[env-trinity] UC Water Archive to be split, moved

[Mark Dowdle - TCRCD]

*UC water archive to leave Berkeley campus, go to two campuses in south 
state*

*Contra Costa Times-7/19/10*

*By Mike Taugher *

 

The West's premier archive of historical materials about water 
development is being moved from UC Berkeley to two universities in 
Southern California.

 

The Water Resources Center Archives, a unique collection of technical 
reports, speeches, photographs and other historical materials, has been 
housed at the Berkeley campus for more than a half-century.

 

However, budget worries and concerns that the Agriculture and Natural 
Resources Division of the UC president's office lacked the expertise to 
maintain the archive led university officials to seek proposals from 
other schools interested in housing the collection.

 

Late last week, UC Senior Vice President Dan Dooley announced that the 
archive would be moved to libraries at UC Riverside and Cal State San 
Bernardino.

 

In making the announcement, UC officials said that UC Riverside has a 
record of expanding digital access to materials about agriculture and 
the environment.

 

The materials, including 200,000 technical reports and thousands of 
photographs, maps, newsletters speeches and other documents, are 
scheduled to be moved beginning this fall.

 

"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," UC Riverside librarian Ruth Jackson said.

 

The school plans to charge for Internet access to the materials, which 
now are available for free.

 

"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," said 
Linda Vida, librarian and archive director for more than 17 years. She 
is one of four employees at the archive.

 

The collection is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but 
Vida said it was unknown whether it would remain open on the Berkeley 
campus after July.#

 

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