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

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 systemSupport and services for anyone interested in learning about the EarthA 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 systemSteering committeeStanding committees

Who is building DLESE?

Individual K-12 and university educators and scientists contribute resourcesPartnerships create thematic collectionsCommunity governance guides library developmentCore services develop library components

Collections, Community, Data, Evaluation, and the DLESE Program Center (DPC)

Core Services

Collections – to be determinedCommunity – Colorado State University, Carleton College, Montana State UniversityData – TERC, UCAR-Unidata, University of Northern ColoradoEvaluation – University of Colorado, University of GeorgiaDLESE Program Center- UCAR

Discovering ResourcesUsing 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-IMSBased on IMS, DTD-validated, no datatyping

Transitioning to ADN for DLESE discovery

Schema-validated, strong data typingAdditional educational and geospatial fields

Transform to Dublin Core before ship to NSDL

www.dlese.orgwww.dlese.org

Simple Simple searchsearch

Power Power searchsearch

ozoneozone

BrowsBrowsee

Browse by Browse by subject, subject, grade level grade level or resource or resource typetype

Select grade Select grade level and level and type of type of resource resource

View the View the

completecomplete

descriptiondescription

View the View the

completecomplete

descriptiondescription

The The resource resource itselfitself

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 BuildingDLESE 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 ReviewedCollection Collection

Relevant to Earth system educationCataloged with a minimum set of information for discoveryWide access to a range of resources

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 collectionUnique instances of cataloging tool for formal, thematic collections – managed at project site or hosted by DPCXML 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 contextTeacher’s Guide could result in 75-100 records, possibly more

Each chapterProtocolsLearning Activities

Which standards, at what degree of specificity?

Things to consider…

DLESE Community Collection or discrete thematic collectionBroad or ReviewedCataloging and sharing mechanism –technical support staff required

Training available from DPC

Dynamic nature of collection – suggests need for ongoing access to metadata recordsDissemination in NSDL as well as DLESE

www.dlese.org