by Molly K.Painter

Technology and nature are combining forces in an effort to marry water research with a dedicated digital library, the Texas Water Digital Library.

Dr. John Leggett of the Texas A&M University Libraries and Mark McFarland of the University of Texas Libraries, both co-directors of the Texas Digital Library (TDL), have formed a group to create a centralized, online location for the research and works of the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) and other university water resource entities in the state.

TWRI thrives on collaborations and partnerships with 17 Texas universities, three out-of-state universities, Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Texas AgriLife Research, to provide research-derived, science-based information about critical water issues, according to Dr. Bill Harris, acting director of TWRI.

“A digital water library will link and make available the vast amount of information, research and data that has been and is continuing to be developed by water resource researchers in Texas,” Harris said. “Providing information digitally is imperative for the future, and this library is definitely going to bring critical and needed information together for everyone's use.”

TWRI, a clearinghouse, partner and facilitator for water research and educational outreach programs throughout Texas and beyond, manages more than 90 projects with more than $20 million in funding.

The institute’s programs focus on agricultural and urban irrigation efficiency, water conservation, water quality, watershed management programs and alternative sources of water.

“We saw the need for an online library in order to house the vast resources TWRI provides to the state of Texas,” Leggett said. “We’ve had tremendous success with the Texas Digital Library bringing the scholarly community together, and this will soon become a valuable, statewide resource, as well.”

Leggett and others from Texas A&M, along with researchers, digital library professionals and librarians from the University of Texas, Texas Tech University and other universities are working to put shared practices in place and pull water research and information from universities to build the repository.

 

“By taking advantage of the infrastructure and services of TDL, these resources can be federated in a digital environment, where they’ll be accessible to all,” Holly Mercer, head of Digital Services and Scholarly Communication at the Texas A&M Libraries said. “The Texas Water Digital Library will allow researchers to locate information in one place, and they might even discover potential collaborators who share similar research interests.”

Users will not only have access to research data, but also to TWRI’s technical reports, water-related AgriLife Extension publications, theses and dissertations from Texas A&M University, and the txH2O magazine, all of which currently reside in the Texas A&M Digital Repository.

A timeline for the digital library has not been established, according to Mercer, but conference calls and a panel discussion at the 4^th Annual Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL) is slated for May.