INFO 202 Fall 08 Blog

This year the the USDA released the much-anticipated 2007 agricultural census.  This census showed a rise in the number of small farms, and this statistic was celebrated in many farm and food articles and blogs.

Gristmill points out that former USDA Economic Research Service researcher, Michael Roberts, argues that there may not actually be more small farms, there may simply be a difference in what “counts” as a small farm.

The important revelation here is that the USDA uses statistical weighting to arrive at the numbers for these micro-farms since many of these people don’t even self-identify as farmers — and so their precision is entirely a question of their methodology, i.e. how they decide to model the presence/frequency of these small operations. Census weighting is, of course, both controversial and necessary. Counting everything by hand can have a larger margin for error than rigorous statistical modeling. Indeed, this “controversy” is right now at the heart of a monumental battle between Democrats and Republicans over the U.S. Census (just ask Sen. Judd Gregg).

That said, there is nothing inherently wrong with the practice. However, even if your overall approach is solid, if you then change your weighting techniques from year to year, comparing annual changes is all but impossible. And that appears to be exactly what the USDA is doing.

Needless to say, this is a pretty big deal.  Are the number of small farms actually growing?  Or is the current political climate in this realm simply pushing the USDA to fudge their methods a little, causing a shift in their categorization schemes?

This nytimes article discusses the roles librarians have taken on in response to computer based io/ir.  The article presents some examples of io/ir skills librarians are now training students in, reasons why librarians will not be replaced by search engines.  It also mentions issues of schools with tight budgets firing librarians to save money and a lack of appreciation for the role of the library/librarian in schools, reasons why their jobs might be threatened anyway.

“The days of just reshelving a book are over,” said Ms. Rosalia, who came to P.S. 225 nearly six years ago after graduating at the top of her class at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. “Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.”