Originally published in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Spring 2002Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Kelly, Julia A.

Letnes, Louise

English

Research Papers in Economics

Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship 
 
Spring 2002  
http://www.istl.org/02-spring/article3.html 
 
AgEcon Search: Partners Build a Web 
Resource 
Louise Letnes 
Librarian 
Department of Applied Economics 
University of Minnesota 
lletnes@apec.umn.edu 
Julie Kelly 
Librarian 
Magrath Library 
University of Minnesota 
jkelly@umn.edu  
 
Abstract 
AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics (http://agecon.lib.umn.edu) 
brings together a variety of literature in agricultural economics in a free web resource. It began 
as a project to capture fugitive working papers, and has evolved into a major web archive for 
literature in the field. Many partners are involved in the endeavor, and it serves as a prototype for 
projects in other disciplines.  
Introduction 
AgEcon Search is a free web resource that includes the full text (PDF files) of working papers, 
conference papers, and peer-reviewed journal articles in the areas of agricultural and applied 
economics. It is used by people in a wide range of settings, including economists, professors, 
farmers, students, and government workers on six continents.  
While the project counts over 40 universities, professional associations, and government 
agencies from around the world among its members, the core of AgEcon Search is a partnership 
between the Department of Applied Economics and the University Libraries at the University of 
Minnesota. Two librarians, one from each unit, serve as coordinators of the project. They 
communicate with users and contributors, prepare documents, work with computer staff from 
their units, encourage new participants, and publicize the project.  
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comAbout AgEcon Search 
The AgEcon Search project began in 1995 as an experiment to see if it would be possible to 
freely deliver worldwide the electronic full text of working papers produced by university 
agricultural economics departments. In the seven years AgEcon Search has been in existence it 
has expanded in size to include over 4,000 papers and in scope to include other literature such as 
papers from meetings of professional organizations and peer reviewed agricultural economics 
journals. Users appreciate the convenience of having the literature of the discipline gathered in 
one place. But, perhaps the most valuable contribution of AgEcon Search is an organized library 
collection that is archived and will be there to serve future users. AgEcon Search is heavily used 
and reaches an international audience with users in over 100 countries from a broad span of 
academic, commercial and government addresses. Each of the papers on AgEcon Search was 
downloaded an average of nearly 50 times during the year 2001.  
The Literature of Agricultural Economics 
Working papers were chosen as the first papers to post because they are a problem literature for 
users and librarians. Agricultural economists share the tradition of working papers with many of 
the social scientists. Working papers contain the first results of new research and are 
disseminated to other researchers as a form of informal review. Generally, after the initial 
presentation, working papers undergo a final revision, often involving some compression of the 
information detailed in the working papers, and are published in more conventional formats, 
most often scholarly journals. Paper copies of working papers are difficult for libraries to collect 
and manage, and expensive for departments to produce and distribute. Conference papers fall 
into this same category of elusive, grey literature and were perfect candidates for electronic 
delivery as well. None of the major indexes for agricultural economics literature (CAB 
Abstracts, EconLit and AGRICOLA) cover the working paper/conference paper literature well, 
making it difficult for users to find out about or obtain these papers. Pulling together this elusive 
literature into one database has helped to fill a gap in the indexing of agricultural economics 
literature.  
Partnerships Got the Project Started 
The idea for AgEcon Search came about, according to one of the founders "in one of those 
magical moments that sometimes happens without any prodding, somewhere in my brain an 
Internet thought collided with a working paper thought and produced an Internet file of working 
papers. What could be more perfect for the Internet, what could be more perfect for the 
departments, and finally, what could be more perfect for libraries?" (Rodkewich & Letnes 1995). 
The agricultural economics librarian at the University of Minnesota's Magrath Library and the 
librarian in the Department of Applied Economics at the University Minnesota, started the 
project on a Gopher server with copies of WordPerfect papers from the University of 
Minnesota's Applied Economics Department. This initial project was successful and the 
appearance of the World Wide Web and Adobe Acrobat PDF files made the whole project much 
easier to manage and expand.  
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comBased on the success and popularity of the electronic delivery of papers from Minnesota, several 
other groups were approached for involvement in the project. Information about the project, 
along with an invitation to participate was presented to the Agricultural Economics Reference 
Organization (AERO)-an organization of librarians serving agricultural economics in department 
and main libraries. The project was enthusiastically endorsed by the organization. The University 
of Wisconsin's Department of Agricultural Economics was the first organization to join the 
effort, with other Land Grant departments soon to follow. The American Agricultural Economics 
Association (AAEA) was also approached -- both for financial support and professional 
endorsement. Both were granted, with the AAEA designating AgEcon Search as its electronic 
repository. The group assigned a board member to serve as a liaison with AgEcon Search. The 
Farm Foundation was also approached successfully for funding support. In addition the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service supplied financial support for several 
years, viewing the project as a direct benefit to their researchers. This partnering of academic 
institutions, libraries, professional scholarly associations, and government agencies has made a 
strong foundation for the growth of AgEcon Search.  
A Wide Range of Partners Contribute Scholarly Content in 
Many Forms 
The large number of organizations contributing to AgEcon Search has allowed it to reach a 
critical mass of information and thus become useful to those seeking documents on a wide range 
of topics in the field. The types of items include:  
•  Working papers  
•  Conference papers  
•  Journal articles  
•  Research reports  
•  Book chapters  
•  Theses  
As of March 2002, over 40 organizations have partnered with AgEcon Search to submit papers. 
The first adopters were agricultural economics departments in Land Grant Universities in the 
United States, with most major departments participating. Next to join was the American 
Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) by posting the selected papers presented at their 
annual summer meetings. Papers from the AAEA have been available since 1997. Other national 
and regional professional associations have also used AgEcon Search as a repository for their 
conference papers or working papers. A sampling of these include:  
•  International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium  
•  Western Agricultural Economics Association  
•  Western Regional Coordinating Committee on Rangeland WCC-55  
•  University of Wisconsin, Land Tenure Center  
•  Regional Research Project NE-165  
•  NCR-134  
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comThe following journals are included in AgEcon Search. Only parts of the journals are presently 
available, but the back issues are in process.  
•  Journal of Food Distribution Research  
•  Agricultural and Resource Economics Review  
International contributors come from Canada, Israel, Mozambique and Australia, with several 
other international groups expressing interest in joining the effort.  
Partners Share the Load 
The success of AgEcon Search would not have happened without the efforts of individuals at the 
various institutions involved. At most institutions a designated person serves as the contact for 
AgEcon Search. This person gathers papers, verifies that they are in the correct format (or creates 
the PDF files themselves) and submits the papers via the online submission form. This means 
that on the receiving end, the paper needs little attention -- just an approval from the submission 
form and it appears on the server. For projects that require more work on the part of the AgEcon 
Search staff -- work such as creating PDF files, scanning papers, etc., the institution is asked to 
make a contribution to cover the cost of staff time. This support has come from organizations 
like the AAEA where individual authors are each submitting their own papers -- many of them 
without the capability of making PDF files, or from organizations that want their journal articles 
scanned and archived on AgEcon Search.  
Partners Keep AgEcon Search Strong 
Many groups feel ownership of the project, from those who contribute heavily to others who 
represent users of AgEcon Search. Many of the academic institutions that send in working papers 
also make them available on their own web sites, but choose to become part of AgEcon Search as 
well, often offering links to AgEcon Search on their web sites.  
The AAEA pays the expenses for an AgEcon Search booth in the exhibit hall at their annual 
meeting, and requires its members to submit their conference papers to AgEcon Search, thus 
strengthening the collection of documents. The Economic Statistics and Information Resources 
Committee of the AAEA requests a report about the project at its annual meeting and provides 
feedback on its use of the service. The AAEA Foundation has provided financial support to other 
groups who wish to make their documents part of the project.  
The Farm Foundation, which provided some of the initial funding for AgEcon Search, also 
financially supports the Agricultural Economics Reference Association (AERO), whose 
members are great users and champions of the project. An official report on AgEcon Search is 
part of each of its national meetings, and many members of AERO are also the contact people for 
their institutions, keeping the flow of new documents going.  
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comThe National Agricultural Library adds links to AgEcon Search documents in its Agricola 
database, which allows users to obtain the ever-popular full text. Many of those items may never 
have been linked in Agricola if a centralized resource such as AgEcon Search had not existed.  
The University of Minnesota Libraries and the Department of Applied Economics have made a 
commitment to AgEcon Search. The library and the department each contribute about 5% of a 
professional staff person toward this effort. The University Libraries also contribute hardware 
and software, plus technical staff support. In addition, the University Libraries has provided seed 
funds to support new initiatives such as digitizing the back issues of regional journals and staff 
papers.  
Many of the supporters of AgEcon Search have been involved since the beginning, and their 
continued attention has allowed the project to flourish.  
Partners Share the Glory 
In addition to sharing the work of AgEcon Search, the partners share in the benefits of the 
project. When AgEcon Search was structured, one of the goals was to help contributing 
departments maintain their institutional identity on AgEcon Search. To that end, papers from 
AgEcon Search are available for browsing or searching. The home page has a search box that 
searches the complete bibliographic information for the paper (including the abstract). The home 
page also contains a drop-down box listing all of the contributing institutions. Selecting an 
institution leads the user to another page with the choice of viewing all papers contributed by that 
particular institution, or searching the papers of the particular institution. Several institutions link 
directly to the institutional list of papers from their departmental home pages instead of 
maintaining a list of their own working papers. AgEcon Search includes a statistics counter for 
each paper/institution.  
Future 
The role of AgEcon Search is growing in two strategic directions: including a wider range of 
documents from new and existing partners, and serving as an archive for the literature of 
agricultural and applied economics.  
Several current partners are working on adding more of their documents to AgEcon Search. 
Some groups that are currently contributing conference papers are considering adding their 
journals, and several institutions are interested in digitizing and sending the backfiles of their 
working papers, as the University of Minnesota has recently done. Conference papers from new 
groups are also being actively sought, and professional organizations that publish journals in the 
field have been contacted and asked to consider including their current and back issues. 
Over the years of AgEcon Search's existence, the issue of preserving digital material has been 
recognized as a challenge for libraries. Although AgEcon Search began as a solution to the 
challenges of locating current working papers, it has grown into the repository for the literature 
in the field, and older materials are now actively solicited.  
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.comAgEcon Search As a Prototype 
While the Internet holds the promise of delivering full-text literature to the desktop of every 
interested user, it has not become the reality in most disciplines. Much of the focus around this 
issue in the library community has been on the high prices of commercial journals. AgEcon 
Search represents an effort for librarians to have a positive effect on the digitization of the 
literature in one field of study. It began with the grey literature in the field, and has grown to 
include conference papers, journal articles and books.  
The information flow and resulting literature is different in every field, and librarians may have a 
larger role to play in helping users gain electronic access to the work in many disciplines. 
Examples such as AgEcon Search and the physics preprint server, now at Cornell University 
(Luce 2001), may serve as prototypes for projects in other areas, and partnerships may be the key 
to starting and sustaining such projects.  
References 
Luce, R. E. 2001. E-prints intersect the digital library: inside the Los Alamos arXiv. Issues in 
Science & Technology Librarianship no29, Winter 2001. [Online]. Available: 
http://www.istl.org/01-winter/article3.html [May 3, 2002]. 
Rodkewich, P. M. and Letnes L. M. 1995. AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural 
Economics-Papers on the Internet. Journal of Agricultural and Food Information. 32(2): 23-29. 
 
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