USAIN/CBHL 2024 Biennial Meeting

Continuing Fieldwork with NC Cooperative Extension Site Visits: A Research Fellows Update
Hillary Fox and Tisha Mentnech

In 2020, Hillary Fox and Tisha Mentnech received an award to travel to different Cooperative Extension sites in North Carolina as a way to better engage the libraries with Extension professionals. Many factors prevented the travel until two years ago when we were able to finally visit Research Stations to deliver day-long information literacy workshops.

This presentation will highlight our experience in working alongside Extension professionals during these site visits, including what library services and research needs were identified as being the most helpful. We will also provide insight on what we will do differently as these site visits continue as well as why in-person travel is a critical component of truly connecting with Extension. Attendees will have the opportunity to share ideas to help further this work and to share their experiences in working with their state’s Cooperative Extension program.


Highlighting New Farmers of Virginia, a historical Black agriculturalist organization
Inga Haugen and Tom Melton

New Farmers of Virginia (NFV) was founded in 1927 to provide a racially segregated counterpart to the agricultural vocational training programs available to young white farmers through Future Farmers of Virginia. As the latter organization expanded nationally and became Future Farmers of America (FFA), so too did NFV inspire the national organization New Farmers of America (NFA). Though a post-desegregation merger between the FFA and NFA ostensibly increased opportunities for NFA members, the new organization kept Future Farmers of America’s name and most of its white leadership intact. In turn, much of the NFA’s traditions, awards, and identity were either lost completely or subsumed into the broader history of FFA.

This presentation documents our efforts to highlight New Farmers of Virginia’s impact on agriculture in Virginia and beyond through a research guide that integrates Virginia Tech’s materials on NFV’s history, creating a virtual special collection. By foregrounding the NFV and connecting its work to the subsequent national organizations, scholars and community members will have the opportunity to understand the group’s distinct historical significance. The resource also seeks to contextualize the systemic historical marginalization of Black farmers, with an eye towards helping modern practitioners support the needs of non-white farmers and extension members.


Economic Analyses of the Impacts of Seasonal Heat Stress on Dairy Production
Kiri DeBose

The dairy industry is fast reaching a crisis point. While farm managers are accustomed to accounting for tangible costs such as feed, labor, equipment in animal production systems, heat stress is a hidden cost that is often overlooked. Heat stress is particularly devastating to milk production and the overall performance of dairy cattle. Published in 2003, the most trusted and cited source on this topic by St-Pierre, Cobanov, and Schnitkey, is almost 20 years old. There has also been a plenitude of publications published since then that have significantly added to our understanding of how heat stress affects dairy cattle physiology. There have also been changes in production costs, cooling technologies, farm demographics, and heat stress exposure. It is time to reexamine this issue and determine current economic losses with this knowledge to replace those reported in outdated sources. This project seeks to provide a new, comprehensive analyses of heat stress-induced economic losses to the dairy industry. Such analyses would inform researchers, government officials and stakeholders seeking to guide innovation and public policy related to the effects of heat stress.
Citation: St-Pierre, N. R., B. Cobanov, and G. Schnitkey. 2003. Economic losses from heat stress by US livestock industries. J Dairy Sci 86:E52-E77.


Using Digital Learning Objects for Instructional Support for Faculty in Agricultural Sciences: A Pilot Study
Maggie Albro and Hanwen Dong

This research project aims to better understand how agriculture faculty use digital learning objects (DLOs) in their current courses, emphasizing DLOs used for information literacy instruction. The research fellows conducted 14 interviews with agriculture faculty at two land-grant institutions to discuss their instructional practices of incorporating DLOs into their curricula. The research fellows recorded, transcribed, and coded the interviews to identify themes. As a result of the interview and coding process, the research fellows sought to better understand agriculture faculty’s DLO use and how the library can partner with them to create DLOs to improve students’ information literacy skills. The findings of this study will benefit librarians who liaise with agriculture faculty or are responsible for DLO creation.