1. The Digital Library for Earth System Education:
A Community Resource
Today I’d like to share with you an overview of the Digital Library for Earth System Education. The architechure of this library is being developed at UCAR in Boulder, although the full scope of the project and participation extends beyond our work there. I’ll give you some background on the impetus for its inception, what our goals are and where we are at thus far. Then I will give you a tour of the library and the services it has to offer.

2. What Is a Digital Library?
A managed environment of multimedia materials in digital form,
designed for the benefit of its user population,
structured to facilitate access to its contents,
equipped with aids to navigate the global network
with users and holdings totally distributed, but managed as a coherent whole
--Mel Collier, International Symposium on Research, Development, and Practice in Digital Libraries
A good place to start then is , just what is a digital library? Here is one definition …..
So a digital library is really analogous to a community library, in that it can offer:
A Communal repository of knowledge and support services
A town meeting place
A commons for intellectual discussion and community activism.
June 2002

3. Numerous initiatives and funding have emerged seeking to change the nature of geoscience education
The notion of developing an earth system science library emerged from a number of initiatives at NSF and elsewhere. An agenda to change the nature of geoscience education was articulated through a number of gatherings and publications, one of which states:
“As the ‘information age’ progresses, a vision emerges of an informed society that is empowered to maintain a healthy planet and develop strategies to respond to the continuing challenges posed by the Earth’s physical and biological environments. In the future, detailed knowledge of the full range of interacting Earth processes will be essential for sustaining the health and prosperity of nations and individuals. Equally important will be the need for educational innovations to enable the populace to understand the complex and interwoven processes that support and affect their lives.”
(NSF Geosciences Beyond 2000)
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4. “To improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of teaching and learning about the Earth at all educational levels.”
DLESE Strategic Plan
Responding to these initiatives, DLESE was born, and is envisioned to--
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5. An Earth system perspective
Earth is a complex and dynamic entity:
Synergistic physical system of interrelated phenomena
Governed by complex processes involving the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere
No process or phenomenon occurs in complete isolation from other elements of the system
Just was is an Earth system perspective?
DLESE is committed to creating a community resource that supports the teaching and learning of Earth system science. ESS views the Earth as a synergistic physical system of interrelated phenomena, governed by complex processes involving the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. Fundamental to the Earth system science approach is the need to emphasize relevant interactions of chemical, physical, biological and dynamical processes that extend over spatial scales from microns to the size of planetary orbits, and
over time scales of milliseconds to billions of years.
Within the concept of the Earth as a complex and dynamic entity involving the disciplinary spheres for land, air, water and life, there is no process or phenomenon that occurs in complete isolation from other elements of the system.
Our goal is to create a resource and environment that supports teaching and learning in this interdisciplinary way….
June 2002

6. The DLESE vision
Collections of peer-reviewed teaching and learning resources
Interfaces and tools to allow exploration of Earth data sets
Services to help users effectively create and use materials
To do so we envision providing access to collections of peer-reviewed teaching and learning resources, interfaces and tools to allow exploration of Earth data sets, and services to help users effectively create and use educational materials.
June 2002

7. DLESE operating principles
Community governance and ownership
Respond to community input/needs
Build a federated, distributed effort
Engage users as contributors
individuals and formal collections efforts
Measure impact on learning
DLESE Operating principles are based on community involvement at many levels ……
June 2002

8. Current community engagement
Standing committees and organized interest groups
User-centered design of library interface based on use cases
Resource cataloging and suggestions
Specific examples of community engagement include standing committees ( Collections, technology, Services …) and interest groups such as K-12 education, diversity, marine education,
The library interface itself has been designed by an iterative, participatory design process in which use cases and user feedback has been used to make critical design decisions.
A cataloging tool allows users to create records for resources and submit them to the library, or simply submit a URL for consideration.
The individuals involved in these efforts are a diverse crew that includes both geoscientists and K-12 educators, many of which attend our annual meeting each summer.
Includes geoscientists and K-12 educators
June 2002

9. Library holdings and components
Metadata records for approx 2000 resources, 500 more in process.
News and opportunities
Cataloging and management tool
Cross-cutting issues: diversity, linking research and education, biocomplexity
Library development documentation
Right now the library offers access to approx digital educational resources, with records for 500 more currently being processed. I’ll talk more about that in a minute…
There is a news and opportunities section, the cataloging tool that I mentioned earlier, and areas devoted to the discussion of cross cutting issues such as diversity…. There is much in the way of technical and social library development, and all of our software is public access.
June 2002

10. Discovering resources using DLESE
Discover only 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.
It is important to note that the library does not actually hold the resources themselves, but rather, metadata records that describe them. This is the strength of the library search process, and the answer to “ why not just use google?”
In DLESE discovery is enabled only over resources related to Earth System Science….. These resources are selected and cataloged by the ESS education community. The metadata records describe the resources in ways that enhance both discovery and comprehension of the resources.
June 2002

11. Metadata includes……… Grade level assignment Resource type
Curriculum, activity, image, data
Technical requirements
Geospatial referencing
Educational standards (science, geography)
The metadata fields include:
A grade level assignment, resource type, technical requirements to access or use the resource, among other descriptive terms. Data can now be entered to indicate geospatial location ( lat and long points and boxes) as well as the national standards for science and geography. Although search over the last 2 fields is not yet enabled, they are the next on our list for technical development.
June 2002

12.
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13. Let’s take a tour………
switch to live demo….. Keep canned slides in case we are off line.
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14. Simple search
Power search
map tools
Browse
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15. Browse through categories
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16. Select grade level and type of resource
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17. Scan
results
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18. View the
complete
description
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19. The resource itself
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20. Community center services
News and opportunities
Post an announcement
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21. lists
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22. Job opportunities
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23. The DLESE difference - Ongoing development includes:
Combination of metadata and resource content searching
Geospatial referencing and search
Search by educational standards
Data visualization tools
Access to other collections like NASA and Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype
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24. Value of DLESE
Promotes broad access to quality geoscience educational resources
Supports geoscience literacy goals and Earth system perspectives
Integrates research and education through access to Earth systems data
Serves as an integrator for community capacity building, leadership, and educational transformation
June 2002

25. How can you contribute?
Individuals can submit items to the library using a web-based cataloging tool
Organized collections efforts
DPC hosted instance of the tool
Download code and maintain collection independently
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26. Contribute a resource -> Catalog a resource
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27. Guidelines for entering each field
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28.
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29. Let’s search using Google
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30. Let’s search using DLESE
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31. Let’s search using Google
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32. Let’s search using DLESE
June 2002