University of Florida's Marston Science Library

The University of Florida's Marston Science Library houses the collections for agriculture, life sciences, engineering, physical sciences, mathematics and earth sciences for the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, Florida. Marston also includes the Documents Department and the Map & Imagery Library. Documents is a regional federal, state, and European Union documents depository serving Florida and the Caribbean. The Map & Imagery Library Collection contains more than 497,800 maps, 266,500 aerial photographs, 2,250 remote sensing images, and 7,215 atlases and reference books. Specialties of the collection include Florida, Latin America, the United States, Africa, and the Holy Land. It is the largest academic map collection in the Southeast, and among the top five academic map collections in the entire United States.

The library endeavors to meet the collection, instructional and reference needs of all Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) faculty, staff and students. IFAS has approximately 17 academic departments, a gradually increasing population of distance education students, more than 67 Florida Extension Services offices, and 13 Research & Education Centers positioned in microclimates from the panhandle down to the Florida Keys.

Marston recently hired an Outreach Librarian for Agricultural Sciences whose primary responsibility is to work with the off-campus IFAS faculty, staff and students to improve communication, marketing and services. All off-campus patrons have electronic access to more than 350 databases, interlibrary loan/document delivery services, course reserves, instructional services, and Instant Messaging reference services. The outreach librarian is also available to visit Research & Education Centers as needed, to present on available library resources and services.

There are several important agriculture collections available through the UF Digital Collections:
USDA Soil Surveys of Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; Historic publications of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station and the Florida Cooperative Extension Service; Aerial Photography of Florida; UF Herbarium Collections

To find out more about Marston and its services, see:
UF Libraries Homepage
UF Library Services & IFAS
Marston Science Library
UF Digital Collections

Articles about services and resources available through UF Libraries:

• Battiste, Anita L. 1998. AgriGator and beyond: agricultural information sources. Florida Libraries 41, no. 4:78-79.
• Haas, Stephanie C., Erich Kesse, and Mark Sullivan. 2005. From the air: the photographic record of Florida's lands. OCLC Systems & Services 21, no. 2:131-139.
• Lee, Catherine W. 1999. Geeksquad to the rescue! College & Research Libraries News 60, no. 8:612.
• Lundgren, Jimmie H., and Denise M. B. Bennett. 1998. The art of electronic service. Florida Libraries 41, no. 6:120-122.

This is the fourth in a series of profiles introducing information services and initiatives related to agriculture. It was contributed by Valrie Davis.

Tags: agricultural information florida Marston Science Library usa