Service to the State of Wyoming

As Wyoming’s land-grant institution, UW is committed to providing not only higher education to all Wyoming citizens but also research that addresses critical issues facing our state and communities, as well as engaging in outreach activities to provide resources and disseminate knowledge.  
 

The land-grant mission emphasizes the importance of education, research, and service to the community – focusing on the practical needs and challenges facing our communities. The land grant mission is essential to our state’s history and future. 
 
As part of the institution, UW Libraries is vital in supporting the land-grant mission and our state. We take pride in supporting the institution and the state in many ways.
  
The libraries provide access to various resources, including books, journals, databases, and archives, that support research in various disciplines. This research helps to address critical issues facing the state, such as energy development, water management and economic development. 

A few of the ways we support research and development include the following: 

• UW Libraries works with the Wyoming State Library to support the Wyoming Library to Business (L2B) network. Check out a story on the project from UW Libraries’ Information Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Librarian and L2B Project Engineer Stephen Boss. 

• As part of the Wyoming Innovation Partnership, UW Libraries supports the Wyoming DataHub – a central stop for accessing data, tools, and training for educators and students, entrepreneurs and industry leaders, and all Wyoming citizens. Last summer, it awarded grants to support innovative data-sharing projects at UW. 

• This past fall, UW Libraries appointed the Wyoming State Librarian and State Archivist as adjunct faculty. The appointments are intended to help foster communication, widen access to resources and strengthen partnerships with the state government.  

UW Libraries also purchases several databases available statewide to any citizen with a library card. Any database with a Steamboat logo on the GoWYLD website signifies that they are funded by UW Libraries. These include business resources, health resources and more. In addition to supporting research, UW Libraries play an essential role in promoting literacy and lifelong learning in the state. The libraries provide access to educational resources for people of all ages. We also offer programs and services, such as research assistance, that help promote learning and intellectual curiosity in the community.  

A few of the ways we support literacy and lifelong learning in the state include: 

• In collaboration with the State Library and county libraries, we provide free access to Pronounciator, the world’s most comprehensive language-learning service (which also happens to be a Jackson-based business). 

• We also partner with the same libraries to share access to all E-content collections statewide through the Wyoming Virtual Library and Libby app. 

• UW Libraries hosts the Public Health Specialist for the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) for Region 4, which provides programs and services to support Wyoming and other mountain west states to provide health professionals with access to biomedical information and individuals’ access to information to help them make informed decisions about their health. NNLM recently funded a Moby Bookmobile for the Fort Washakie School. 

• UW Libraries collections are also available to Wyoming citizens through their county library systems through Interlibrary Loan. 

Another vital role of UW Libraries is to support the state’s cultural heritage. The libraries collect and preserve extensive collections of materials related to Wyoming’s history, culture, and natural resources. These collections are valuable resources for researchers, but they also help to preserve and promote the state's cultural heritage for future generations. 

A few of the ways we support preserving our state’s heritage and history include:  

• UW Libraries partnered with the Wyoming State Library to launch the Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection, the historical newspapers from across the state are available to anyone.  

• UW Libraries Emmett D. Chisum Special Collections is home to 90,000 published items primarily related to Wyoming’s history and culture. We also recommend UW’s American Heritage Center digital collections. 

• UW Libraries Digital Collections office maintains the WyoDigital platform, which houses open-access materials, including historical maps, books, photographs, UWyo yearbooks, manuscripts, and more.  

Another recent UW and local library partnership includes making blood pressure kits available to all county library systems. The Wyoming Center for Aging (WyCOA) at UW, the Wyoming Department of Health’s Chronic Disease Prevention Program, and the library systems at Carbon County, Crook County, and Campbell County are all partnering to bring self-measured blood pressure monitoring kits available for checkout at local libraries. The kits will soon be available for checkout in all 23 county library systems.  

UW Libraries is a key component of the university's land-grant mission and its commitment to serving the people of Wyoming. By supporting research and scholarship, promoting literacy and lifelong learning and preserving the state's cultural heritage, the libraries play a critical role in advancing the state's economic, social and cultural well-being. As an organization, we continue to seek opportunities to collaborate with organizations across the state and expand access to knowledge and resources.