The Lubin Files

Education for Rural People website

Recently a library user requested the book Education for rural development: towards new policy responses.  We found some related resources as well, including a site called Education for Rural People (ERP), a joint effort between FAO and UNESCO.  ERP's publications page lists a variety of books on agriculture, food security, and development, most of which are available in full text online.  (Links provided.) 

African Economic Outlook

Those who work on issues pertaining to Africa may find the website African Economic Outlook to be useful.  The site includes data and statistics on such topics as economic indicators, aid flows, exports, public finances, civil tensions, and more.  In addition, there are analyses and reports on individual countries as well as overarching topics that touch all areas of the continent.  There are four versions of the site: English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The site is the latest incarnation of an annual report previously available only in print.  Its contents come from the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and a network of African think tanks and research centers.

CAB eBooks

The David Lubin Memorial Library has a subscription to CAB eBooks, a collection of over 430 titles.  The subjects covered include agriculture, animal and veterinary sciences, environmental sciences, human health, food and nutrition, leisure and tourism, and plant sciences.  The books are indexed and retrievable as chapters (over 7000 of them), and are presented in PDF format.

To see all of the library databases to which FAO staff members have access, click here.

Springer E-Books

David Lubin Memorial Library has procured free access to Springer E-Books until the 30th of September 2009. Springer provides access to more than 10,000 electronic books on subjects such as: Business and Economics, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Professional and Applied Computing, and more. It is accessible to all the FAO HQ and Field staff via IP recognition.

You can search by keyword or browse by topic or publication type.

What is a kelvin and how do I write it?

For all the science writers out there... take a look at the updated version of The New Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors. It calls itself a style guide for the presentation of scientific information. It’s great for a quick answer to those niggling questions, like how to write a floral formula or whether grasshoppers and cockroaches are in the same order of insects. It claims to reflect widely accepted usage and to follow the recommendations of international scientific bodies such as IUPAC and IUPAP, and give guidance on such matters as spellings (American English and British English), punctuation, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes, units and quantities, and symbols. Can standardization exist in scientific writing? Will it facilitate communication? Is this the tool to help? I look forward to your comments!

The Economists' Voice

FAO staff now has electronic access to the Economists' Voice.  This journal, edited by the Nobel Prizewinner Joseph Stiglitz, aims to be non-technical but sophisticated, giving the economist's viewpoint on issues of the day.  Recent content, for example,  includes articles entitled Time to Change U.S. Climate Change Policy, Proposals for a New Climate Change Treaty System and Do Voluntary Carbon Offsets Work?

Financial Times

Did you know that we have online access to the Financial Times?

It isn't browsable, like the Economist .

Our access to the FT comes through the Proquest database.  If you know what article you're looking for, it's easy to search and find it.

New OECD publications available through Olisnet

The following new e-books are available to those who have Olisnet access.  If you're a FAO staff member and wish to sign up, contact fao-library-reference@fao.org.

The Visible Hand of China in Latin America
This book describes the opportunities and challenges that Latin American economies will face as Chinese importance in the world economy -- and in Latin America's traditional markets -- continues to grow.

The Implementation Costs of Agricultural Policies
This report suggest ways to reduce the costs of implementing and monitoring agricultural policies without compromising the aims of the policies.

Bribery in Public Procurement: Methods, Actors and Counter-Measures
A ground-breaking report that throws new light on the shadowy mechanisms and patterns of bribery in public procurement, and offers insider expertise that governments and international organisations can use to improve their anti-corruption policies.

OECD Sustainable Development Studies
Institutionalising Sustainable Development
This volume contains recommendations for the true “institutionalisation” of sustainable development.

OECD Sustainable Development Studies
Subsidy Reform and Sustainable Development: Political Economy Aspects
This volume uses sectoral case studies to illustrate that achieving change in structural policies such as subsidies depends largely on good governance practices

Agricultural Policy and Trade Reform: The Impact on World Commodity Markets
Using a partial-equilibrium agricultural commodity model with rich policy detail, this study examines the market impacts of agricultural policy reform annually over a 10-year horizon.

Science Direct Downtime

ScienceDirect will be unavailable on Saturday, February 24th for approximately 9 hours starting at 06:00 AM EST (11:00 GMT).  During this time we will be carrying through a large-scale rebuilding exercise on some of core aspects of the underlying technologies, which will help ensure that the system continues to provide a high level of reliability in the coming years.

--Science Direct Customer Service

Electronic Handbooks on Economics

The Handbooks on Economics published by Elsevier are now available electronically through Science Direct.  All computers in HQ can access them directly through www.sciencedirect.com - just click on the H under Browse by title.  The list includes handbooks on Agricultural Economics, Development Economics and Environmental Economics.