Western Waters Digital Library
American digital library
The Western Waters Digital Library (WWDL) provides free public access to digital collections of significant primary and secondary resources on water in the western United States. These collections have been made available by research libraries other academic and institutional partners.
WWDL allows searchers to link to reports, photographs, correspondence, and legal documents. Some of the most significant people and events in water law and water history are featured on the site. For example, WWDL links to digitized items from the Papers of Delph E. Carpenter, known as the "Father of Interstate Water Compacts." Papers from other important individuals which have been linked to the site include Joseph B. Lippincott, Frank A. Banks, Wallace A. Bennett, and John S. Boyden.
WWDL is a valuable resource for researchers, policy makers, scholars, Native American tribes, professionals working in various fields, and others interested in contemporary and historic water issues.
History
WWDL began as a collaborative regional project created by twelve research libraries from eight western states under the auspices of the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA). Funding for WWDL has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Since its inception in 2004, WWDL has expanded to include water-related materials for twenty-five archival holding institutions including: Arizona State University; Brigham Young University; California Institute of Technology; Claremont Colleges; Colorado State University; Humboldt State University; Iowa State University; Northern State University; Oregon Institute of Technology; Oregon State University; Texas A&M University; University of Arizona; University of Idaho; University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; University of Nebraska–Lincoln; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of New Mexico; University of Oregon; University of the Pacific; University of Texas at Austin; University of Utah; Utah State University; University of Washington; Washington State University; and the Water Resources Collections and Archives at University of California, Riverside.
See also
John Wesley Powell
Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869
William Mulholland
Owens Valley
California Water Wars
Hoover Dam
Grand Coulee Dam
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Central Arizona Project
Teton Dam
St.
“Western Waters Digital Library” enters the record as american digital library. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Western, Waters and Digital can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Western Waters Digital Library” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Western, Waters and Digital provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7988436. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 1869.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Western Waters Digital Library”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Western Waters Digital Library primary sources, Western Waters Digital Library archive and Western research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Western Waters Digital Library” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.