The Digital Library for Earth System Science:

Contributing resources and collections

Meeting with GLOBE 5/29/03 Holly Devaul

DLESE Mission

“To improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of teaching and learning about the Earth at all educational levels.” DLESE Strategic Plan

Why a digital library?

A well-articulated community goal to transform geoscience education by combining pedagogy, technology and science

What is DLESE?

A place to find quality teaching and learning resources about the Earth system Support and services for anyone interested in learning about the Earth A community-led effort, funded by NSF The geosciences node of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)

What does DLESE offer?

Web-based materials (lesson plans, computer and lab activities, data, visualizations, background material, portals)

Resources about the Earth are contributed and described by educators and scientists

Services to help users effectively create and use materials

Search by standards; find teaching tips and reviews; attend workshops and events

Interfaces and tools to allow exploration of Earth data sets

Key design concepts

User input central to every stage of library development Participatory design; community input, focus groups, workshops, Annual meeting Community governance system Steering committee Standing committees

Who is building DLESE?

Individual K-12 and university educators and scientists contribute resources Partnerships create thematic collections Community governance guides library development Core services develop library components Collections, Community, Data, Evaluation, and the DLESE Program Center (DPC)

Core Services

Collections – to be determined Community – Colorado State University, Carleton College, Montana State University Data – TERC, UCAR-Unidata, University of Northern Colorado Evaluation – University of Colorado, University of Georgia DLESE Program Center- UCAR

Discovering Resources Using DLESE

Discovery only for resources related to Earth system science Resources in DLESE are selected and cataloged by the ESS education community Resources are described in metadata records which enhance discovery and comprehension of the items. DLESE holds metadata records, not the actual web pages.

Metadata includes………

Title, description Grade level assignment Resource type (Curriculum, activity, image, data) Technical requirements Geospatial referencing Educational standards (science, geography)

Metadata framework

Currently, DLESE-IMS Based on IMS, DTD-validated, no datatyping Transitioning to ADN for DLESE discovery Schema-validated, strong data typing Additional educational and geospatial fields Transform to Dublin Core before ship to NSDL

www.dlese.org

Simple search Browse ozone Power search

Browse by subject, grade level or resource type

Select grade level and type of resource

View the complete description

The resource itself

Data and imagery for each exercise

August 2003: Search by Standards: NSES and NCGE to start – granularity issues to resolve for future

August 2003: Search over multiple collections

Collection Building

DLESE library policies http://www.dlese.org/documents/policy/index.html

•

Scope

: what the collection is about • • •

Accession

: what’s needed to be a collection

Deaccession

: when a collection or resource “breaks”

IP and Privacy

: how we treat the collection DLESE Catalog System http://training.dlese.org

OAI software for collection harvesting http://www.dlese.org/Metadata/tool/index.htm

Broad Collection and Reviewed Collection http://www.dlese.org/Metadata

Broad Collection

Relevant to Earth system education Cataloged with a minimum set of information for discovery Wide access to a range of resources

Reviewed Collection

All the criteria of the Broad Collection plus: • Scientifically accurate • Importance • Pedagogically effective • Well-documented • Ease of use • Power to inspire • Robust

How do resources get cataloged?

Web-based cataloging tool (DCS) at www.dlese.org

-> public tool for general collection Unique instances of cataloging tool for formal, thematic collections – managed at project site or hosted by DPC XML files created outside of web tool – XML template or database generated

DLESE Catalog System

Web-based tool to catalog resources with the following: • URL, title, description, resource type • Grade level, subject (and many more) Tool can be downloaded for local cataloging use Can share cataloged information with digital libraries or use at DLESE

Build your own collection

Free-text and controlled vocabularies

What to Catalog?

Distinct resources – e.g topic, grade level, presented such that are usable outside of GLOBE context Teacher’s Guide could result in 75-100 records, possibly more Each chapter Protocols Learning Activities Which standards, at what degree of specificity?

Things to consider…

DLESE Community Collection or discrete thematic collection Broad or Reviewed Cataloging and sharing mechanism – technical support staff required Training available from DPC Dynamic nature of collection – suggests need for ongoing access to metadata records Dissemination in NSDL as well as DLESE

www.dlese.org