Back to Library ProjectsLibrary Projects: 2001: Globalization Research Network (GRN) Portal Prototype
In 2000, the U.S. Congress, through the Department of Education, provided seed-monies to four universities to create a Globalization Research Network (GRN) to help researchers, students, and politicians better understand an interdependent world and how to respond to it. The four institutions, comprised of the George Washington University, the University of California - Los Angeles, The University of Hawaii - Manoa, and the University of South Florida, focus on different geographic and subject areas, to create a composite picture of the causes and effects of globalization throughout the world. The collaboration and data and information sharing among the four universities will facilitate viable global solutions to critical global problems. The study of globalization poses a formidable challenge because of its multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary nature.
The creation of the Globalization Portal (GP) prototype is intended to begin solving this challenge by forming a partnership among globalization researchers, librarians, and information technology experts, who together will establish an electronic site where researchers can identify, evaluate, access, and use a wide range of globalization resources. The end result, hopefully, will be to transform the immense array of globalization related data into usable, trusted information that can be easily accessed through a single web portal.
Mark Amen, Director of the University of South Florida Globalization Research Center (USF GRC), provides oversight of the project to the portal project development team, which is comprised of Peter George, College of Arts and Sciences Computing, Ardis Hanson and Pete Reehling, USF Libraries.
For more about this project, please see George, Peter (2003). The Globalization Research Network Data Portal Project: A Library-Scholarly Community Partnership. In N. Callaos (Ed.), Conference Proceedings of the SCI 2003: The 7th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics. Orlando, Florida: International Institute of Informatics and Systemics.