The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE): A Community Resource www.dlese.org 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.

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 star 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.

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)

DLESE Mission Responding to these initiatives, DLESE was born, and is envisioned to-- “To improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of teaching and learning about the Earth at all educational levels.” DLESE Strategic Plan

The DLESE Vision Collections of peer-reviewed teaching & learning resources about the Earth system 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.

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 ……

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. K-12 group gathering and cataloging water resources

Discovering DLESE Resources Pointers to approximately 2300 resources Resources are described in metadata records. Metadata records enhance discovery and comprehension of the items before actually going to a resource. DLESE holds metadata records, not actual web pages or resources

Metadata Includes……… Description and title Grade level assignment Resource type (curriculum, activity, image, data) Technical requirements Geospatial referencing Educational standards (science, geography)

How Has DLESE Been Used: Provided “classic” Earth graphics for the classroom Discussion forums to design curriculum and visualizations Increased resource comprehension by teachers Helped resource creators document and manage their own collections

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

How can you contribute? Submit an item to the library using our web-based cataloging tool Create an organized collection around a theme Participate in numerous committees and working groups