The launching of an expedition has its own brand of excitement, with the sound of the main engines firing up, and the lifting of the gangway in a foreign port, as the team of scientists and crew set out to sea. Although this adventure is broadly appealing, very few have the opportunity to actually join an expedition. Launching Discovery through a Digital Library Portal Next Steps … 1. Dec “hands-on” Interoperability Workshop convened by John Helly and others “A System Engineering Experiment to Enhance Long-term Data and Metadata Interoperability in the Environmental and Earth Sciences.” 2. Complete the upload of all 721 cruises into the SIOExplorer digital library by July July national Teachers Workshop at UCSD. 4. Global Multibeam Trackline Registry to foster collaboration and cruise planning, with contributions from SIO, LDEO, WHOI, SOEST, IFREMER. 5. Global Seafloor Project Registry to provide contact for academic, government and commercial data sources. 6. Portable laptop SIOexplorer digital-library- in-a-box for real-time acquisition, as tested on R/V Revelle (SIO) and R/V Tangaroa (NIWA, NZ). 7.Realtime ship-to-shore data interactions with ROADnet. 8.Construction of museum exhibits from digital terrain models. 9.Ongoing collaboration with California COSEE. Collaborative effort: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego Supercomputer Center, UCSD Libraries Support from NSF NSDL, ITR and OCE Programs, and UCSD funds Fully searchable SIOExplorer digital library now interoperates with three data publishing authorities, others pending 1. Geological Data Center 3. Seamount Catalog 2. UCSD Libraries 721 SIO cruises (281 multibeam) Automated swath correction, metadata harvesting Online: swath bathymetry sidescan grids visualization objects mgd77 data profiles swath plots track charts documentation cruise reports dredges cores 2000 historic photographs Full text expedition reports and publications Integrated with the California Digital Library Hundreds of maps, auto-merged multibeam over global topography, Integrated with at IGPPwww.EarthRef.org Launching Discovery through a Digital Library Portal: SIOExplorer Stephen P. Miller, Hubert Staudigel, Catherine Johnson, Kimberly McSherry, Dru Clark, Uta Peckman (SIO) John J. Helly, Don Sutton (SDSC), Andrew Chase (now at MBARI) Brian Schottlaender, Deborah Day (UCSD Libraries) Margaret Helly (A. C. Mosley High School, Lynn Haven, Florida) With the “SIOExplorer” family of projects we are now beginning to open Voyages of Discovery across cyberspace to a wide range of students and teachers. What began two years ago as an effort to stabilize the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) data archives from more than 700 cruises going back 50 years, has now become an operational component of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL; complete with thousands of historic photographs, full text documents and 3D visualization experiences. Project Approach These collections and technologies will be put to the test with national teacher workshops in the next two summers. Teachers, paired with SIO graduate students, will prepare and field-test learning-experience modules that explore concepts from plate tectonics theory, for classroom and web use. Students will design their own personal voyages of discovery through our digital archives, promoting inquiry-based learning tailored to each individual. Community Benefits include the availability of a multidisciplinary collection of data, images and documents, an IT architecture that can be used as a model for scalable collection building, and a suite of re-usable tools for data and metadata management, as well as graphical search and display. Graphical user interface Search metadata Query with lat-lon box or keywords Use Oracle or PostgreSQL Display objects Depending on mime type Deliver data objects Use Storage Resource Broker Manage proprietary holds Java application Configure and launch with web start CruiseViewer global digital library interface Choose expert level Define geographic area Select collection View or download objects Putting NSDL to the test – can this new technology help overcome the barriers to building inquiry-driven learning experiences? Supported by NSF/DUE/NSDL “Mobilizing Enduring NSDL Resources in Plate Tectonics Research for Earth Science Education” National Teachers Workshop Enable students to design a personal voyage of discovery Build environment to support inquiry-driven learning Support alternate discovery avenues Pick an educational standard What topics might be of interest in this classroom? Pick a shipboard observation What can explain the patterns? Pick a plate tectonics concept What observations are needed to test the hypothesis? Teachers will be paired with SIO graduate students to experience the research process Teachers will navigate linked information structures to build learning modules Test in the classroom Make results and modules available to a wider audience Standards:Concepts:Digital objects: National, State Expedition Planning, Plate Tectonics SIOExplorer digital library content Workshop led by a teacher, Maggie Helly, A. C. Mosely High School, Lynn Haven, FL Field-tested Onboard: Automated Metadata & Data Harvesting