5. Preservation Profiles


compliance with all preservation and access standards and guidelines, and overseeing quality assurance
checks on the microfilm. Other staff and student workers will be identified and hired as the project
begins.

Montana Scholarly Review Panel

Thomas R. Wessel has been a professor of history at Montana State University since 1972 and presently
serves as Department Head. His research and writings focus on Montana and agricultural history. He
has had numerous articles published in journals such as Agricultural History and Montana, the Magazine
of Western History and edited Agriculture in the Great Plains 1876-1930. He has presented papers at
local, state, national, and international society meetings on agriculture and the American West. He is
currently a member of the Executive Committee, Agricultural History Society and has held the offices of
Vice President (1986) and President (1987), and is on the Advisory Board of the Social Science
Agricultural Agenda Project. Dr. Wessel received his Ph.D. from University of Maryland in 1972.

A. Hayden Ferguson, a native of Montana and a Montana State University Professor Emeritus of Soil
Science, has been most recently involved with international consulting in Taiwan and previously in Brazil
and Russia. Dr. Ferguson earned his Ph.D. from Washington State University in soil science. He has
been named outstanding educator/teacher at MSU College of Agriculture and American Society of
Agronomy. He is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America and the American Society of
Agronomy and has numerous publications in journals, books, and Extension and Experiment Station
publications. A recent publication is Montana Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Service
100 Year Time Line: 1893-1992. Other research topics have included soil physics and saline seep
problems in Montana.

Charles H. Rust is the Associate Director of Extension at Montana State University after working in the
areas of Extension Agricultural Economist and International Extension Project since 1963. His
international work for Extension and private organizations has taken him to places such as West
Cameroon, Swaziland, Bulgaria and most recently Poland. Dr. Rust's work in the Cooperative Extension
Service has been at all levels--County Agent, State Specialist, and Grain Marketing and Transportation
Specialist in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. His accomplishments as a researcher include many awards
received, publications of articles, professional papers, videos, research reports, proceedings, special
project reports and Extension bulletins. He received his Ph.D. from Montana State University in
agricultural economics in 1965.

Mary Murphy is an associate professor in the Department of History and Philosophy at Montana State
University. Her research in the area of women and rural life in Montana is well represented in numerous
publications. Her forthcoming book Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-1941,
will be published by the University of Illinois Press. She has many presentations and articles on topics
related to the life of women in rural Montana. Her awards, grants and fellowships and teaching document
her commitment to advance the knowledge of Montana's women and their role in Montana's history. Dr.
Murphy earned her Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990.

Montana State University Plan of Work and Project Budget

Over the course of the project the Libraries of Montana State University-Bozeman, in cooperation with
other libraries in the state, will develop a comprehensive bibliography important to the study of
agriculture and rural life in Montana and the Western United States. The project will employ a four-
person scholarly review panel to rank titles according to their priority as research resources for
humanities studies. The Libraries will preserve access to the most important 25% of the estimated
universe of materials.