Aboriculture On-line home page.
The Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) has a long tradition of providing unbiased research-based information and resources to the private and public sectors in Illinois. This tradition is continuing to expand to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (Web) and the Internet. In order to maintain and update materials that are desired by Illinoisans and others around the world, INHS has developed partnerships with other organizations and agencies to produce publications and other written and visual materials. As we reach the turn of the century, these collaborations are being expanded to encompass electronic media.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, INHS staff were instrumental in developing the Plant Health Care Management System for professionals in the tree care industries. Plant Health Care Management is an enhancement of the Integrated Pest Management concept that specifically takes into account the variability in client expectations for the quality of ornamental plants and provides a focus on tree health and maintenance. The original publication on the Plant Health Care Management concept, A Guide to the Plant Health Care Management System, was funded in part by the U.S. Forest Service and National Arborist Association and was published by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). This collaboration paved the way for continued interaction with professional societies devoted to education and researched-based information delivery. As a result of this collaboration, Survey staff were involved in other projects with the ISA including the Compendium on Tree Health Care, a complete revision of the original Plant Health Care Guide; the implementation of Plant Health Care workshops; and the development of the Practitioner's Guide to Plant Health Care, which will be published in the fall of 1996 with assistance from the University of Illinois, the U.S. Forest Service, and the ISA. In 1995, with the help of INHS staff and the University of Illinois, the ISA became one of the first professional societies to enter cyberspace by developing a "home page" Internet stop on the Web. As the earlier collaborations indicated, this was the beginning of a new realm of cooperation.
Aboriculture On-line home
page.
Web technology has created an ideal universe for collaboration among institutions, agencies, and organizations. As the name World Wide Web indicates, with the Internet we can now develop an interconnecting web of electronic links to information available on computers throughout the world. Most academic and research institutions in the world have home pages. With this valuable technology and the resources of the ISA we are able to maintain a continually expanding site called Arboriculture On-line. The address for those with the ability to browse the Web is http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~isa/. One of the first materials that was redesigned for Web use was the Compendium on Tree Health Care. In its printed form, the compendium was awkward to use and was not a popular item for professionals in the tree care industry. However, when it was converted to a database format that was easy to search on the Arboriculture On-line home page, its use skyrocketed. A major portion of the more than 11,000 accesses that are received at the site each month from over 30 countries is devoted to searches of the compendium.
Compendium on Tree Health Care home page.
Our hope for the future is to continue developing educational and research-based materials in collaboration with other agencies, institutions, and organizations and provide access to that information via Arboriculture On-line and the INHS home page (URL: http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu). As the technology becomes more readily available (via cable and digital television), we are sure that both Internet resources will provide a foundation of knowledge and expertise for citizens and professionals in Illinois and beyond.
John E. Lloyd, Center for Economic Entomology
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