NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the
Advice on Publications Available.In recent years the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland (DPI) has made major changes to the way it makes technical information available to its clients. One of the innovations has been the production of CD-ROMs. The Australian New Crops Newsletter has an agreement with DPI for relevant articles in the newsletter to be included in their fact-sheet CD-ROMs. In the following article, Dr Allen Hibberd gives details of the technology and of the information currently being included in the fact sheet CD-ROMs.
Dr Allen HibberdThe technology
Compact Disks with Read-Only Memory (CD-ROMs) for use with computers and attached printers give state Departments of Primary Industries/Agriculture/Natural Resources a means of delivering large amounts of information to clients in a form that is easy to use.
CD-ROMs have gained wide public acceptance because of their convenience and cost-effectiveness. Information is easy to find, and searches for specific facts can be rapid and satisfying.
Information providers
Publishing Services Unit of the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland (DPI) is the publisher of a significant and growing body of information and advice via CD-ROM. The information is text-based in fact sheet format.
The innovative and cost-effective use of fact sheets on CD-ROM is the result of cooperation between DPI and other State Departments in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to jointly deliver information about a huge variety of topics on the one disk. The reader has rapid access to much information and advice to assist management decisions in a wide range of subjects.
Information included
The current Version 3 of the PRIME NOTES CD-ROM has about 870 fact sheets from three States. Each Note can be read on computer screen and then printed, if desired, to use in a field, meeting, or classroom situation.
Included are:
State of origin of information on the CD-ROM is emphasised because of differences in legislation and broad regional differences in climate. For example, faba beans and wheat varieties recommended in South Australia may not successfully be grown in Queensland.
How is the CD-ROM useful?
The PRIME NOTES CD-ROM can help advisory staff process enquiries.
Among many topics, the CD-ROM contains various compilations of fact sheets:
A search on the word 'salinity', for example, reveals 49 fact sheets from three states on management, pastures, trees, stock and water. Searching on the word 'nematode' instantly gives the user access to 30 fact sheets.
New or alternative crops
There is basic information on new/alternative crops such as pulses in South Australia, olive production, chilli peppers, Chinese water chestnuts, neem, herbs and new pasture species on the current CD-ROM. In future, relevant material from the Australian New Crops Newsletters may be included following formal approval of the authors and due acknowledgment of the source. For example, recent articles on asparagus in tropical areas were converted to a DPI Farm Note (with the approval of all parties) because of relevance of the information to subtropical Queensland.
Updates
Publishing Services, DPI, and cooperating State Departments are keen to add more relevant information on new or alternative crops to forthcoming PRIME NOTES CD-ROMs. For example, many new DPI Notes on costs and returns for horticultural crops in the Mareeba district of north Queensland are to be added to Version 4 of PRIME NOTES.
More information on more topics will provide users with a greater resource base for their business decisions, and will aid advisory staff in their duties.
Availability
Visitors to many DPI Information Centres, and some Shire Councils and Libraries in Queensland can use the CD-ROM.
DPI Publications (telephone toll free 1800 816 541), NSW Agriculture, Agriculture Victoria and Primary Industries South Australia sell the CD-ROM for $60.00 (post free).
The Internet
DPI Notes are also being progressively placed on the DPI's 'Home Page' on the World Wide Web (Internet). In this global situation, they provide an excellent knowledge base for Internet users interested in issues relating to Australia's primary industries.
Any claims made by authors in the Australian New Crops Newsletter are presented by the Editors in good faith. Readers would be wise to critically examine the circumstances associated with any claims to determine the applicability of such claims to their specific set of circumstances. This material can be reproduced, with the provision that the source and the author (or editors, if applicable) are acknowledged and the use is for information or educational purposes. Contact with the original author is probably wise since the material may require updating or amendment if used in other publications. Material sourced from the Australian New Crops Newsletter cannot be used out of context or for commercial purposes not related to its original purpose in the newsletter
Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email:
r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au[
New Crops Home Page] [New Crops Program] [Australian New Crops Newsletter] [New Crops Publications] [Order Form] [People] [Crop Profiles] [Other Resources]originally created by:
GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF