Special thanks go this month to Jianhua Dong
Who has provided valuable service in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center as graduate research assistant during the past 3½ years.
Jianhua is completing his doctorate in Library and Information Science this semester and already has taken a new Internet-related position in California. The position fits nicely with his dissertation research, which centers on the capabilities of search engines. And this Documentation Center has benefited greatly from his expertise, interest and dedication. The collection has grown 25 percent during his period of service and has become available to many more users, through the searchable web site that he helped develop. We are most grateful to Jianhua, wish him the best and will miss him.
A new Agricultural Communication Case Study web site is now online.
Professor Ricky Telg of the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, University of Florida, has developed it to serve as a resource for students, teachers, researchers and practitioners. You can view it at: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~agcommcase/.
First two case studies deposited here.
This month Professor Telg deposited hard copies of the first two case studies in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, which is serving as repository. These two include:
- “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner” Case Study. April 1995, 59 p. Summarizes efforts by the U.S. Beef Industry and Leo Burnett Company to plan and carry out a campaign of “improving target consumer attitudes about beef and halting declines in their beef usage.” A national beef media plan for 1992-1995 involved a media budget of more than $75 million. Study includes strategic research, objectives and marketing solutions through advertising, direct marketing, retail marketing and foodservice.
- “Building an Environmental Writing Resource.” This writing case study is posted on the Case Study web site. A final report is available in printed form here at the Documentation Center: Nancy Riggs and Peggy Britt (eds.), Exploring Science Writing: An Environmental Focus. Illinois-Indiana and Michigan Sea Grant College Programs, December 1998. 75 p.
Another new document about commodity promotion.
Thanks to Noel Blisard of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, for providing a copy of Evaluation of Fluid Milk and Cheese Advertising, 1984-96. Researchers estimated that gross returns to dairy farmers increased by $5.33 for each dollar spent on generic advertising.
Get a full view of the NAFB Archives.
A new web site permits you to see an index of all materials in the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Archives, which are maintained at the University of Illinois. Here is the URL of this new site: www.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/. Scroll to the NAFB collection.
In addition, you can identify more than 700 articles and reports from the NAFB Archives by searching the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center web site. Use “NAFB” or other broadcast-related subject terms.
We suspect that, through these services, NAFB offers one of the most accessible, user-friendly organizational collections in existence. As one broadcaster put it this week after reviewing the results of a “broadcasters” subject search, “WOW! I am impressed.”
Professional meetings approaching.
Here are the approaching meetings of several professional agricultural communicator organizations:
April 7-9
Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show involving National Agri-Marketing Association and Agricultural Relations Council. Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia.
Contact: www.nama.org
April 25-27
Washington Watch, sponsored by National Association of Farm Broadcasters, Washington, D.C.
Contact: Kelly Lenz at 785-272-3456.
May 3-4
“Communicating Creatively.” Workshop sponsored by the D.C. Region, Agricultural Communicators in Education. White House Conference Center, Washington, D.C.
Contact: www.aceweb.org
May 14-16
West Region Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters, Rochester, Minnesota.
Contact: Donna Schmidt at 507-477-2577.
Notes from grade school English class. Ah, the memories.
“Here is some English to be known. Whom instead of who. Never ain’t. Diagramming also.” (Response from a youngster in English class, cited in: Harold Dunn, The World According to Kids. Spectacle Lane Press, Georgetown, CT, 1992, p. 59)
Best regards and good searching.
Please let us know if we can help you find information and/or if you can suggest documents that we might add to this collection.