Posts Tagged: archive
Water Resources Center Archive proposal from UC Riverside accepted
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that ANR has accepted a proposal from UC Riverside to house the Water Resources Center Archive. Developed in collaboration with CSU San Bernardino, the amount of organizational work and collaboration between UC and CSU in developing this proposal was impressive.
While the archives will be housed on both campuses, the two facilities are located near each other and their collections are complementary. The funding will be stable and the institutional support is impressive. It is highly likely that the evidenced support from both campus communities will lead to additional funding sources. Accessibility of the archives will be maintained, and they will be located in an area with a long history and interest in CA water issues. In addition, UC Riverside has an established record of innovation in expanding digital access to important records related to agriculture and the environment. An advisory board will be constituted and collaborations with the California Digital Library will be explored further to assist with digitizing of records.
The collaboration and integration with CSU is exactly the type of initiative that achieves innovative and cost-effective higher education partnerships in California. This is an outstanding proposal and the review committee and I strongly support UCR as the new home for the Archives.
I would like to thank the Berkeley, Davis and Riverside campuses for submitting proposals for taking over the Water Resources Center Archives. If you would like to see the three proposals, they are posted at http://ucanr.org/wrca update.
Dan Dooley
Senior Vice President
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Effort under way to find home for water archive
UC ANR may extend another request for proposals to find a new home for the Water Resource Center Archives, now housed at UC Berkeley, according to an article this week in the Contra Costa Times.
ANR announced last October plans to move the archive in order to achieve budget savings.
"We don't believe we have the expertise to continue to manage a library," ANR associate vice president Barbara Allen-Diaz told reporter Mike Taugher. "I believe in these kinds of archives. I will do my best to find it a home."
The Times story gave examples of archives in the collection:
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Promotional materials for the "Reber Plan" to build a dam across the Golden Gate
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Old speeches about the peripheral canal
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Original photographs of the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct
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Photos of the aftermath of the deadly 1928 collapse of St. Francis Dam near Los Angeles
In all, the archive contains more than 200,000 technical reports, 1,500 specialized newsletters, 5,000 maps and videos, 200 manuscript collections, 25,000 black-and-white photographs and 45,000 coastal aerial photographs.
"We specialize in collecting information nobody else has," the article quoted archive director Linda Vida. "These are the kinds of things you can't find at a regular library."
The archive is used by academics, authors, consultants, engineers, government officials, lawyers, students and water districts.
UPDATE, May 25, 2010: The San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial today about ANR efforts to move the Water Resources Center Archives. The editorial was written by Daniel Holmes, a consulting geographer and librarian. Holmes has posted an open letter on the Web encouraging people to write to UC leaders about the water archive.
A LA aquaduct construction photo from the archive.
Water archive needs a new home
Reports, maps and photos documenting the lively and sometimes contentious history of California water need a new home following UC ANR vice president Dan Dooley's decision to move the collection out of UC Berkeley, the Sacramento Bee reported today.
Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis and professor of environmental engineering, Jay Lund, said he would like to see the library moved to Sacramento or Davis.
"So long as it's available for people who need to go and do serious in-depth research, the market for that kind of an archive is more in Northern California, with the center of gravity being more around Sacramento," the story quoted Lund, a member of the archive advisory board.
Dooley told Bee reporter Matt Weiser that the decision to move the archive was made to achieve budget savings. The archive's $230,000 annual cost covers the salaries of four full-time employees who manage the library.
A former water attorney, Dooley said he understands the importance of the archive and is confident it will find a home, according to the article. He has called a Nov. 6 meeting of advisers to discuss its future.
"It's clearly a valuable resource and one that we really should make every effort to maintain for future generations," Dooley was quoted.