Contributing Collections: How To 2009 Annual Meeting

NSDL Collection Priorities Convey new library focus impacts on collection building Promote the use of existing tools & services for collection building Encourage metadata creation that supports new library focus Provide community feedback on collections (collections assessment)

NSDL Evolution Of Collections Past: broad STEM scope repository Transition: educationally focused scope supported by NSF at reverse site visit Present: scope redefined with an emphasis on resource quality Future: resource selection targeted to educational purposes; emphasis on finer granularity; improved resource description for learning applications

Library Focus Impacts on Collections Library focus: supports study & teaching of STEM concepts & research on STEM learning Goal: provide access to materials that foster demonstrable educational impact Impacts: updated NSDL Collection Policy deaccessioned out of scope collections (results shown later) NSDL Pathways collections are more discoverable (now 56% of library, up from 2.74%)

Library Scope NSDL collects resources designed for teaching, learning, conducting research relevant to STEM education NSDL collections support the content, skills, or understandings that are likely to be important to STEM educators and learners

Goals of NSDL Resources Learning called for in U.S. national or state educational standards Learning on a topic of societal importance Mastering of foundational skills needed for advancement in a discipline or career Understanding of a concept central to a STEM discipline Understanding of linkages and interactions among or within STEM disciplines, or between STEM and other disciplines

Collection Builder Responsibilities Select resources within NSDL scope. (Collections are reviewed for approval) Determine a method for metadata creation. Create quality metadata. Provide metadata to NSDL. Provide collection information, owner and collection logo to NSDL. Maintain collection (metadata and resources).

Benefits of Contributing Use existing & stable infrastructure for digital discovery Meet Criterion 2 of NSF proposals Multiple paths of discovery and re-use of resources from services that use NSDL resources

Tools & Services for Collection Building (1) Collections are groups of metadata records that have a consistent topic, theme, organization or audience Collection builders provide metadata to NSDL by: NSDL Collection System (NCS): catalog directly into NSDL OAI: share metadata records from cataloging applications (e.g. CWIS) Webfeed Ingest : indicate RSS or atom feeds for a collection (coming soon) Repository API: communicate directly with NSDL application programming interface

Tools & Services for Collection Building (2) Tool Hosting: NSDL can host NCS and provide a mechanism for creating a portal for search and discovery of metadata Training: telecons to install, use and customize NSDL supported tools (NCS, DDS, Wiki, ExpertVoices, EduPak) API’s: use the NSDL Data Repository (NDR) as metadata storage for your native metadata

What is Quality Metadata? Educational Metadata: include education level, audience, resource type, educational standards and appropriate related resources General Metadata: includes title, description, language, keywords, URL to resource Lifecycle Metadata: creator or publisher, rights information, access rights Metadata format: prefer nsdl_dc/ msp2 over oai_dc Controlled vocabularies: use NSDL terms for consistency and better discoverability

Collections Assessment: Update 2009 Current information on library size, # of collections and library content over time Show impact of deaccessioning 2 million items in 4 months Illustrate gaps in coverage topically, educationally and audience-wise Illustrate needs for metadata to better support new library scope & focus Begin instrumenting the library for collections assessment and use

Collections Assessment: Library Size month # of managed records # of collections # of new collections added in previous month Nov 1, 2009 115,692 113 Oct 1, 2009 118,835 114 1 Sep 1, 2009 153,725 131 2 Aug 1, 2009 1,657,659 160 July 1, 2009 2,186,256 170

Pathway Collections at NSDL.org Jan & Oct 2009 # of collection Jan/ Oct # of items % of library resources Amser 1 7410 9555 0.37% 8.25% BEN 11,842 12,404 0.59% 10.71% ChemDL 703 714 0.03% 0.62% comPADRE 2053 5531 0.10% 4.78% CSERD 1146 1171 0.06% 1.01% DLESE 25 14,690 14,134 0.73% 12.21% Engineering 10 12 10,214 14,212 0.51% 12.27% MatDL 470 0.02% 0.40% Math 3 6 1165 1516 1.31% MSP2 2282 2171 0.11% 1.87% SMILE, Teaching with Data, Ensemble, CLEAN, Math Path Teachers’ Domain 3098 3101 0.15% 2.68% TOTALs 45 50 55,073 64,979 2.74% 56.11% Use library number as 115,779 for 2009-10-12 Use library number as 2,012,278 for Jan

Collections Assessment: Query Analysis Provides a before & after picture of collections deaccessioning affect on user search queries Uses 15 popular search queries from Apr/May conducted at NSDL.org Classified each resource with 1 education level & 1 resource type Looks at top 10 items in each search query such that 150 resources were classified

# resources not accessible Query Results query total # of results Jun / Oct # from Pathways # resources not accessible # broken Air pressure 9,299 1,672 3 9 7 1 Algebra 37,651 6,167 2 Bernoulli equation 728 97 4 Chemistry 497,773 10,012 Climate change 17,523 4,612 Ecology 151,908 9,555 Genetics 161,509 5,003 6 Gravity 9,215 2,723 How do cells make proteins 6,160 648 Minerals 26,287 2,575 What are blood types 9,532 680 5 What are the layers of the earth 2,165 1,653 What effects the smell on taste 172 83 8 What is life 42,878 12,560 Where are bacteria found 6,959 824 TOTALs (out of 150 resources) 27 71 45

Analysis of Query Results Pathway results more than doubled (27 to 71) More duplicates appear in top 10 results because different URLs are cataloged for the same resource Number of results that go to a metadata record decreased by half (54 to 24) Number of results not accessible dropped (45 to 8) The # of results per query dropped dramatically 40% of resource results in Oct were on Jun results

Analysis of Resource Type Resource types for the top 10 search results learning resources, dataset, pedagogical & education standards doubled animations, videos, visualizations almost quadrupled articles, journals, books, abstracts, conference proceedings decreased by 38% Granularity can be improved university & corporate homepage & lists of links increased

Analysis of Education Level Education level for the top 10 search results undergraduate rose slightly graduate decreased threefold high school, middle and elementary tripled general and informal doubled Representation across the library is more balanced more education levels are represented in each query result rather than concentrated at one education level

Assessing Use of Resources and Collections Using Google Analytics over search results, Science Literacy Maps and Google landing pages to: Characterize collection use relative to library Characterize resource use within a collection What else would be of value to you in terms of use?

Contacts, URLs, More Info NSDL Collection Development Team: Tim Cornwell, Katy Ginger, Karon Kelly, Laura Lusk Tools: NCS, EduPak, DDS, Wiki, ExpertVoices Contact: http://nsdl.org/about/contactus/ Handout and Comment: Provide feedback on the NSDL Community site

Results for General Characteristics query total # of results Jun / Oct # from Pathways # are metadata # no access # broken Jun / Oct # on Jun Air pressure 9,299 1,672 3 9 1 7 4 Algebra 37,651 6,167 10 2 Bernoulli equation 728 97 Chemistry 497,773 10,012 Climate change 17,523 4,612 5 Ecology 151,908 9,555 Genetics 161,509 5,003 6 Gravity 9,215 2,723 How do cells make proteins 6,160 648 Minerals 26,287 2,575 What are blood types 9,532 680 What are the layers of the earth 2,165 1,653 What effects the smell on taste 172 83 8 What is life 42,878 12,560 Where are bacteria found 6,959 824 TOTALs (out of 150 resources) 27 71 54 24 45 60

Query Results by Resource Type article/ jour/conf/ book/abs Jun / Oct dep-uni/ corp/ link list Jun / Oct data/ped/ edu std student learning viz/ani video news/glos/encyclo Air pressure 6 1 3 9 Algebra 4 5 2 Bernoulli equation 8 Chemistry Climate change Ecology Genetics Gravity How do cells make proteins 7 Minerals What are blood types What are the layers of the earth What effects the smell on taste What is life Where are bacteria found TOTALs (out of 150 resources) 90 33 15 22 24 55 13

Query Results by Education Level Grad Jun / Oct Under grad High Middle Elem General/ informal Air pressure 7 1 2 4 Algebra 6 5 Bernoulli equation 10 Chemistry 3 Climate change Ecology Genetics Gravity 9 How do cells make proteins Minerals What are blood types What are the layers of the earth What effects the smell on taste What is life Where are bacteria found TOTALs (out of 150 resources) 84 27 32 41 30 12 21 13

Collections Assessment: Recommended Resources ** 30 from same domain and declined * 25 from Pathways for NSF OLPA collection Appears the number of recommendations are dropping off month # of recommendations Oct 2009 7 Sep 2009 12 Aug 2009 43** (13 real ) Jul 2009 39* (14 real) Jun 2009 May 2009 10 Apr 2009 Mar 2009 Feb 2009 22 Jan 2009 8 Dec 2008 Nov 2008 25 Oct 2008