Primate center grant to boost library resources

The Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center Library will receive a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the National Center for Research Resources to boost the library’s staff and resources so that it can more effectively work with the greater primatological research community.

The grant will allow the library to work cooperatively with other primate centers to coordinate information services for research and affiliate staff and to promote information sharing.

The grant will help coordinate collections; rapidly share information among the centers through electronic document transfer; develop a centralized information services menu; establish the Primate Information Center’s PrimateLit database as a freely available Web-based resource; develop Primate Info Net as an Internet access tool; and share research and educational expertise of RPRC staff with the scientific community and general public.

This fall, PIC’s PrimateLit database will move to the university. The General Library System’s Library Technology Group will provide Web-based public access and technical support.

“This is a unique and challenging opportunity to use the World Wide Web to deliver information services to the broad primatological research community,” says chief librarian Larry Jacobsen. “It builds on the strengths of UW Libraries – their collections, expertise and commitment to sharing research findings with an international audience. Increased access to information about the primates will benefit both the public and ultimately, the nonhuman primates themselves.”