[APWG] Who educates library journal reviewers about alien plants?

[gg lilly]

Hi,

          The book described below by Derek Fell was published in 2007 by Firefly Books. Fell has written many gardening books and won awards for garden design. The book, in my town’s library’s collection, recommends such plants as Scottish broom and oriental bittersweet. Seven of the suggested plants are prohibited in New Hampshire. I wrote a letter to the library that explained how alien plants would ruin a garden and explained several of the poor choices that Fell had included in the book. I received the thoughtful answer below. I plan to take the librarian up on her kind offer to print out the NH Invasive Species List and paste it in the front of the book.

          That list will help the gardeners who take out the book at my library, but she mentions how this book is spreading over North America. Since the Library Journal starred the book in a feature article, the book has had immediate status for most NE libraries.

          Do different Alien Plant Working Groups have a member who talks to and educates the gardening book reviewers in journals as Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus?  Since libraries everywhere rely heavily on these journals, giving these reviewers knowledge would be far reaching. If they understood the problem, they would be less enthusiastic to endorse a book that praises oriental bittersweet, Norway maples, and euonymus alatus.

          Have any people on this listserv worked with reviewers or librarians regarding gardening and plant books?

          The librarian also says that the library would consider a title in addition to the book Invasive Plants; a guide to the identification and the impacts and control of common North American species, by S.R. Kaufman.

          What book or books would you recommend?

 

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Grace Lilly

 

 

Dear Grace -

 

Thank you for the information concerning the book The Encyclopedia of Hardy Plants which we have in our collection. As you know, we do order books primarily based on their receiving a good review in journals such as Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus. This particular book was in a feature article in Library Journal entitled "Regional Gardening North by Northeast" and was one of their starred reviews, and it stated that "starred titles are core purchases for most NE libraries." On that basis, we ordered this book, as did (at last count) 19 other N.H. libraries and 536 other North American libraries.

 

I checked some of the plants that are listed in the NH list of invasive species and I did find some of them in Fell's book. Three of these plants have only recently been added to NH's list, after the publication date of this book. Also, some of the plants on the NH list are not on other state lists, and he was writing for any cold place on earth, not just New England. 

 

One thing we could do is to print out the NH invasive species list and paste it in the front of the book. I believe we did that for another book a couple of years ago.

 

We do try to include gardening books written just for NH too. We have, for example, Integrated Landscaping: Following Nature’s Lead by the UNH Cooperative Extension and also their The Best Plants for New Hampshire Gardens and Landscapes. And I am ordering the book Invasive Plants; a guide to the identification and the impacts and control of common North American species, by S.R. Kaufman.

 

If you have a similar title that you would like to recommend for purchase, we’d be happy to consider it.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20081203/6674fe7d/attachment.html>