Building and Contributing Collections Aquatic Modeling WorkshopShelley Olds July 17 – 22, 2005DLESE Program Center UCAR

2 Primary Goal of DLESE Facilitate learning about Earth at all educational levels, formal and informal Facilitate learning about Earth at all educational levels, formal and informal Strategies to Achieve This Goal  Develop high quality collections  Provide access to Earth data, imagery & tools  Create discovery and distribution systems  Provide support services to create/use materials  Facilitate communication across all interests of Earth system education

3 Scope of DLESE Collection Emphasizes Earth as a System  Study of processes, states, cycles and interactions  Global and local perspectives  Interdisciplinary connections between atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, space and biosphere Emphasizes Education  Learning and teaching for improved understanding of Earth’s history, processes, and resources  Supports research and assessment activities

4 Materials in DLESE Educational materials - homework exercises, tutorials, guided inquiry sets, lesson plans, syllabi, classroom activities, curricula, modules, field trips, problem sets Assessment and pedagogical materials - exams, quizzes, self- assessments, learning/teaching techniques and educational research Research materials - journal articles, summaries, abstracts, case studies, arguments, theses, policies, indices, etc. Data - Earth and space data (imagery, numeric values, maps) Annotations - comments, reviews, teaching tips, additional content News and opportunities - information on grants, conferences, workshops, professional development, opportunities, etc. Tools - software or applications for interacting, accessing, manipulating or viewing, calculators and converters, models

5 Part 1: Build & Contribute Collection Process 1.Is the collection theme within DLESE scope 2.Determine type and format of collection 3.Understand collection policies 4.Create a scope statement Determine collection building strategy Determine collection selection criteria 5.Create metadata records (catalog resources) 6.Send metadata records to DLESE 7.Approval - Collections Accessioning Taskforce 8.Maintain the collection

6 Scope it Out - Mystery in a Bag - Activity Goal:  To have another team understand what is in your mystery bag without them having to open the bag Directions:  In teams of 4, examine your mystery bag  Create a collection with a theme  Decide which things do or don’t meet your theme. Those that do, put back in the bag  Create a short document describing your collection & info. needed to understand it

7 Key Points of a Good Scope Statement Collection builder describes who they are  Who is the person or organization (contact info too)  What is the purpose of the organization Collection purpose and goals  What is the purpose, goal or theme (overarching)  Who is the intended audience  How does collection fit with DLESE scope Collection policy  How are resources chosen and what is their granularity  What types of materials are included Terms of use  Who owns the resources and metadata Quality assurance and persistence  How are metadata records produced and maintained

8 Questions to Initiate Collection Building Is the collection being newly created or does it already exist? Does the collection consist of learning resources or is it reviews of learning resources? Or news and opportunities? Does the collection have existing metadata? Do collection documents articulate what gets in and what doesn’t and how? What granularity will the collection have?

9 Existing Collection Scenarios in DLESE Group of educators - gathers resources around a theme (DWEL, EET); uses DCS Single educator - makes their materials available (EMVC, AVC); uses DCS or cataloging template Organization - makes an existing repository available (NASA, NAP); uses metadata translation services Project - reviews or annotates resources (CRS, JESSE); uses own systems

10 Collection Building Methods DCS (DLESE Collection System)  Provides a user interface to generate metadata and manage/search a collection Template or Own System  Use a DLESE XML template as a guide to create own metadata records using any method  Do own collection management Translation  Programmatically map existing metadata fields to DLESE metadata fields  Do own collection management

11 Digital Water Education Library (DWEL) Collection builders: K-12 & informal educators Audience: K-12 & informal educational settings Focus: water in the Earth system How: gather 3 rd party resources by distributed teams of educators DLESE status: reviewed collection Size: 380 resources

12 DWEL Strategy for Defining Scope Concept webs developed for topical campaigns  Groundwater  Surface water  Oceans  Water in the atmosphere  Water use

13 DWEL Collection Building Strategy Divided into grade-level groups Selected (voted on) the concepts most relevant to each grade-level group Used targeted resource gathering Searched web and other sources for exemplary learning objects Conducted structured & robust reviews Cataloged resources using skilled catalogers

14 DWEL Work Hub Tracks workflows Organizes concepts, resources gathered Facilitates reviews Displays events & deliverables Catalogs using DCS

15 Collection Accessioning Requirements Be within DLESE scope Have a scope statement Complete required metadata (afternoon) Meet or exceed resource quality and metadata quality guidelines (show in guide) Get records to DLESE (afternoon)

16 DLESE Reviewed Collection (DRC) Meets collections accessioning criteria and documents a process for ensuring: 1.Scientific accuracy 2.Importance or significance 3.Pedagogical effectiveness 4.Completeness of documentation 5.Ease of use for teachers and learners 6.Inspirational or motivational for learners 7.Robustness as a digital resource

17 Lessons Learned in Collection Building Ensure resources are within scope Presentation of the resource is just as important as the content  Educational context is understood  Access to data/other materials works Metadata & resource quality are equally important Start with a small group of resources and metadata records; then build strategically Cataloging takes time so appropriate resource selection is critical

18 Summary - Part 1 Scope statements are the foundation of a collection Collection building methods differ Become familiar with the Collection Builder’s Guide Complete New Collection Survey Questions?

19 Build & Contribute Collection Process 1.Is the collection theme within DLESE scope 2.Determine type and format of collection 3.Understand collection policies 4.Create a scope statement Determine collection building strategy Determine collection selection criteria 5.Create metadata records (catalog resources) 6.Send metadata records to DLESE 7.Approval – Collections Accessioning Taskforce 8.Maintain the collection Part 1 Part 2

20 Review of Part 1: Starting a Collection Kind of collection:  Web resources or annotations  Materials (lesson plans, images etc.) Scope statement:  Collection purpose  Selection criteria, contact info Collection building strategy:  Who decides what gets in and how  Who catalogs; who does quality assurance

21 Part 2: Technical Aspects of Collection Building Collection types:  Resource, annotation, news and opps Metadata formats:  ADN, collection, annotation, news-opps Creating metadata records:  Required fields & controlled vocabularies  Cataloging best practices Sending metadata records to DLESE:  OAI, , FTP, hosted DCS instances

22 DLESE Collection Types Type of resource materials Collection type Metadata format Web-based educational resources Datasets Pedagogical materials Research materials (articles) Images, graphics, photos ResourceADN Comments, reviews, annotations Educational standards Teaching tips Additional content Annotation Time-sensitive announcements Fellowships, grants, jobs Workshops, conferences News/Opps

23 Metadata Purpose & Principles Describe resources in a structured & consistent Help users find resources efficiently and understand their scope Metadata Principles:  Required metadata (information that all records contain)  Controlled vocabularies (terms used are the same and well defined)  Consistent cataloging

24 DLESE Required Metadata ADN News and Opportunities Annotation Each framework has required metadata Will cover ADN required metadata Attend consult session to see required metadata for News-Opps or Annotation

25 Title - the name of the resource URL - the URL to an online resource Description - a narrative describing the content/purpose Subject - general topic areas that the resource is about Technical reqs - browser or platform requirements Resource type - type of educational resource (lab, photo) Audience - grade range of the resource Copyright - copyright statement Cost - yes/no/unknown cost to use or access resource Resource creator - author or publisher information Resource cataloger - cataloger information DLESE Required Metadata - ADN Format (Cataloger Provided)

26 DLESE Required Metadata - ADN Format Language - of the resource and metadata Copyright of the metadata - ownership of the metadata Terms of use - how the metadata may be used Metadata framework - catalog scheme (e.g. ADN) Creation date - creation date of metadata record Accession date - the accession date of the item in to the collection builder's collection Catalog name and number - name of collection and an id number for the metadata record like a library call # Record status - status of the metadata record within a collection (e.g.accessioned, working) (Administrative)

27 Methods for Creating Metadata - the how All metadata records are XML files DCS (DLESE Collection System):  Exploration activity Template or Own System:  See sample record and complete required metadata fields Translation:  Talk to Katy

28 Cataloging Activity (DCS demo) Goal:  Explore generating metadata via the DLESE Collection System (DCS) Directions:  Go to  Explore controlled vocabularies  Explore required metadata  Explore validating metadata

29 Cataloging Best Practices Tips about what to do and not do when creating metadata for DLESE Each field has examples Fields may provide additional tips in special situations Controlled vocabularies are defined too See example for title (in guide)

30 DLESE Controlled Vocabularies To provide consistent search results Aid users in browsing the library Aids DLESE in assessing library content Each metadata framework has their own Used in the required ADN fields of:  Subject, resource type, grade range, cost  Technical reqs, language, record status

31 How to get records to DLESE OAI-PMH: A protocol for metadata harvesting by the Open Archives Initiative (DLESE has software to support it - See it at the Share Fair) Send a zip or tar file of metadata records to Ftp: Can send anonymously to DLESE; talk to Katy

32 Collections Accessioning/Approval Process Ensures alignment to DLESE collection policies and guidelines Reviews scope statement to determine DLESE appropriateness Examines resources, metadata & collection reports to judge overall vitality Corresponds directly with collection builder in regards to approval

33 Maintaining collections DLESE checks active collections:  URL link checking  Improper XML encoding  Duplicates within a collection  Required metadata  Presence of new records in tar/zip files  Resources are still within DLESE scope DLESE notifies collection builder and the collection builder is responsible for the actual updates and changes

34 Tips for Collection Builders Perform internal and ongoing quality assurance and technical checks Update and respond to maintenance requests Involve the DPC early because technically there is a lot for a collection builder to do

35 Questionnaire for DLESE Do you plan to create a DLESE collection? Do you have enough information to start collection work? What collection support or training do you anticipate needing? Complete New Collection Survey

36 Contacts Web: ShareFair: See collection building table

37 Definitions (1) Metadata - structured descriptive information about resources (e.g. info in a card catalog) Metadata Standard - a representation that is developed & available from a standards body or metadata organization (e.g Dublin Core) Metadata Framework - a representation that may or may not be based on or derived from a standard by a standards body (e.g. collection, annotation)

38 Definitions (2) Resource - actual content - web based learning material, annotations, reviews, data, imagery, audio clips, code etc. Record - an XML file containing metadata describing a resource Collection - a group of metadata records organized around a theme Annotation - more content / metadata appropriate to associate with a resource

39 Definitions (3) Schema - XML schema files (code) of the metadata representation Metadata Format - the metadata representation the XML metadata files are using (e.g. ADN, IMS, Dublin Core) Harvest - methods to get metadata files