The West Branch Institute (WBI) at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania is a new initiative within the College of Arts and Sciences. The goals of the WBI are reasonably simple and straightforward being:

	To gather information already known about the cultural, historical and natural resources of the area composing the West Branch drainage of the Susquehanna River in North Central Pennsylvania and create an archive which is readily available to the public.
	To use the archive in a directed way to identify gaps in knowledge, to look at the archived data in new ways, and to aid and support the development of new research efforts to add to the knowledge base.
	To publicize new information, new interpretations of old information and current research efforts in a manner which will insure their consideration by policy makers, planners, researchers and political entities to creatively solve problems or answer questions within the West Branch drainage.