Fourth Annual Berger Family Technology Award

for further information contact:

Jo-Ann Michalak, Director of Tisch Library

617-627-3345

Fourth Annual Berger Family Technology

Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Medford, MA, March 23, 2001- The fourth annual Tufts University Berger Family Technology Award was bestowed on "Mystic Watershed Collaborative Clearinghouse: Information Retrieval, Integration, Analysis and GIS Training" submitted by Molly Anderson, Research Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy, GIS Center Director and Associate Director of TIE and Gregory Colati, University Archivist, collaborating with a team of Tisch librarians made up of Regina Raboin, Reference Librarian, and Edward Oberholtzer, Social Sciences Bibliographer. The Berger award is a result of a competitive proposal process and provides funding of $50,000.00 annually. The Berger family established the endowment to retrain library staff to function in the increasingly high technology world of the digital library and also to prepare students and faculty to effectively use this technology. It is believed that the endowment is the first of its kind to train library staff and faculty in new technology.

An interactive Mystic Watershed website will make accessible information, such as Tufts faculty and student projects and Mystic Watershed Association documents, and a GIS interface will allow users to access and display related data on water quality, environmental quality, demographic characteristics, and other factors relevant to understanding the changing environment and population in the Mystic watershed. A series of workshops for Tufts librarians, staff, faculty and students will be created: to teach how to incorporate GIS into information literacy sessions, courses, research and workshops; to find and compile comprehensive, spatially-referenced information sets; and to create and use a web-based GIS interface that can integrate and display geospatial information. The Clearinghouse supports the goal announced on March 29, 2000 by Tufts University President John DiBiaggio to launch the Mystic Watershed Collaborative (MWC) to help to restore the Mystic River to fishable and swimmable condition by 2010. Since the 1980s numerous Tufts faculty and students and community-based organizations have conducted research projects on various aspects of the Mystic Watershed, such as water quality.

The Berger Family has been generous donors to Tufts University. Over the years, they have contributed to the renovation of Tisch Library and established an endowed professorship in the College of Engineering. Members of the Berger Family Technology Transfer Endowment Advisory Board are: Amy Friedlander, the representative of the Berger Family and Associate Director for Research, Science Applications International Corporation in McLean, VA.; Susan Martin, Director of the Lauringer Library, Georgetown University and member of the Arts & Sciences Overseers, Tufts University; Mel Bernstein, Vice President, Arts, Sciences & Engineering; Ioannis Miaoulis, Dean of Engineering; Susan Ernst, Dean of Natural & Social Sciences; Leila Fawaz, Dean of Arts & Humanities; Klaus Miczek, Chair of the Library Committee; Vincent Manno and Kent Portney, Co-Chairs, Faculty Computing Committee; Jo-Ann Michalak, Director of Tisch Library.

A copy of the Mystic Watershed Collaborative Clearinghouse: Information Retieval, Integration, Analysis and GIS Training proposal for the Berger grant is located on the Web; in addition, please see the Berger website.

Now at Tisch

Check out the podcast series, Tisch Talks!

Did you know that Tisch Library has an audio magazine, Tisch Talks? Featured topics include interviews with visiting authors, using the library catalog, and finding book reviews. Check out this series, or better yet, set your RSS reader to subscribe to new editions automatically.

Featured Resource

Eighteenth-Century Collections Online

ECCO aims to deliver every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the Eighteenth Century...

Did You Know?