As Michigan State University continues to be lauded as a major player in the FIFA World Cup 26, the MSU Libraries Turfgrass Information Center remains a key component in supporting the field of turfgrass study at the university and beyond — including in the development of this year’s gaming surfaces.

While MSU’s Turfgrass Management Program is most recently in the limelight thanks in large part to the work of MSU’s Turfgrass Management Team, led by Professor John N. “Trey” Rogers III, the Turfgrass program at MSU has been globally renowned for over 70 years. Rogers spoke to the impact of the Turfgrass Information Center (TIC) in conducting research to help MSU develop the natural grass playing surfaces for the FIFA World Cup 26 alongside the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the University of Tennessee.

“During my entire 38-year career as a Professor of Turfgrass at Michigan State University, I cannot think of any turfgrass research project where the TIC did not play a vital role in our understanding of the literature, and all of the work and research that World Cup 2026 entailed is certainly no exception,” Rogers said. “The TIC gave us instant feedback, thus giving us confidence in our quest with the University of Tennessee to provide answers for FIFA.”

The TIC has been helping to advance turfgrass research efforts since the 1960s, when the MSU Libraries began collecting printed turfgrass materials to help support the university’s turf science programs, including the curricular and research needs of faculty, staff and students, primarily in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, AgBioResearch (formerly the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station) and MSU Extension.

Today, the Libraries’ Turfgrass Information Center is home to the most extensive public collection of turfgrass educational material in the world, including the publicly accessible Turfgrass Information File (TGIF) database.

First established in partnership with the United States Golf Association in 1983, the TGIF database has been continuously maintained for over four decades with the goal to “provide quick access to published and electronic resources for users across the world and ultimately to all published materials reporting on aspects of turfgrass and its maintenance.” In 2023, the database reached a landmark milestone when it became an open access resource, making it freely available to researchers and practitioners worldwide.

MSU Libraries Associate Dean for Digital Initiatives Shawn Nicholson underscored the pride and care the Libraries takes in managing the multitude of resources offered by the TIC, noting that “the MSU Libraries, through the Turfgrass Information Center, is proud to support turfgrass research through the long-term stewardship of this world-renowned collection and the expertise of the library faculty and staff who preserve, organize and connect users with the knowledge that advances turfgrass science and management worldwide.”

The TGIF database contains over 300,000 records, with nearly 65% of those records linking the user directly to the full-text of the item. It indexes material from a wide variety of sources including governments, higher learning institutions, professional organizations and private publishers. Materials include articles from peer-reviewed publications, technical reports and conference proceedings, trade and professional publications, local professional newsletters, popular magazines, monographs, theses and dissertations, fact sheets and brochures, images, software and web documents. The majority of the database uses English-language materials, but it does include non-English resources.

“For turfgrass professionals who cannot regularly visit a research library, access to full-text turfgrass research and other pertinent turf literature can be a challenge,” said Elisabeth Mabie, head of the Turfgrass Information Center. “However, these are often the individuals who utilize these materials the most. With two-thirds of TGIF database records linking to the full-text of the item, this means many thousands of records link directly to content, saving valuable time and effort that would otherwise be spent locating physical copies for personal use.”

For more about the MSU Libraries Turfgrass Information Center, including the TGIF database, visit the TIC webpage.

This story originally appeared on the MSU Libraries website.