CONTEXT: HALF OF THE LIGHT EMITTED BY GALAXIES IS STARLIGHT ABSORBED AND REPROCESSED INTO THE INFRARED BY DUST. THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION (SED) OF THIS IR EMISSION ENCODES INFORMATION ON THE MASS AND PROPERTIES OF THE DUST THE RADIATION FIELD HEATING IT AND THE BOLOMETRIC LUMINOSITY OF THE REGION. THIS MAKES IR EMISSION A MAIN TOOL TO ESTIMATE STAR FORMATION RATES (SFRS) AND TO TRACE THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM (ISM) IN GALAXIES. THE DUST ITSELF ALSO PLAYS KEY ROLES IN THE PHYSICS OF STAR FORMATION AND THEREBY GALAXY EVOLUTION.THIS CRITICAL INFORMATION ON DUST AND ITS DEPENDENCE ON ENVIRONMENT CAN ONLY BE RELIABLY MEASURED WHEN WE HAVE OBSERVATIONS WITH FULL WAVELENGTH COVERAGE OF THE IR SED THAT RESOLVE GALAXIES. WITH NO NEW IR IMAGING MISSIONS ON THE HORIZON THE REMARKABLY THOROUGH CENSUS CONDUCTED BY HERSCHEL SPITZER AND WISE OF THE NEARBY (D<50 MPC) GALAXY POPULATION IS THE DEFINITIVE RESOURCE ON DUST AT Z=0 FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. SUCH OBSERVATIONS ALLOW US TO UNDERSTAND THE BEHAVIOR OF THE IR SED AND SO INFORM OBSERVATIONS FROM THE MAJOR NEW FACILITIES ALMA AND JWST WHICH HAVE AMAZING SENSITIVITY AND RESOLUTION BUT LIMITED WAVELENGTH COVERAGE.OBJECTIVES: WE WILL CREATE A LIBRARY OF MATCHED RESOLUTION UNIFORMLY PROCESSED IR SEDS FOR ALL 532 LOCAL GALAXIES WITH RESOLVED MAPPING IN THE HERSCHEL SPITZER AND WISE ARCHIVES. WE WILL ASSOCIATE THE SED MEASUREMENTS WITH RICH "VALUE ADDED" DATA INCLUDING FITS OF PHYSICAL MODELS TO THE IR SED (YIELDING SMALL GRAIN FRACTIONS TEMPERATURE AND DUST MASSES) HOST GALAXY PROPERTIES (E.G. STELLAR MASS SFR MORPHOLOGY INCLINATION) AND LOCAL CONDITIONS IN THE GALAXY (SFR AND STELLAR SURFACE DENSITY ISM GAS MASS AND METALLICITY WHERE AVAILABLE). THE LIBRARY WILL BE CREATED FOR A RANGE OF SPATIAL AND ANGULAR SCALES AND SERVED THROUGH IRSA/MAST PROVIDING A MAJOR HIGH LEVEL LEGACY RESOURCE THAT WILL BE USEFUL TO A WIDE COMMUNITY.WE WILL EXPLOIT THIS DATABASE TO ADDRESS THREE MAJOR QUESTIONS: (1) WHAT POWERS THE DUST EMISSION FROM GALAXIES AND HOW DOES DUST EMISSION RELATE TO THE STAR FORMATION RATE? (2) HOW ARE DUST AND GAS RELATED ACROSS THE GALAXY POPULATION AND HOW CAN DUST EMISSION BEST BE USED TO TRACE GAS? AND (3) HOW DOES THE DUST GRAIN POPULATION VARY IN RESPONSE TO LOCAL ENVIRONMENT ACROSS GALAXIES? METHODS: WE WILL USE ESTABLISHED TECHNIQUES TO UNIFORMLY PROCESS THE ARCHIVAL DATA FIT MODELS TO THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS MATCH THE DATA IN RESOLUTION. THESE HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYED ON SIMILAR DATA BY INDIVIDUAL TEAMS (INCLUDING US) BUT WE WILL APPLY THEM TO AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE LARGER SAMPLE.PERCEIVED SIGNIFICANCE: DUST IS A MAIN MEDIATOR OF CLOUD AND STAR FORMATION AND THUS GALAXY EVOLUTION. THEREFORE THE PROPERTIES AND EVOLUTION OF DUST IN GALAXIES IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO KEY NASA SCIENCE GOALS TO "DISCOVER HOW THE UNIVERSE WORKS EXPLORE HOW IT BEGAN AND EVOLVED AND SEARCH FOR LIFE ON PLANETS AROUND OTHER STARS." THESE ARE ALSO ESSENTIAL TOOLS TO UNDERSTAND "HOW DID WE GET HERE?" IN PRACTICAL TERMS THE DATABASE THAT WE PROPOSE TO CREATE WOULD BE A MAJOR RESOURCE FOR MANY SCIENTISTS: A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND THE PHYSICS OF DUST AND THE ISM FOR THOSE STUDYING LOCAL GALAXIES AND A MAJOR AID TO INTERPRET MONOCHROMATIC OBSERVATIONS OF HIGH-Z GALAXIES AND GALAXY SURVEYS. THIS SHOULD HAVE A LARGE IMPACT IN THE ALMA AND (SOON) JWST COMMUNITIES.