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New Online Resource Puts Local and Regional Government Documents at Your Fingertips


February 6, 2009

The UO Libraries has launched an important new electronic resource for citizens of Oregon and researchers around the world. The Local and Regional Documents Archive (LRDA) provides a centralized, fully searchable repository and archive of significant documents produced by local governments and regional offices of U. S. federal government agencies within the state or Oregon.

Government bodies and agencies currently represented in the database include:

  • all Oregon counties
  • all Oregon cities
  • United States Forest Service (national forests in Oregon; Pacific Northwest Research Station)
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM districts in Oregon)

Using any standard web browser on a networked computer, researchers, community organizers, developers, administrators, businesspeople, and others can use the LRDA to immediately access full-text PDF versions of more than 2,200 documents, including local planning documents, city development codes, sub-area plans, documents required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), land management planning documents, resource management plans, and environmental opinions. Additional documents are being added to the database as they become available. Researchers and students in the areas of public policy and management, architecture, and environmental studies will find the resource especially useful.

Ted Smith, coordinator of the LRDA project and assistant head of the Document Center at the UO Libraries, notes that accessing some of these materials formerly required many hours of time. "Now," Smith says, "users can search the database, locate relevant documents, and view them on screen or download them for printing within a matter of minutes."

LRDA complements another resource developed by the UO Libraries, Data for Local Communities , an online gathering place for statistical, spatial, and descriptive information about the cities, counties, and other civil, economic, and natural regions of Oregon and Washington.

LRDA's website was designed by the Interactive Media group in the library's Center for Media and Educational Technologies. Start-up funding for the project was provided by a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Oregon State Library.

For more information on the LRDA project, contact Ted Smith, (541) 346-1884, tedsmith@uoregon.edu.



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