Digital Watersheds: One Library's Approach to Expanding Access to Water Resources Information

Oregon State University Libraries has developed a variety of digital collections that support the university's commitment to natural resources research. Two of these collections are Oregon Explorer and the Middle East Water Collection. The existence of both of these digital initiatives represents the ongoing collaborative work between librarians, natural resources specialists, and researchers – particularly those involved in water policy and management. I will describe the unique collaborative structure that has evolved for both of these collections as well as our reasons for choosing the technology we did to support each collection.

Oregon Explorer (www.oregonexplorer.info) was created in order provide efficient access to the information needed by Oregonians to make informed natural resources decisions. The content for the Umpqua Basin Explorer (a portal of the Oregon Explorer) is being developed through collaboration with the Partnership for Umpqua Rivers (PUR). PUR has provided insight into the needs of the stakeholders and the Umpqua Basin natural resources community (agencies, organizations, consultants, etc.). We have used PUR's regional expertise in conjunction with the libraries' technical capabilities and comprehensive natural resources collection to develop an outstanding digital library for the Umpqua Basin community. We are using a variety of software to manage the content of this site; however, DSpace is the platform we are using to manage access to digital documents.

The Middle East Water Collection (http://digitalcollections.library.oregonstate.edu/mewaters/) provides access to 9000 items on political, socio-economic, demographic, and legal issues of water in the Middle East that originate from a variety of publishers and national and multinational agencies and organizations. Though only a small portion of this collection has been digitized, the database is a discovery tool for the entire collection. OSU is using CONTENTdm for this project – a unique use of a platform that we've traditionally used for image-based collections.