Our search tool – the encyclopedia!
One aspect of the project is to populate the database with reliable and sourced information on the use of plants.
Before, when you asked yourself a question, you would go directly into the large 12-volume encyclopedia that was neatly arranged on the living room shelf. Well it’s done, by saying that, I revealed that I was not a digital child. Well yes, I was born long before the Internet at the time when kids were still told “go and see outside if I’m there”.
One aspect of the project, and not the least, is to feed the database with reliable information. With the Internet these days, we struggle much more to disentangle what is true from what is false than to find what we really need.
I liked my encyclopedia when I was a kid, not only did we always find the answers to our questions, but we also didn’t torture our minds to know if the answer was reliable. She was, because it was written in the book!
Well, what’s your point?
All this to say that sometimes too much information damages the information, especially when the sources are not cited. On the Internet, we find all sorts of solutions to our problems, but the authors of some websites do not disclose their sources, so we do not know if the information found is well founded. So, I’m looking for books by physicians, pharmacists, and other specialists, all renowned in their fields, who have always used herbal medicines in their everyday practices.
Dr. Jean-Michel Morel, for example, is a doctor in the city where I did part of my studies; he chairs theSociété Franc-Comtoise de Phytotherapy and Aromatherapy and, among other things, teaches the art and how to use plants at the University of Besançon. Dr. Morel is a former student of Dr. Jean Valnet, another great specialist in herbal medicine, and in addition he was from Franche-Comtois. Not that I’m chauvinistic, but well I think it was important to mention it anyway 🙂. In reading their books, to these experts, I do not ask myself if what they write is true, I trust them.
The challenge for this data search is therefore twofold: (1) identify credible individuals who will provide trustworthy information and (2) find their books at low prices and second-hand when possible. Indeed, the book budget is higher than I had anticipated. No, no, it’s not an appeal to the people…
See you very soon for the next phyto-info newsletter!
sylvie