Western Waters Digital Library Projects and Sponsors:

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA)

Western Waters Digital Library

The first phase of the Western Waters Digital Library (WWDL) project was led by the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) and funded in 2003 with a two-year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. National Leadership Grants fund projects that "…provide creative solutions on issues of national importance and provide leadership for other organizations". To establish the Western Waters Digital Library, twelve academic research libraries in eight western states created digital collections focused on four principal river basins: the Platte, Rio Grande, Colorado and Columbia. Project participants were successful in establishing a sustainable technical infrastructure, a model for institutional cooperation and collaboration, and a core collection of digital resources about water in the west. This project laid the foundation for on-going growth and development of the WWDL.

Water Wise Utah was funded by a two-year grant from The Partnership for a Nation of Learners (PNL) beginning in 2006. PNL "encourages museums, libraries and public broadcasters to address community needs by working together." Water Wise Utah is a collaborative University of Utah project led by the Utah Education Network (UEN) in partnership with KUER, KUED, the Utah Museum of Natural History, and the J. W. Marriott Library. Our aim is to raise awareness of critical water issues and encourage water conservation throughout the state of Utah. Water Wise Utah will offer TV documentaries, K-12 educational events, a museum exhibit, a Web site linking to the Western Waters Digital Library, and collaborate with Utah water agencies and community organizations to target five Utah communities with high rates of water consumption. The Western Waters Digital Library Water Wise Utah collection is a continually growing digital resource about critical western water issues and the need to conserve.

The Origins of Western Water Policy project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with a grant from the Division of Preservation and Access in 2007. "These grants support projects that preserve collections and create intellectual access to collections that, because of their intellectual content and value as cultural artifacts, are considered highly important for research, education, and public programming in the humanities." Four academic research libraries at Colorado State University, Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Washington State University will partner with the famed Water Resources Center Archives at the University of California at Berkeley to create a new digital collection for the WWDL. Together, we will provide integrated access to key archival holdings related to water policy and environmental history for the Colorado and Columbia River basins.