Databases are proliferating because information continues to be created at a staggering rate. Much of this information is required for optimum performance, perhaps survival, in our jobs, and at home. The availability of good information is essential. "Good" information, in this day and age, must be judged not only by its content, but also by its accessibility. Information is useless if no one can find it when it is needed. Without the landmarks and maps that good database organization requires, the proverbial information highway will get us nowhere.

The National Agricultural Library is a good place to sample some of the many different databases now available in the field of agriculture and to experience the different searching and retrieval systems their creators have made available. These databases vary in content as well as in format. They range from the Library’s card catalog (one of the oldest kinds of databases still in use) to germplasm information databases, accessible and searchable through the Internet.

One of the most specific databases is the Sustainable Agriculture Directory of Expertise, published by the Sustainable Agriculture Network. This database of experts in sustainable agriculture is a good example of valuable information that can be accessed and searched in several different formats. It is printed in book form, with subject and geographical indexes. The Directory has also been put into electronic format, onto computer diskettes and onto the Internet. The same index that appears in the book has been transformed into a keyword machine searchable index for the disks, and for the gopher and the World Wide Web formats.

The Directory has been developed with a specific audience in mind: farmers and field researchers who are interested in obtaining hands-on sustainable agricul-tural information, and who possess a wide range of technological equipment and skills.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Library’s database of databases, called the Agricultural Network Information Center (AgNIC). AgNIC is an electronic source of agricultural databases and information systems available over an international network of networks. Each database or system is described separately in a document called a metadata record that functions much as a card in the card catalog. Clickable links are provided for databases that are Internet accessible.

The list of metadata records may be viewed alphabetically, or may be searched by keyword. For instance, a search on the term "farms" will present you with a list of databases whose description includes the word "farms" somewhere in the text.

The databases will range from a Farm Market directory of active farmers’ markets by state, produced at Purdue University and available on the Internet, to the 1988 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey, a US Census database available on diskette.

A few other databases related to small farm research and activities: