NSF NSDL: Where are We & Where Are We Going?

1. Jane Chu Prey (jprey@nsf.gov) Program Director National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education NSF NSDL: Where are We & Where Are We Going?

2. National Science Foundation Organization

3. Education and Human Resources (EHR)

4. The NSF NationalScience,Technology,EngineeringandMathematics (STEM) Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program Purpose To create, develop, and sustain a national digital library to serve as an online network of learning environments and high-quality resources for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at all levels. Vision of the digital library • Designed to meet the needs of learners at all levels, in both individual and collaborative settings • Constructed to enable dynamic use of a broad array of materials for learning, primarily in digital format • Managed actively to promote reliable anytime - anywhere access to quality collections and services, available both within and without the network • Reduce confusion of the web and help people focus their time productively

5. NSDL Initially Operational Fall, 2002 NSDL Program NSF,FY00-continuing DLI-2 Special Emphasis in UG Education FY98-99 Digital Libraries Initiative - Phase 2 (DLI-2) - NSF/DARPA/NASA/NLM/LOC/NEH with Smithsonian, National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), FY98 - continuing Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI) - NSF/NASA/ARPA, FY94-97 NSDL Programmatic History

6. “The network is the library” NSDL Users Tools Content

7. NSDL Connects • Users: students, educators, life-long learners • Content: structured learning materials; large real-time or archived datasets; audio, images, animations; primary sources; digital learning objects (e.g. applets); interactive (virtual, remote) laboratories; ... • Tools: search; refer; validate; integrate; create; customize; publish; share; notify; collaborate; ...

8. NSDL Tracks • Core Integration activities to focus on the coordination and management of the library’s core collections and services • Collections projects to aggregate and actively manage a subset of the library’s content within a coherent theme or specialty • Services projects to develop services to increase the impact, reach, efficiency, and value of the library • Targeted research projects to have direct applicability to one or more of the other tracts

9. Core Integration • Maintain the premier gateway to the digital library; • Supplement and coordinate services developed to enable effective use of and access to the network’s content; • Provide leadership in the development of standards for including resource collections and services in the library; • Work with resource collection providers to establish a suite of review systems for inclusion of material; • Coordinate the formulation of requirements for resources and services; interoperability, reusability, reliability, and stability; • Seek out new resource collections to join fully, or otherwise be affiliated with the library.

10. www.nsdl.org

11. Collections Disciplinary-based themes defining a natural body of content Access to large real-time or archived data sets Software tools for analysis, modeling, simulation, or visualization Reviewed commentary on learning materials and pedagogy

12. Collection Projects Biology Education Online-An Interactive Electronic Journal Digital Community and Collections for Science and Mathematics Teacher Education A Digital Multimedia Library for Health Sciences Education BEN: Bioscience Education Net MATHDL-A Lbrary of Online Learning Materials in Mathematics and Its Applications THREDDS: Thematic Real-time Environmental Data Distributed Services Gender and Science Digital Library Electronic Encyclopedia of Earthquakes Water in the Earth System (WES): An NSDL K-12 Project Computing and Information Technology Interactive Digital Education Library DLESE:Digital Library for Earth Systems Education:A “Microcosm” of NSDL

13. Services Collaborative learning environments using shared resources Mechanisms for building personal digital information spaces Metadata system translation

14. Service Projects Improving Knowledge Transfer: Prioritizing Content Creation in Digital Libraries Using Competitive Intelligence Systems Implementing an Electronic Peer-reviewed Journal of Earth System Science Education Resources (JESSE): A Pathfinder for SMETE Resource Peer Review Collaborative Project: A Component Repository and Environment for Assembly of Teaching Environments (CREATE) Threading Information Pathways Through NSDL Video (Services Proposal) Breaking the Metadata Generation Bottleneck The Instructional Architect: A System for Discovering, Recommending, and Combining Learning Objects Peer Review of Digital Learning Materials: Critical Service for Digital Libraries

15. Targeted Research Digital library usage studies User interface construction and implementation

16. Targeted Research Projects Design and Evaluation of Maintenance Tools for Distributed Digital Libraries Collaborative Research: Developing a Learner-Centered Metathesaurus for Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education Developing a National Science Digital Library (NSDL) LibQUAL+ Protocol Question Triage for Experts and Documents: Expanding the Information Retrieval Function of the NSDL ReMarkable Texts: A Digital Notepad for the NSDL Integrating Digital Library Resources into Online Courses MetaTest: Evaluating the Quality and Utility of Metadata Using Spatial Hypertext as a Workspace for Digital Library Providers and Patrons Effective Access: Using Digital Libraries to Enhance High School Teaching in STEM

17. Project Characteristics • Current domains include: various engineering disciplines, life sciences, geosciences, mathematical sciences, chemistry, materials science, anthropology, computer science • Professional societies involved • Nascent private sector and publisher involvement • Several formal collaborative projects (more born at All-Projects meeting); all feature multiple PIs • 28 with explicit pre-K - 12 links, 19 with strong potential for application to preK - 12

18. NSDL Program Accomplishments • In the first two years of the program (FY00 and FY01) nearly 200 proposals were submitted and ~60 projects funded (~$40M) (core integration [1], collections [31], services [22], targeted research [4]) • Program in the third year (FY02); 156 proposals submitted in three tracks and ~50 funded (collections [34], services [11] and targeted research [6]) • All Projects meetings held in Sept, 2000 and Dec, 2001 • Third Annual All Projects meeting was just held December 2-4, 2002 • http://comm.nsdlib.org -- communications portal

19. Issues/Questions • In what ways might this virtual facility become a sustainable resource? • New role for and relationship between librarians and faculty • Implications for K-12 sector? • Implications museums and other informal learning venues? • Implications for graduate programs?

20. Issues/Questions cont. • What about non-science, mathematics, engineering, and technology domains? • International collaborations

21. Conclusions • Development of digital libraries is a huge challenge as well as a huge opportunity • Full development of digital libraries will require international cooperation and collaboration across disciplines and across geographical boundaries • We really don’t know what other exciting ideas are just waiting to happen!