Jewel Elizabeth Davin 1945-2014; Librarian at the DSIR Soil Bureau HQ at Taita, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Jewel was librarian in 1978 when Ian Smalley arrived from the University of Leeds to undertake his study of the New Zealand loess. Jewel had been the only Soil Bureau bibliographer but suddenly another one appeared- there followed a few years of interesting bibliographical activity.
When Ian Smalley arrived in New Zealand he carried with him the almost completed text of the loess bibliography which he was preparing for the Geo Abstracts bibliography series. This was an INQUA operation and earlier drafts had been tested on Marton Pecsi and Dan Yaalon. It was completed in New Zealand and published from the Soil Engineering Section. It was a general bibliography, covering all aspects of loess investigation. Particular attention was paid to loess studies in Russian; it was felt that loess studies in Russian had been neglected. The timing was good- this set the scene for the two Smalley-Davin New Zealand bibliographies.
LPB- Ian Smalley 1980 Loess- A Partial Bibliography. Geo Abstracts Bibliography no.7. Geo Abstracts/ Elsevier Norwich 103p. ISBN 0 86094 036 5
BR28- Ian Smalley, Jewel Davin 1980 The First Hundred Years- A Historical Bibliography of the New Zealand Loess. New Zealand Soil Bureau Bibliographical Report BR28 166p.
BR30- Ian Smalley, Jewel Davin 1982 Fragipan horizons in soils: a bibliographic study and review of some of the hard layers in loess and other materials. New Zealand Soil Bureau Bibliographical Report BR30 122p.
BR28 was the first complete study of the loess in New Zealand; it was designed to provide information as well as references. The default bibliography is essentially a list of references in alphabetical order of authors; BR28 had entries in historical order and offered comments and details on the various entries; it was also well illustrated. Possibly one of the most useful things achieved by BR28 was the recording of activity related to the 1973 INQUA Congress which had been held in New Zealand and had generated much ephemeral publication. BR28 reproduced material from guide books and related publications which may not have been caught in any other bibliographic net. The whole idea of the BR series was well conceived but not used as effectively as it might have been; scientists prefer to do science and tend to regard writing bibliographies as a distraction.. The BR series was one of the main achievements of the Soil Bureau.
BR30. The success of BR28 led immediately to the preparation of BR30. LPB had concerned all loess, BR28 had concerned loess in New Zealand; BR30 would be focussed on one aspect of loess soils- the formation of fragipan horizons. It was implied, but not specifically stated that fragipan formation was essentially a phenomenon which occurred in loess soils, and subsequent investigations have indicated that this may be true. If a structural collapse is required for fragipan formation then the loess soil is best equipped to provide the necessary open metastable structure- but BR30 made no proposals; it was a listing of possibilities and geographical data (in various languages). It was probably the most cited of all the BRs (40 citations in 2023).
The BR series ended with the untimely end of Soil Bureau. Jewel is listed in the Fitzsimmons et al (2018)study of significant women loess scholars. Fagg & Smalley (2019) have added some detail to the early history of loess research in New Zealand. Ian Smalley (1989) bade farewell to Soil Bureau- a manifestation of idealism and cooperation- surely missed.
Fitzsimmons, K., McLaren, S., Smalley, I.J. 2018. The first loess map and related matters: contributions by twenty significant women loess scholars. Open Geosciences 10, 311-322.
Fagg, R., Smalley, I.J. 2019. Loess in New Zealand: Observations by Haast Hutton Hardcastle Wild and Speight 1878-1944. Quaternary International 502A, 173-178.
Ian Smalley 1989. Farewell Soil Bureau. Nature 337, 300 only.
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