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Columns::November 5, 2001
Ride of Five: Community re-enacts birth of Athens Nov. 8
Three faculty win NSF grants of $8.7 million for plant research
Educational leadership department to be reconfigured
ICE age
Building a healthy future
Holidays for calendar year 2002 announced
Forest Resources staff awards
Campus Closeup
College of Pharmacy names its first assistant dean for student affairs
Kudos
Celebrating beginnings (old & new)
Campus News
Governor presides over dedication for new new center for study of water
By Jean Cleveland
jclevela@uga.edu
Gov. Roy Barnes presided over the dedication of the Stephen Elliot Draper Center and Archives for the Waters of Georgia in History, Law and Policy at the University of Georgia Libraries on Oct. 25.
The center will acquire, preserve and maintain historic collections of materials related to Georgia’s rivers, aquifers and wetlands for the purposes of scholarly research. Draper’s 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century British and American waterways collections in history, law and policy will be housed in the center. The companion archives will contain significant 20th- and
21st-century collections of more than 20 individuals and organizations.
The core of the Draper materials are an extensive historic collection that documents the surface and underground waters of the eastern United States and Georgia as well as the British and American historical experience with water use and development. Items from the collection will be exhibited annually for the month of October at the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which will house the Draper Center and Archives.
“Dr. Draper’s initiative in establishing this center will allow the University of Georgia Libraries to become a magnet for conserving these materials, will allow us to highlight existing collections and aid us in acquiring additional important documents,” says William Gray Potter, the university librarian. “This center will serve as an umbrella to embrace a broad and ever-growing range of collections that trace the pre-colonial and subsequent history of Georgia’s surface and ground waters and laws that govern them.”
The Archives of the Waters of Georgia in History, Law and Policy include significant collections and papers of scholars, including UGA ecology professor emeritus Eugene Odum and other authors, organizations and initiatives in the public and private sectors whose work has been instrumental in the development of water policy in Georgia.
Among the collections are those from the Metro Atlanta Chambers Clean Water Initiative, the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia Water Management Campaign and a number of Georgia Riverkeeper groups.
A number of individuals significant to the development of Georgia water policy have placed their papers and memorabilia in the collection. These primary materials will provide current and future scholars with a comprehensive history of Georgia’s river basins, aquifers and wetlands in the areas of history, law and policy as well as the related areas of science, engineering, technology and economics.
A related exhibit in the lobby of the main library showcases the Georgia Conservancy and the UGA River Basin Science and Policy Center.
“There are three reasons I made the decision to establish the center and archives at the University of Georgia,” says Draper. “The first reason is recognition of how important water is to Georgia in the 21st century. Second is the recognition that knowledge of the past is essential to planning for the future. Finally it is my belief that it is our public universities that are the key to the future. It is important that our public universities serve as the source of our knowledge of the past because they reflect the strength of our country and our state. Surface and ground water are critical to three fundamental needs of Georgia’s citizens in the 21st century: continued economic growth and prosperity, improved quality of life, and preserving the natural beauty and environment of Georgia. All three things require effective local, regional and statewide water laws and policies.”
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