Posts Tagged: archive

Water archive finds a new home in SoCal

The UC Water Resources Center Archives will be moved from UC Berkeley to a new home at UC Riverside and California State University, San Bernardino, the Contra Costa Times reported yesterday.

The archive - which contains technical reports, speeches, photographs and other historical materials - is considered the West's premier collection of historical materials about water development. As a way to reduce expenses, the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources sought proposals to relocate the collection.

Transfer of the materials will begin in the fall, said the article, written by Mike Taugher.

"We have a strong interest in preserving and digitizing the collection for the future . . . to ensure the widest research access to all of the archive's contents," the story quoted UC Riverside librarian Ruth Jackson.

Taugher also sought comment from Linda Vida, who has served as the archive librarian and director for more than 17 years.

"I think it's sad that we're going to be leaving Berkeley after 51 years, but I look forward to the water archive continuing to serve UC and the California water community from the Riverside campus," Vida was quoted.

A UC Riverside news release said both UCR and CSUSB have strong water-resource centers already in place. UCR is home to the Water Science and Policy Center and CSUSB houses the Water Resources Institute.

“Water is the lifeblood of this state, and it’s vital that all students of water issues and decisionmakers have access to this material,” UCR chancellor Timothy P. White was quoted in the release.

"This collaboration between UCR and CSUSB will serve all campuses of our two systems, as well as the public,” the release quoted Albert Karnig, president of CSUSB.

UC ANR vice president Dan Dooley praised the collaborative effort with the California State University system reflected in the relocation proposal.

“This is an outstanding proposal and the review committee and I strongly support UCR as the new home for the archives," Dooley said in an announcement.

Links to the three proposals that were submitted for the water archive are available online.

Also, the Riverside Press-Enterprise and Water Tech Online published brief announcements about the archive's move.

A historic flood photo from the collection.

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:

• Promotional materials for the "Reber Plan" to build a dam across the Golden Gate

• Old speeches about the peripheral canal

• Original photographs of the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct

• 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.

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