Fwd: NEWS RELEASE -- CALIFORNIA DIGITAL LIBRARY TO PUT FIRE, FLOOD, EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION ON THE WEB

[Terry Colvin]

>
> To: terry.colvin at ucop.edu 
> From: Terry Colvin 
> Subject: NEWS RELEASE -- CALIFORNIA DIGITAL LIBRARY TO PUT FIRE, FLOOD,
> EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION ON THE WEB 
> Bcc: 
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> Friday, June 12, 1998
> Terry Colvin (510) 987-9198
> terry.colvin at ucop.edu
>
> CALIFORNIA DIGITAL LIBRARY TO PUT FIRE, FLOOD, EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION ON THE
> WEB
>
> The University of California will make it easier for the public to gather
> facts about fires, floods, earthquakes and other important environmental
> events and issues by digitizing selected materials held in its academic
> libraries and putting them on the World Wide Web for all the world to share.
> The project was funded by a $198,000 federal grant to the California State
> Library. It is one of the firsts in UC’s effort to build the California
> Digital Library, a dream of UC President Richard C. Atkinson, who calls it
> the university's “library without walls.”
> Launched last October, the California Digital Library will eventually blend
> major portions of the electronic and print holdings of UC's 29
million-volume
> collection to make it accessible by desktop or laptop computer to students,
> faculty and the general public.
> The environmental project also marks the first collaborative effort with the
> state library to build the Library of California, a digitally constructed
> library that could eventually link all of the state’s public, private and
> academic libraries -- as well as many of its museums and think tanks -- into
> one of the world’s largest electronic information-sharing networks. 
> The Library of California is a visionary plan created by a statewide library
> coalition -- led and supported by the California State Library and State
> Librarian Kevin Starr -- which would enable resource sharing, cooperation
and
> collaboration among libraries of all types: public, private, school and
> academic.
> The Environmental Information Project, funded by The Library Services and
> Technology Act -- new federal legislation to promote the innovative uses of
> technology in the nation’s libraries -- is the first attempt to bring both
> these initiatives together to demonstrate the economic and intellectual
> benefits of collaboration.
> Organizers hope to explore the technological, organizational and financial
> issues involved in converting print materials to digitized form and
> delivering the electronic content from UC’s libraries to libraries in
Library
> of California network.
> "This is an opportunity to achieve two benefits at once," said Gary
Lawrence,
> UC director of library planning and policy development.
> "First, the project will make UC's California Digital Library collections
> available to the public at an early stage in its development. Second,
this is
> a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with librarians throughout the state
> to develop new digital collections and services that will benefit all of
> California."
> Materials related to fires, floods, water rights, earthquakes and pollution
> will be among those covered by the Environmental Information Project. 
> The first step in the project will be the creation and licensing of an
> environmental database. The database will be used by public libraries
> selected as demonstration sites. UC is already digitizing the environmental
> information held in its special collections and government documents and
> programmers will create a website to serve as home page for the project and
> to link it to other existing websites devoted to environmental issues.
> The website is expected to be running by the end of this summer at about 30
> demonstration sites in Northern, Central and Southern California.
> Criteria for selecting the demonstration sites will include the availability
> of appropriate computer hardware and a speedy connection to the Internet
> since no project money will be spent on purchasing support systems for
> demonstration sites. 
> UC's budget for 1998-99 includes a request to the state to provide $3
million
> in general funds to be matched by $1 million from the university for the
> California Digital Library. The university is spending $1 million in the
> current budget year to launch the effort.
> # # #
>
> Note: More information about the California Digital Library is available
from
> Gary Lawrence, UC director of library planning and policy development at
> (510) 987-9461, or Terry Colvin, UC senior public information representative
> at (510) 987-9198.










Terry L. Colvin
Senior Public Information Representative
UC Office of the President
1111 Franklin St.
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 987-9198
(510) 987-9173 (fax)