Description

The issues surrounding the use, supply, and management of water are steadily gaining interest in the academic, policy, and business communities. Water issues are global in nature. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world, causing tensions and conflict within and between communities. Population growth, urbanization, and per-capita consumption are but a few of the human factors affecting water use, while climate change and ecosystem degradation impact availability of freshwater systems for human and nonhuman use.

The Global Resources Network (GRN) seeks to stimulate national and international interest in collecting, preserving, and providing access to documents that support research into water-related topics. Through this forum, the GRN will study the nature and sources of documentation on water issues; assess how scholars, policymakers, and nongovernmental organizations make use of such data; and propose a series of strategies, policies, and practices that libraries, archives, and other repositories can adopt to accommodate the realities of the field.

In partnership with the Greater Western Libraries Alliance (GWLA), the GRN Forum will feature GWLA’s Western Waters Digital Library  as a “model for providing students and scholars with a web accessible archive of texts, images, audio/video files and data sets on water issues.”

Agenda

The GRN Forum will feature keynote speaker Donald Worster, professor of U.S. History and Environmental Studies at the University of Kansas. A detailed agenda is also available.

Registration

The GRN Forum will be held at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th Street, Denver, Colorado. Conference registration is free for all members of CRL and GWLA. Nonmembers may register to attend the first day’s Program Session for a fee.

Registration for this event is now closed. If you have questions about your registration or still wish to participate, please contact James Simon.

 

Follow-Up Material

PowerPoint slides and video presentations from the event:

Donald Worster (Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Professor of U.S. History, University of Kansas)
Keynote: Water and Empire in the American West: Past, Present, and Future. [Video Presentation]

 

John Faundeen (Archivist, U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation and Science [EROS] Center)
USGS National Water Information System [Slides} ; [Video Presentation]

 

Linda Vida (Director/Head Librarian, Water Resources Center Archives, University of California, Berkeley)
California Water Data: current landscape and future [Slides] ; [Video Presentation]
CA Water DRoP Survey findings (draft in progress)
DRoP Appendix I - User Needs Survey
DRoP Appendix II - Data Provider Survey

 

Patricia J. Rettig (Head Archivist, Water Resources Archive, Colorado State University Libraries)
Documenting Colorado water within and beyond its borders ; [Video Presentation]

 

Dawn Bastian Paschal (Assistant Dean for Digital Library & ePublishing Services, Colorado State University) & Gregory C. Thompson (Associate Director for Special Collections, J. W. Marriott Library, University of Utah)
The Western Waters Digital Library: Building a Resource through Multi-State Collaboration & Technology [Slides] ; [Video Presentation]

 

Ken Rainwater (Professor of Civil Engineering and Director, Water Resource Center, Texas Tech University)
Federated water research and the Texas Water Digital Library [Slides] ; [Video Presentation]

 

Ilya Zaslavsky (Ph.D., Director, Spatial Information Systems Laboratory, San Diego Supercomputer Center)
CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System: integrating government and academic sources of water data for research and education ; [Video Presentation]

 

Greg Hobbs (Justice, Colorado Supreme Court)
Use of water data in U.S. & International Water Law ; [Video Presentation]

 

Robert Annear (Vice President, DHI Solutions)
Water Data Needs and Applications in the Private Sector [Slides] ; [Video Presentation]

 

Mike Cohen (Senior Research Associate, Pacific Institute)
Mining for Data: The Search for Information on Groundwater Conditions and Use in the Colorado River Border Region [Slides] ; [Video Presentation]