Preserving and Providing Access to Information
Alaska Marine Science Symposium
This Symposium began as a forum for Trustee Council-funded researchers to share their findings and result and has evolved into the premier marine science forum in Alaska. Held annually in January, it extends over four days and showcases ocean research from the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound, to the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. More than 75 oral presentations and 100 posters were presented in 2009.
EVOS Trustee Council Provides Project Information Online
The Trustee Council maintains an online clearinghouse that provides access to restoration, monitoring and restoration projects. Researchers around the world are able to download data to share with peers, project updates, draft findings and peer-reviewed, final reports. This valuable scientific resource documented 1,300 projects as of January 2009, and received 5,000 hits a month.
ARLIS Preserves and Provides Access to Resource Information
Shortly after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, it became clear that a great deal of information would be generated as a result of cleanup efforts, damage assessment, and restoration activities. Recognizing the need to preserve this valuable information and make it available, the Trustee Council established the Oil Spill Public Information Center (OSPIC) in 1990. In 1995, the Trustee Council partnered with six state and federal agencies and a university institute, all with libraries focused on Alaska natural resources, to consolidate their library collections and staff into one location and in October 1997, Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) opened its doors.
ARLIS is home to the most comprehensive collection of its kind, served by highly qualified staff specializing in resource related information. The collection includes 250,000 books, 700 journals, 400 electronic journals and databases, countless maps, photographs, CDs and DVDs, and environmental education materials. Additionally, thousands of full-text publications are available through the ARLIS catalog at www.arlis.org and print materials and media are loaned worldwide through interlibrary loan.
The Trustee Council’s pioneering partnership in ARLIS ensures permanent preservation of and continuing access to this incomparable legacy of knowledge.
Highlights of Library Service
- 145,000 reference questions answered
- 33,000 EVOS reference questions (since 1990)
- 347,000 visitors
- 131,000 interlibrary loans
- 12% of ARLIS questions were EVOS related
- 19% of items loaned to other libraries were EVOS materials
- 57% of items loaned to Alaska libraries were EVOS materials