Environment Information Project

A. Grant Support for Additional Year

In addition to the successful OAC grant mentioned above, the CDL also received approval of LSTA funds for the California Digital Library, Library of California Access to Environmental Information Project.  The Environmental Information Project (EIP) began in 1997, to demonstrate the economic and intellectual benefits of a collaboration between the Library of California (LOC) and the CDL, as well as to explore the infrastructure issues involved in delivering electronic content through the CDL to participants in the LOC.  During the first year of the EIP, ending on September 30, 1998, an Environmental Information Project web site was developed (at http://www.eip.cdlib.org/) to provide access to environmental information contained in a licensed database (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts), University of California collections, and selected sites on the Internet.  The CDL made the environmental web site available to 33 California libraries of various types, including public, special, and academic libraries, and provided training to staff at those sites.  In late summer, users of participating libraries gained access to this new resource.

In its award letter, the State Library emphasized that the EIP project was significant for several reasons, particularly because it demonstrates that the CDL and the Library of California can develop joint projects to make new information resources available which have the potential to be of long-term benefit to Californians.  In addition, the State Library recognized the importance of the development and implementation of shared database licensing in a multi-type library environment.  The evaluation phase of the project is particularly important, given the September 29th signing of the Library California legislation (S.B. 409) by Governor Wilson.

B. Thanks to Barbara Schader

The Environmental Information Project owes much of its success to date to the extraordinary contributions of UCLA librarian Barbara Schader, who acted as the Environmental Librarian for the project during its first year.  Barbara’s oversight of the development of the collection included managing the selection and digitization of UC-owned materials.  Barbara also acted as the principal point of contact for the 33 participating libraries, and helped develop the successful training of project participants.  As Barbara returns to full-time status at UCLA please join us in thanking her for her tireless contributions.