Modern Wild Faunal Resource System Management
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See Library Resources and The Rural Knowledge Base.
Few of us would want to go to a doctor who is not subscribing to many journals in his or her specialty. Similarly, few clients or the tax-paying public want their professional wildlife resource specialists to be "behind" on ideas, techniques, principles, and the latest development in cost-effective strategies.
Wildlife resource managers need to have extensive libraries.
They need ready access to local and state libraries (see the phone book or try to get an address through www.Google.com or www.AltaVista.com.
They need to have a place on www.Amazon.com for easy book acquisition. Book purchases are legitimate professional expenses (for tax purposes).
The Internet provides an enormous information resource and "personal" library.
The Encyclopedia Britannica is virtually "on your shelf" for it is freely available via the Internet.
The Wildlife Reference Service is important.
The hypertext Encyclopedia of Southern Appalachian Forest Ecosystems is invaluable.
The Fish and Wildlife Service Manual, Director's Orders, and National Policy Issuances are available on the Internet.
Nevertheless, most wildlife managers do not have ready access to libraries and maintaining a personal library is a good idea, probably essential.
The personal library usually includes agency publications, magazine "tear-outs", copies, and reprints (printed papers that are requested by mail or email from authors of papers in technical journals). Books in the personal library are usually maintained separately and are rarely so numerous that a filing system is needed for them.
The recommended procedure for filing small technical booklets, copies of papers, and reprints is to number each one sequentially as it comes into the office. Sequential numbering and physical filing saves space, reduces finding time, and reduces replacement or re-filing time.
Then comes the hard work. It is wonderful if secretarial assistance is available. Volunteers may be willing to help out. Filing time, like slow time for getting gasoline or haircuts, must become a natural part of life. It is part of the normal, natural life of the resource professional.
About 90% of wildlife managers (in early 2000) use commercially available bibliography software like EndNote or Papyrus. A few designed their own databases using access or even data merge files in Word Perfect. All of them made fields for author,second and third author, publication year, title, journal title, and key words for sorting. Another field may be used to designate whether the item is a book (etc.) if the same filing system is used for the entire library. Some people filed papers by author or subject (but this quickly breaks down as the library expands and as interests and assignments change). A few filed by subject and referenced their location in the database. Fewer still, only one or two out of 30, used some sort of computerless filing system with index cards as their database.
Cooperative efforts among groups of wildlife professionals (for example, you maintain a library on rangelands, I'll maintain one on wetlands) has some major advantages. Collecting and maintaining a personal library is expensive. It is a cost of business, but usually costs can be reduced.
Research is expensive.
Try ignorance!
Use www.Google.com or other search engines.
Go to the top.
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Last revision January 17, 2004.