizations 1929)  Article 2 of 1929 Statutes: …to work…for the unification of terminology…to provide for the creation of an international forest bibliography…  Secretariat in Vienna

Flury and Troup  Forest Bibliography: an International Decimal Classification on the basis of Melvil Dewey’s system published in German 1933, translated into French and English 1936 (‘Flury System’)  Prepared by Dr Philipp Flury (Birmensdorf) (secretary of the Bibliograpical Committee)  Chaired by Prof RS Troup (Oxford)

Imperial Forestry Bureau  Began publishing Forestry Abstracts 1938  Developed Oxford System of Decimal Classification for Forestry  Worked with FAO and IUFRO in developing terminologies  As CABI has a formal partnership with Oxford University

Information Products  CAB Abstracts / TREECD / ForestScience  Prospect  Forestry Compendium  GFIS

Microfilm and Digitisation  Microfilming programme Succeeded by:  Oxford Digital Library for Forestry  in association with:  Commonwealth Forestry Association  CABI  FAO  OFI

Herbaria

Xylarium (Wood collection)  Identification  Testing  Properties  Some samples now being digitised

Library  200,000 items  4000 microfilms  6000 serials  Worldwide enquiry service  Document delivery  Training  Consultancy

Forest Research  Dept of Plant Sciences  Oxford University Centre for the Environment (OUCE)  Environmental Change Institute  UK Climate Impacts Programme  UK Forestry Commission  Royal Botanic Gardens Kew  Natural England

Forest Science Database  Available on subscription from CABI  Abstracts all forest-related literature held by OFIS

Forestry Compendium  Available on subscription from CABI  Searchable encyclopaedia of information from many sources

PROSPECT  Wood Properties Database  Free download from

International Activities  IUFRO  CABI  FAO  British Council  World Bank

IUFRO  Information Services and Knowledge Organization: Unit – aims:  to create networks among information professionals  to coordinate efforts in the field of information services  to contribute to the organization of knowledge through terminology, classification and indexing  to evaluate and introduce latest technologies in communication and information services  to strengthen the geographical diversity of information exchange, partly through partnerships

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Conferences  Presentations, sessions and side events at major scientific congresses, e.g.  IUFRO Congress  World Forestry Congress  Technical sessions for information specialists  One-off events  Within larger conferences

Networks  International Directory of Forest Information Services: Libraries, Documentation Centres and Subject Specialists  Online at  Free registration

GFIS  Global Forest Information Service   Oxford is information provider and was member of development task force  International support to be provided through library network

GFDC  Global Forest Decimal Classification  A tool for organising and retrieving electronic and paper documents  Revision of ‘Oxford Decimal Classification for Forestry’ 1953  Recommendations for further revisions can be made via website  Available in English and German; French and Spanish versions in preparation  Proposals for other languages welcome

Consultancy  Setting up forest information networks  Ghana Forestry Information Network  ICFRE (Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education)

Training  Graduate trainees  Interns  Professional Fellows

Publishing  Contributions to information science literature  Distribution of OFI Publications  Creation of digital archive

OFI Publications - then

…and now Available from

At your service! 