This is the Library!

It was lovely to meet so many of you at the Annual Meeting and Conference, however this was tempered by the realisation that many of you still don’t know what I do in the Library.

The Library is a fantastic resource and I would love to see you making much more use of it.

In the first instance, it is a collection of over 1,000 publications – I won’t say ‘books’ as a significant number are pamphlets or are in digital format. There are over 500 golf club histories that I have been collecting over the years. The complete catalogue of publications is on the website and you can search by author, title, or keyword – www.eigca.org/library/books

You can borrow most of these publications and we will pay the outward postage, leaving you to only pay for the return. But I’m not hot on overdue notices and, unless another member requests the book, the return can coincide with the Annual Meeting or other such event.

Secondly, we have runs of magazines or journals going back over the 15 years I have been with the Institute, and sometimes longer. These include Golf Course Architecture, the Australian Golf Architecture, the USGA Green Section Record and the STRI Bulletin for Sports Surface Management.

Thirdly, there is the Newsletter I produce for you each month. The most significant part of this is the ‘What’s in the News’ section. This is a digest of all the publications that I have seen during the previous month. I go through all the journals and online newsletters and write a short summary of what each article is about. Some include URLs so you can click through to the article if it is of interest, but in many cases it might just be enough to know the article exists – in the area of turfgrass research for instance. All these references go into a database which is on the website for you to search yourself in the same way as the catalogue – www.eigca.org/library/journals. You do need to be logged in in to access this.

I have prepared a Power Point presentation for the students which enlarges on the contents of the Library and the databases which you might like to look at:

At the AGM, Peter mentioned three things specifically that you would like from the Library:

• Research assistance
• Book reviews from members
• Archive of photos of design styles

I CAN do research for you. I can search through books for specific information, search the journals database and even search the web. Yes, you can search the web yourself but I can save you time by weeding out irrelevant hits and present you with only the websites that answer your enquiry. And that, quite honestly, is the work I really enjoy! Over the years I have researched the work of specific architects, recommended heights of netting on golf ranges, sustainable water management, the value of golf and cart path specifications. I will respond as quickly as I can but please bear in mind that I am only in the office twice a week.

I would LOVE to publish book reviews from members – please get writing! Tell me what book you would like to review and I’ll send you a copy.

Photograph Archive – this is something we are looking into now and I will keep you informed of any progress. Obviously it will require a substantial input from you, especially with the indexing.

You can contact me by email at librarian@eigca.org.

Sue Stranger
Librarian