Out-Of-Print Mycology Books Now Available as Scanned pdfs

Dr. Megan Romberg, USDA-APHIS
The Communicator: Volume 6, Issue 4, April 2025


Many of you have probably taken advantage of scanned older literature available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Hathi Trust, or even Cyberliber.  If you haven’t, I encourage you to explore these resources! 

But even with these amazing digital libraries available there may be times you are looking for the description of a fungus that is only available in an out-of-print book. In 2024 our lab had the opportunity to collaborate with the National Agricultural Library to scan five out-of-print books that are foundational to fungal identification and make them available to NPDN members as pdfs. 

The books are:
A Monograph of the Fungus Genus Cercospora (Chupp, 1954)
Manual of Rusts in United States and Canada (Arthur and Cummins, 1962)
Microfungi on Land Plants (Ellis and Ellis, 1997)
Rust Fungi on Legumes and Composites in North America (Cummins, 1978)
Smut Fungi of the World (Vanky, 2012)
The Bitunicate Ascomycetes and their Anamorphs (Sivanesen, 1964)

Each of these pdfs are searchable and although, not quite like leafing through a real book, provide a wealth of information to support fungal identifications.  The Manual of Rusts in the United States and Canada, in particular, is still the most comprehensive reference to use to identify a rust on any given host.  Microfungi on Land Plants is a comprehensive resource covering a wide variety of fungi on an extensive list of temperate hosts. The five books are available to NPDN members under Pest Identification Resources on the NPDN Outreach and Extension Resources page (login required).  Check them out!