UA researchers are developing a web-based library that will include topics dealing with water, rocks, and soil and how they interact.

It’s called the Geotechnical, Rock and Water (GROW) Library and is the first phase of the National Civil Engineering Education Resources Library (NCERL). Itwill be especially valuable to engineers and others who work on buildings, roads, dams and other civil engineering projects.

GROW and NCERL are part of a National Science Foundation effort to develop a huge web-based library for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Called the National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL), it will serve everyone from grade schoolers to graduate students. GROW is one of the NSDL collections.

UA Civil Engineering Professor Muniram Budhu is leading the GROW Library project, and says the topics will be covered in several ways, each targeted for a specific group. The “basic knowledge library,” for instance, will serve primary school students, while more detailed information will be directed at undergraduate and graduate students. Other user groups include the general public and journalists, who will use the library to quickly find information related to breaking stories on landslides, floods, foundation failures and similar topics.

The GROW Library and other NSDL collections will address several problems that currently afflict web-learning: They will bypass the often frustrating and time-consuming search engine hunt. Users can go directly to an authoritative web resource focused on science and technology.

Information posted in the NSDL collections will be reviewed for accuracy and relevance, unlike some web resources, which sometimes provide misleading or even false information.

The libraries will be stable. Many other web sites come and go overnight.

In addition to traditional library services ­ such as indexing, annotation, archiving and retrieval ­ the NSDL libraries will include animation, interactive virtual laboratories and links to other web sites that have accurate information on the topic.

“We are developing resources that allow people to learn,” Budhu says. “That’s a major difference between the GROW Library and regular web sites. Our focus is on providing the best information that will help people learn.

“Recently, the GROW Library sponsored a workshop in which people representing a wide cross-section of the community were invited to tell the researchers what kind of information would be most useful to them.

“As academics, we have one opinion as to how the information should be presented,” Budhu said. “But it may not be the best way or the way that users want. It turns out that people want very basic information: “What kind of soil is best for my house?” or “How do I best construct a foundation?”

Scholars, practicing engineers, and others will contribute articles, photos, graphics and interactive tutorials to the GROW Library. Initially, the articles will be written by Budhu, UA mining and geological engineering Associate Professor John Kemeny and UA agricultural and biosystems engineering Associate Professor William Rasmussen.

The researchers also are looking for people to contribute to the library and to review the resources. This will include everyone from professionals, such as building contractors, to grade school kids.

Budhu says the NSDL libraries will become the web portal to a vast array of accurate and high-quality technical knowledge.

The GROW Library is being developed under a $900,000 NSF grant. Those working on the project come from several areas of the university including: Civil Engineering Mining and Geological Engineering Soil and Water Science The Science and Engineering Library The Center for Computing and Information Technology Library Science Assessment and Enrollment Research.