SUNCAT welcomes Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), our newest Contributing Library. Just over 650 of their serial records have been loaded into the service. This takes the total number of libraries in SUNCAT to 104, plus the CONSER database, ISSN register and Directory of Open Access Journals.
Who better to introduce SASA and its library service than Jill Tivey, SASA’s Librarian & Information Manager.
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Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), formerly the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency, is a Division of the Scottish Government’s Agriculture, Food and Rural Communities Directorate and its primary role is to provide scientific services and advice in support of Scotland’s agriculture and wider environment. Although much of its work is in support of arable agriculture, it also provides services in food safety, wildlife management and crime whilst providing specialist advice to Scottish Ministers. SASA occupies a world class laboratory, glasshouse and experimental farm facility on the outskirts of Edinburgh. More about SASA’s history from the early days of seed testing and seed potato classification in Edinburgh in 1913 through post-war expansion to the present, can be found on the SASA website.
Library staff: Jill Tivey (back right) and Catrina Moir (front right) with customers: Tracy Leslie (front left) and Laura Bowden (back left).
The Library provides support to SASA staff in their work and also an enquiry service for the public. The Library’s international collections focus on agricultural science, particularly: seed and variety testing; potato pathology; plant health; entomology; nematology; pesticides; and control of vertebrate pests. The oldest print journals held date back to the 1890s – Transactions of the British Mycological Society (1896 – 1988) and the Journal of The Board of Agriculture (1894 – 1918) – however current titles include Genetic Resources & Crop Evolution, Nematology, Outlooks on Pest Management, Seed Science Research, and Trends in Biotechnology. The longest continuous runs held are the Journal of Agricultural Science (1905 to present) and Phytopathology (1911 to present) plus there are titles which have changed their name along the way such as American Potato Journal (1926 to 1997) to American Journal of Potato Research (1998 to present). Some of the perhaps lesser known journals held include the Entomologist’s Record & Journal of Variation and Scottish Beekeeper. Historical material from both the UK and overseas also includes reprints and pamphlets from the late 19th century onwards. SASA Library holds official publications from Scottish and UK bodies where relevant to SASA’s work.
SASA Library is open to researchers for reference purposes only. For more information about SASA Library, please contact library@sasa.gsi.gov.uk.Â
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SUNCAT would like to thank Jill for writing this post. If you would like to write a post on your SUNCAT Contributing Library and its serials collections or would like to join SUNCAT please let us know.