Excitement Sprouting for Seed Library at Ohio State

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April 24, 2019

Story by Meredith Oglesby

Making a trip to Thompson Library this summer won’t have you just reading about growing fresh vegetables – you’ll leave with seeds to plant your own garden.

A new seed library at Thompson will provide students, faculty and staff the opportunity to grow their own vegetables and herbs from April 30 to Sept. 30. Library patrons can choose from three separate seed kits depending on the size of the area available for planting. The kits will include seeds for lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, beans, basil and more.

The goal of this project is to encourage home gardening and expose The Ohio State University community to fresh produce consumption, says Dana Hilfinger, program coordinator for InFACT, one of the university’s Discovery Theme programs.

“What better project to partner with the library, because the students come there to study and to learn?” says Research Librarian Tracey Overbey, assistant professor, social sciences librarian. The libraries and InFACT funded the project, brought to fruition in a collaboration among Overbey; InFACT faculty hire Ingrid Adams, an associate professor in the College of Medicine and College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences; and Hilfinger.

“We are interested in lowering the barriers to entry for people to start their own home garden and grow their own food,” Hilfinger says, “and get people excited about those kinds of activities and consuming produce that was grown in their backyard.”

The seed kits will include growing information and preparation instructions, including recipes, for each vegetable.

“The idea is that you can have crops that can be pulled together for a meal,” Hilfinger says, adding that some kits include seeds that, if planted together, can be harvested at the same time.

The library just asks that participants share their gardening pictures and stories in return for the seeds, Overbey says.

The role of libraries is changing, and they continue to look for ways to better serve their communities, Overbey shares.

“Our strategic plan is addressing a lot of social justice and user-friendly resources,” Overbey says, “and we are looking to have a broader impact on the campus community.”

For those interested, the seeds will be available at the Thompson Library circulation desk.

Meredith Oglesby is a student communications assistant at the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State.