Harvard's Arnold Arboretum Library

Recently I was reading an interesting article on Arnold Arboretum Library under Harvard University, written by Alvin Powell which was published in the Harvard Gazette. The author has very nicely described the status of the Arnold Arboretum Library which was established in 1872. Its archives contain 40,000 volumes, covering topics on plant and garden history, plant disease, landscape design, soil science, and dendrology (Dendrology is a branch of science that deals with the study of trees and wooden plants). Another attraction of the Arnold Arboretum is its museum of living plants on 281 acres of land housing living collection of trees, shrubs, and woody vines, which is recognised as one of the most comprehensive and best documented of its kind in the world. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University discovers and disseminates knowledge of the plant and conduct research on plant science.

In these days, with the introduction of instruction system with courses based on internet, students seldom visit libraries and botanical gardens to gather detailed knowledge on their respective subjects. I think together with providing notes, teachers at all levels should encourage students to visit libraries to compile their term papers.

Professor M Zahidul Haque
Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System, SAU, Dhaka