Purpose

The Webster C. Pendergrass Library is the primary source for agriculture and veterinary medicine literature in the UTK Libraries. Priority is given to resources that support the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s (UTIA) land-grant mission to provide education, research, and outreach through the Herbert College of Agriculture, the College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM), UT Agriculture Research (AgResearch), and UT Extension. Special attention is given to resources that provide coverage of underrepresented or high-priority subject areas. We actively work to provide materials benefitting the university and other constituencies, including Tennessee agricultural extension agents and veterinarians across the state, as well as members of the general public. Our collection seeks to preserve materials of regional interest, as well as serving as the state depository for the U.S. Department of Agriculture documents up to 1989.

Clientele

Pendergrass’s collection supports instruction and research for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the Herbert College of Agriculture and for graduate students and faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Pendergrass also works with students of all disciplines taking science courses on the Agriculture Campus as well as a variety of interdisciplinary centers and initiatives with UTIA connections (for example: Cherokee Farm Innovation Campus and other biofuel initiatives, the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, Landscape Architecture program, and the University of Tennessee Research Foundation Business Incubator). Additionally, the collection serves agricultural extension agents, veterinarians, AgResearch employees, and twenty-three UTIA centers across the state, as well as the general public.

Primary clientele include students and faculty in the areas of Agricultural and Resource Economics; Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication; Animal Science; Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences; Entomology and Plant Pathology; Food Science and Technology; Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Science; Plant Sciences; Comparative Medicine; Pathobiology; Large Animal Clinical Sciences; and Small Animal Clinical Sciences.

Resources

The library maintains a collection of nearly 165,000 items, including monographs, journals and other serials, microforms, video recordings, CD-ROMs, government documents, and internet access to resources beyond our walls.

Collections

Books

Our monographs collection covers all common areas of agriculture and veterinary medicine, including plant culture; forestry; aquaculture, fisheries, and angling; hunting sports; and small, large, and exotic animal medicine. We have complimentary collections in human medicine, statistics, economics, chemistry, botany, and other related fields.

Periodicals

Access to articles about agriculture and veterinary medicine is available in our stacks and/or online through numerous databases, including Agricola, CAB Abstracts, Consultant, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, and many others. Please visit our Articles and Databases page for full access to our databases.

Government Documents

Pendergrass is a state depository library for agriculture publications. In keeping with Government Printing Office (GPO) guidelines, we maintain specific collections from federal, state, and local authorities. In addition to our depository collection, we maintain a separate collection of soil surveys from counties across Tennessee, as well as other states. We also collect documents published by agricultural extension and research institutes across the country, with a particular emphasis on regional publications.

Visual Resources

The Webster C. Pendergrass Library has numerous DVDs, VHS tapes, and CD-ROMs in our primary areas of interest that complement our core collections.

Subject Description

Overlap with Other Subjects

Agriculture and veterinary medicine are both interdisciplinary topics, and our collection reflects that. There is a great degree of overlap with other subjects, which include but are not limited to biofuels, geology, mathematics, chemistry, biology, architecture, human medicine, and culinary arts. Materials that discuss these subjects are of interest to this collection, and materials housed in Pendergrass are of interest to students and scholars outside of UTIA studying in these areas.

Languages Collected and Excluded

English is the primary language of the collection, though works in other languages are added to the collection when appropriate.

Geographic Parameters

Materials are procured on an international basis, though the majority of the collection focuses on materials of North American origin.

Chronological Scope and Dates of Publication

The vast majority of materials that are purchased for Pendergrass Library have recent publication dates. However, the collection includes items that are well over one hundred years old, which are maintained for historical and research purposes. There is no focus placed on retrospective acquisitions, although we preserve materials of historical significance and regional interest. Acquisition of out-of-print materials is rarely attempted.

Formats of Materials Collected and Excluded

We collect materials of all formats. We seek to match format with the best available technology, including electronic formats when applicable.

Cooperation with Other Libraries

No formal resource sharing agreements are in place, though interlibrary loan is used for both borrowing and lending. There also exists a strong relationship between Pendergrass and the Preston Medical Library at UT’s Graduate School of Medicine that allows for expedient resource sharing.

Positions Responsible for Collection in the Discipline

Librarian for Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

Librarian for Veterinary Medicine

Collection Statistics

Each category consists of the following item types:
Books: books
Serials and Periodicals: Serials, bound periodicals, loose periodicals, and periodical or serial on CD-ROM
Microforms: Microform, microform serial, microform periodical
Videorecordings: DVDs and VHS tapes
CD-ROMs: CD-Roms and computer files
Maps: maps
Audios: audio cassettes and audio CDs
Other: Kits, slide sets, other

These statistics are current as of February 2014.  Items held in storage are not included in these statistics.