Although the 2016 El Niño coupled with heavy rains in 2017 have provided much of California a reprieve from the state's historic five-year drought, water management issues remain a primary to local and state water and other resource management agencies; local, state, and federal policymakers; and elected officials statewide.
The need for streamlined access to authoritative information.
Finding information on California's water issues can be a frustrating and time-consuming task, even for those who work in the water industry. Valuable reports and information are scattered around the Internet and are difficult, if not impossible, to find using standard search engines. Currently the only access to the thousands of reports, articles, white papers and legal rulings produced about California's water each year is through the disjointed websites of public resource agencies, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, research centers, etc. There is no streamlined means to access this information, which is critical for water policy analysts, politicians, researchers, and other professionals to effectively manage our state's water resources.
The California Water Library addresses this gap.
The California Water Library provides easy, organized access to information about California's water by electronically harvesting available information on the Internet into one library database and providing multi-parameter search tools to enable users to find documents based on author, publisher, date, title, keyword, and more.
The Water Library aggregates information and provide easy access to authoritative sources that will help inform discussion, debate, and ultimately sound policy related to California's water resources. Resources will include reports, issue papers, journal articles, essays, research articles, white papers, online textbooks, letters, memos, maps, and graphics related to California water.
The California Water Library is a project of Maven’s Notebook, a project of the Trust for Conservation Innovation. Initial development of the California Water Library is provided by the Bechtel Foundation; further development and ongoing operations are funded through grants, sponsorships, and user donations.
