Feb 21, 2001
The Digital Library for Earth System Education: Building Community, Building the Library
Tammy Sumner and Melissa Dawe
Abstract.
Science educators have repeatedly called for an information system that can effectively deliver quality educational materials in formats that are readily accessible, with a high degree of confidence that the materials will be useful, interesting, and effective. Towards this end, the Earth system education community has organized and begun development of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). DLESE will serve the unique needs of earth system educators and learners at all academic levels, in both formal and informal settings by providing:
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Interfaces and tools to allow student exploration of geospatial materials and Earth data sets
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Rapid, sophisticated access to collections of peer-reviewed teaching and learning resources
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Services to help users effectively create and use materials
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A virtual community center to facilitate sharing and collaboration
Over the past 18 months we have made significant headway towards these goals by designing and developing a library testbed (www.dlese.org), setting up a community governance structure, designing a metadata framework for describing and indexing learning resources and georeferenced materials, and studying our potential users' real-world needs through participatory design activities.
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