NSDL 2 0 Creating a Collaborative Digital Library

NSDL 2. 0: Creating a Collaborative Digital Library Dean Krafft, Cornell University dean@cs. cornell. edu

What is NSDL? § An NSF-funded $20 million/year program in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education § A digital library describing over two million carefully selected online STEM resources from well over 125 collections (at http: //nsdl. org) § A core integration team (Cornell, UCAR, Columbia) working with 10 “Pathways” partners and over 200 NSF grantees § A large community of researchers, librarians, content providers, professional societies, developers, students, and teachers

Photos by NASA, Mike Maloney, Jon Crispin

Organizational Evolution § Clear specialization and roles for Core Integration institutions § Tight partnerships with Pathways based on Memo of Understanding § Focused program of collaboration with professional societies and other organizations § Strong educational outreach and focus on professional development

NSDL Pathways Partners § Educational level and discipline specific views of NSDL § Built by leading organizations who are trusted by their target audiences § Provide resources, tools, services, and professional development § A method for professional organizations to engage and serve their membership communities

Pathway and Lead Ed Level Discipline Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER) Univ of Wisc, Madison Community Colleges Applied Mathematics & Science Bio. Sci. Ed. Net (BEN) AAAS, plus >20 professional societies Undergraduate & High School Biology Chem. Ed DLib ACS, JCE, Chem. Collective High School & Above Chemistry Com. PADRE AAPT, APS, AIP/SPS & AAS Undergraduate & High School Physics & Astronomy Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD) Shodor Education Foundation Undergraduate & High School Computational Science Engineering Pathway UC Berkeley, Univ of CO Undergraduate & K-12 Engineering Materials Digital Library Kent State University Undergraduate & Above Materials Science Math Gateway Mathematical Assoc of America Undergraduate Mathematics Middle School Portal Ohio State University Middle Grades Science, Mathematics, & Technology Teachers’ Domain WGBH Public Television K-12 Life, Earth, Space, & Physical Sciences

Example Partners by Audience Served Educational Systems § K-12 § Pathways Partners § National Science Teachers Association § Project Tomorrow / Net. Day § Textbook publishers § § Federally-Funded Networks § § § Higher Education and Research § Pathways Partners § More than 20 journal and textbook publishers Southern Regional Education Board § NSF-funded Research Centers Education Network National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) Engaging People in Cyberinfrastructure (EPIC) Libraries and Digital Libraries § Informal Education § American Museum of Natural History § Exploratorium § Education Development Center § § Fedora Commons National Forum on Information Literacy

Publisher Partnerships Data Processing phase: Scientific American Oxford University Press Journals High. Wire Press Mc. Graw-Hill Higher Education Springer Elsevier (books) John Wiley Blackwell Tool Factory Cambridge University Press Books Cambridge University Press Journals Houghton-Mifflin/Mc. Dougal-Littel Nature Publishing Group Tom Snyder Bio. One National Academy Press Negotiation phase: Bedford, Freeman & Worth Oxford University Press Books Taylor & Francis SAGE Publications O'Reilly Media/Safari Pre-negotiation phase: American Psychological Association Riverdeep Interactive Learning New and renewed discussions Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Institute of Physics Publishing American Physical Society

Partnership Metrics § Number of NSDL Program grantees: 235 grants to 34 states totalling approximately $137. 4 million § Number of Pathways: 10 § Number of partner organizations within Pathways: 85 § Number of members of professional groups within Pathways: Over 1. 2 million

Strategic Partnerships § Library building and awareness building have created a critical mass of value that enables new kinds of partnerships § We no longer expect that users will primarily reach NSDL through nsdl. org § NSDL is creating the socio-technical middleware to bridge research and education communities: ‣ Brokering, facilitation, translation ‣ “Business to business” services and tools ‣ Organizational and technical consulting and codevelopment

Oversight and Guidance § National Visiting Committee - chaired by Diana Oblinger, Educause § NSDL Best Practices: developed by committees nominated by CI/Pathways PIs, voted on by PIs § Policy Committee - represents broader constituency of NSF-funded NSDL grantees

Technical Evolution § NSDL has transitioned from a metadata record database (union catalog) to a digital object repository based on Fedora § NSDL is now a platform of interacting web services and applications § Contributing to NSDL: in addition to heavy-weight OAI server, we now support many light-weight services and applications

NSDL’s Technical Vision § NSDL 2. 0 as a platform for developing digital library tools § Support for communities across the full range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics research, learning and education § The library as a shared, collaborative, contributory space § Supporting the creation of context around library resources to enhance discovery, use, and understanding

Object-Centered Sociality Photos by NASA, Matt Bargar, Jon Crispin

In Architectural terms, we created an NSDL Data Repository that § Supports storing both content and metadata § Allows arbitrary relationships among resource and metadata objects: organization, annotation, citation § Accessible through web service architecture of remixable data sources and transformations

NSDL: The Production Library § NSDL Data Repository (NDR) implemented using Fedora 2. 2 with Proai, MPTStore, and journalling § Primary resources are aggregated using OAI from 130 collections § Proai serves normalized NSDL_DC § MPTStore supports RDF relationships among agents, metadata, resources § Journalling: 3 replicated production repositories

NSDL Data Repository (NDR) § References to over 2 million selected STEM resources on the web and in NSDL web applications § Sourced metadata statements about those resources § Annotation relationships among resources § 4. 7 million digital objects and 250 million RDF triples § In production at ndr. nsdl. org

NSDL Service-Oriented Architecture § NDR API provides authenticated access to the repository - Expert Voices (EV), NCS § Search service REST API supports programmatic search - Pathways, Strand Maps § OAI-PMH ingest and server allow batch aggregation and dissemination - all collections, search § Shibboleth Community Sign-On for user authentication - EV, nsdl. org, Engr Pathway, . . . § SDSC Archive - REST access to archived resources - SERC, nsdl. org § RSS feeds - NSDL editorial content, EV

Collaboration, context, and contribution § The NDR and services provide the platform, but we still need the applications § Solution 1: Leverage the existing successful models: blogs, wikis, bookmarking/tagging § Solution 2: Leverage the existing software: Word. Press, Media. Wiki, Connotea, Sakai § Solution 3: Engage with partners and the broader community to build applications to the platform: adapting the DLESE Collection System; integrating Instructional Architect

Expert Voices § The NSDL Blogosphere, live at http: //expertvoices. nsdl. org § Topic-based discussions (e. g. forensics) linked to related library resources § An outreach tool to explain and document NSF -funded research § A way for NSDL community members to become NSDL contributors: of resources, questions, reviews, annotations, metadata § A question/answer and discussion forum: scientist ↔ teacher ↔ student ↔ librarian

Hurricane Floyd/Photo by NASA

Photo by Jon Crispin

Expert Voices Implementation § Wordpress-based multi-user multi-blog application (open source, plug-in architecture) § Published entries become NSDL resources § Editor controls publication of entries and visibility of comments § Entries can contain linked references to NSDL resources, references to URLs that should become resources, and new resource metadata § Integrated with NSDL Shibboleth-based community sign-on (Wordpress plug-in) § Blog(s) available as RSS feed(s)

Our. NSDL: NDR-integrated Wiki § Community of approved contributors (e. g. teachers, librarians, scientists) are granted edit access on Our. NSDL wiki § New resources and metadata are created as wiki pages and reflected into the NDR § Non-wiki-based NDR resources and metadata are displayed as read-only wiki pages, subject to comment and linking § User and project pages organize NDR resources § Now implementing Media. Wiki extensions

My. NSDL: NDR-integrated tagging, bookmarking, and recommendation § Based on Connotea open-source folksonomic tagging/bookmarking system § Tags and bookmarking structure are reflected back into the NDR § Authorized users can “automatically” recommend new NSDL resources simply by tagging them § Gives user a personal view of NSDL resources § Currently in the planning phase

NSDL Concept Map Tool § Implementation of AAAS concept maps and benchmarks from Atlas of Science Literacy § Part of an ongoing effort to relate NSDL resources to educational standards and benchmarks § Beta version live now at http: //strandmaps. nsdl. org

NSDL Collection System § Developed by DLESE from DCS § Allows creation and editing of collection and item metadata records § Extensive guidance and help for various categories of metadata § Syncs records using the NDR API § First prototype developed § Released version expected 2 Q 07

Other planned collaborative tools § Fez/On. Ramp: multi-user, multiproject NDR-integrated CMS § Moodle or Sakai Course Management System: courses integrated with NSDL resources § Instructional Architect: Lesson plan creation for K 12 teachers (Utah State) § Content Assignment Tool: assigning educational standards to resources

Putting NSDL in the path of the user § Goal is getting users to the right NSDL resources, not to nsdl. org § Pathways portals provide discipline specific access § NSDL Toolbar (available at nsdl. org/toolbar) allows direct NSDL Pathways/resource access from user’s browser

Search Engine Landing Page § Landing pages are available to web search engines through sitemap files § Provide information on the NSDL context of the resource, including metadata, annotations, related resources § “Selected by NSDL” resource page logo will link back to this page

Release Timeline § Now: NDR, resource-centric search, public NDR API, Expert Voices public beta, Concept Maps public beta, toolbar § May: Our. NSDL public beta, Sitemaps/landing page § 2 Q 07: NSDL Collection System § Later in 2007: My. NSDL, Fez/On. Ramp, Moodle/Sakai integration, production releases of EV, Concept Maps, Our. NSDL

NSDL 2. 0 Ecosystem Archive Service STEM Collections Search Service Fedorabased NDR … Protocol: OAI-PMH HTTP REST NDR API

A publicly available platform § Initial repository and tools targeted at Pathways and STEM education § Tools and systems open source, or extensions to existing open source § Could eventually release “shrinkwrap” NDR and tool sets § NSDL 2. 0 is an open-source open repository, and creates an open environment for contribution, collaboration, and social networking

Photos by NASA, Jon Crispin

Questions?

Acknowledgements § NSF EHR/DUE - Lee Zia, Program Officer § NSDL Core Integration Team § UCAR: Kaye Howe, PI and Executive Director § Cornell: Dean Krafft, PI § Columbia: Kate Wittenberg, PI § Fedora Development Team § Cornell: Sandy Payette & Carl Lagoze § Univ. of Virginia: Thornton Staples § This material is based upon work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. 0227648, 424671, and 0227888. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Contact Information § § § Dean B. Krafft Cornell Information Science 301 College Ave. Ithaca, NY 14850 USA dean@cs. cornell. edu This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share. Alike 2. 5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http: //creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/2. 5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5 th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. When separated from this work, some images may be covered by separate copyright or license terms.