www.great-lakes.net or www.glin.net

Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Great Lakes Commission is pleased to announce a new look and enhanced navigation for the Great Lakes Information Network (GLIN). The new GLIN will be officially unveiled to the public on May 15.

The site features a condensed “Daily News” page that includes current Great Lakes news and media stories, new Great Lakes web sites of interest, a fast-forecast weather link, and Site of the Month profiles. Other enhancements to GLIN include an advanced search engine that allows visitors to narrow their searches by agency and/or keyword, greatly increasing the visibility of the web offerings from GLIN partner agencies.

Online since 1993, GLIN has received awards and high praise as a one-stop-shopping resource on the Web for Great Lakes-related news, issues, organizations and activities. Its usage has grown remarkably and is fast approaching 1 million visits per month.

By cross-linking with hundreds of agencies and organizations involved in management of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system, GLIN represents a united web presence for the entire region and a model for other shared watersheds around the globe. For example, a network modeled after GLIN serves the Baltic Sea region and similar initiatives are under development in the Upper Paraguay watershed in South America and the Gulf of Maine in New England, among others.

With the new design, GLIN continues to use an “ecosystem approach” in its navigation, recognizing the integrated nature of the water, land, human and economic resources of the binational Great Lakes basin. Two new components of GLIN are The Education And Curriculum Homesite (TEACH Great Lakes) and Maps and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

TEACH focuses on advancing the nature and distribution of Great Lakes-related educational materials to the broad audience of educators and students in the Great Lakes region and beyond. The TEACH site will be a “virtual library” of curriculum and related educational materials, as well as an educators’ information exchange corner, image gallery, expert speakers bureau and more.

“Maps and GIS” is a new portal for managing and maintaining digital data at a regional level. Users can browse and download images in the map gallery, access datasets that can be used with GIS software, or sample online GIS mapping tools.

GLIN is supported by grants from the Ameritech Foundation; the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District; and Environment Canada. GLIN development and maintenance services are provided by the Great Lakes Commission.

For immediate release: May 15, 2000
Contact: Christine Manninen, [email protected]

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The Great Lakes Commission is a nonpartisan, binational compact agency created by state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission consists of state legislators, agency officials and governors’ appointees from its eight member states. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.” The Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.