Building and Contributing Collections
Aquatic Modeling Workshop
July 17 – 22, 2005
Shelley Olds
DLESE Program Center
UCAR
(support@dlese.org)
Primary Goal of DLESE
Facilitate learning about Earth at all
educational levels, formal and
informal
• Strategies to Achieve This Goal
 Develop
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high quality collections
 Provide access to Earth data, imagery & tools
 Create discovery and distribution systems
 Provide support services to create/use materials
 Facilitate communication across all interests of
Earth system education
Scope of DLESE Collection
• Emphasizes Earth as a System
Study of processes, states, cycles and interactions
 Global and local perspectives
 Interdisciplinary connections between atmosphere,
geosphere, hydrosphere, space and biosphere

• Emphasizes Education
Learning and teaching for improved understanding
of Earth’s history, processes, and resources
 Supports research and assessment activities

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Materials in DLESE
• Educational materials - homework exercises, tutorials, guided
inquiry sets, lesson plans, syllabi, classroom activities, curricula,
modules, field trips, problem sets
• Assessment and pedagogical materials - exams, quizzes, selfassessments, learning/teaching techniques and educational research
• Research materials - journal articles, summaries, abstracts, case
studies, arguments, theses, policies, indices, etc.
• Data - Earth and space data (imagery, numeric values, maps)
• Annotations - comments, reviews, teaching tips, additional content
• News and opportunities - information on grants, conferences,
workshops, professional development, opportunities, etc.
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• Tools - software or applications for interacting, accessing,
manipulating or viewing, calculators and converters, models
Part 1: Build & Contribute Collection Process
1. Is the collection theme within DLESE scope
2. Determine type and format of collection
3. Understand collection policies
4. Create a scope statement
•
Determine collection building strategy
•
Determine collection selection criteria
5. Create metadata records (catalog resources)
6. Send metadata records to DLESE
7. Approval - Collections Accessioning Taskforce
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8. Maintain the collection
Scope it Out - Mystery in a Bag - Activity
• Goal:
 To
have another team understand what is
in your mystery bag without them having
to open the bag
• Directions:
 In
6
teams of 4, examine your mystery bag
 Create a collection with a theme
 Decide which things do or don’t meet your
theme. Those that do, put back in the bag
 Create a short document describing your
collection & info. needed to understand it
Key Points of a Good Scope Statement
• Collection builder describes who they are
Who is the person or organization (contact info too)
 What is the purpose of the organization

• Collection purpose and goals
What is the purpose, goal or theme (overarching)
 Who is the intended audience
 How does collection fit with DLESE scope

• Collection policy
How are resources chosen and what is their granularity
 What types of materials are included

• Terms of use

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Who owns the resources and metadata
• Quality assurance and persistence

How are metadata records produced and maintained
Questions to Initiate Collection Building
• Is the collection being newly created or
does it already exist?
• Does the collection consist of learning
resources or is it reviews of learning
resources? Or news and opportunities?
• Does the collection have existing metadata?
• Do collection documents articulate what
gets in and what doesn’t and how?
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• What granularity will the collection have?
Existing Collection Scenarios in DLESE
• Group of educators - gathers resources
around a theme (DWEL, EET); uses DCS
• Single educator - makes their materials
available (EMVC, AVC); uses DCS or
cataloging template
• Organization - makes an existing
repository available (NASA, NAP); uses
metadata translation services
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• Project - reviews or annotates resources
(CRS, JESSE); uses own systems
Collection Building Methods
• DCS (DLESE Collection System)

Provides a user interface to generate metadata
and manage/search a collection
• Template or Own System
Use a DLESE XML template as a guide to create
own metadata records using any method
 Do own collection management

• Translation
Programmatically map existing metadata fields to
DLESE metadata fields
 Do own collection management

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Digital Water Education Library (DWEL)
• Collection builders: K-12 & informal
educators
• Audience: K-12 & informal educational
settings
• Focus: water in the Earth system
• How: gather 3rd party resources by
distributed teams of educators
• DLESE status: reviewed collection
• Size: 380 resources
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DWEL Strategy for Defining Scope
• Concept webs developed for topical
campaigns
 Groundwater
 Surface
water
 Oceans
 Water
in the
atmosphere
 Water use
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DWEL Collection Building Strategy
• Divided into grade-level groups
• Selected (voted on) the concepts most
relevant to each grade-level group
• Used targeted resource gathering
• Searched web and other sources for
exemplary learning objects
• Conducted structured & robust reviews
• Cataloged resources using skilled
catalogers
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DWEL Work Hub
• Tracks workflows
• Organizes concepts,
resources gathered
• Facilitates reviews
• Displays events &
deliverables
• Catalogs using DCS
http://129.82.204.180/dwel/workhub.html
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Collection Accessioning Requirements
• Be within DLESE scope
• Have a scope statement
• Complete required metadata (afternoon)
• Meet or exceed resource quality and
metadata quality guidelines (show in
guide)
• Get records to DLESE (afternoon)
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DLESE Reviewed Collection (DRC)
• Meets collections accessioning criteria
and documents a process for ensuring:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Scientific accuracy
Importance or significance
Pedagogical effectiveness
Completeness of documentation
Ease of use for teachers and learners
Inspirational or motivational for learners
Robustness as a digital resource
Lessons Learned in Collection Building
• Ensure resources are within scope
• Presentation of the resource is just as important
as the content
Educational context is understood
 Access to data/other materials works

• Metadata & resource quality are equally important
• Start with a small group of resources and
metadata records; then build strategically
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• Cataloging takes time so appropriate resource
selection is critical
Summary - Part 1
• Scope statements are the foundation of a
collection
• Collection building methods differ
• Become familiar with the Collection
Builder’s Guide
• Complete New Collection Survey
• Questions?
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Build & Contribute Collection Process
1. Is the collection theme within DLESE scope
2. Determine type and format of collection
3. Understand collection policies
4. Create a scope statement
•
Determine collection building strategy
•
Determine collection selection criteria
5. Create metadata records (catalog resources)
6. Send metadata records to DLESE
7. Approval – Collections Accessioning Taskforce
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8. Maintain the collection
Part 1
Part 2
Review of Part 1: Starting a Collection
• Kind of collection:
 Web
resources or annotations
 Materials (lesson plans, images etc.)
• Scope statement:
 Collection
purpose
 Selection criteria, contact info
• Collection building strategy:
 Who
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decides what gets in and how
 Who catalogs; who does quality assurance
Part 2: Technical Aspects of Collection Building
• Collection types:
 Resource,
annotation, news and opps
• Metadata formats:
 ADN,
collection, annotation, news-opps
• Creating metadata records:
 Required
fields & controlled vocabularies
 Cataloging best practices
• Sending metadata records to DLESE:
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 OAI,
email, FTP, hosted DCS instances
DLESE Collection Types
Type of resource
materials
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Collection
type
Metadata
format
•Web-based educational resources
•Datasets
•Pedagogical materials
•Research materials (articles)
•Images, graphics, photos
Resource
ADN
•Comments, reviews, annotations
•Educational standards
•Teaching tips
•Additional content
Annotation
Annotation
News/Opps
News/Opps
•Time-sensitive announcements
•Fellowships, grants, jobs
•Workshops, conferences
Metadata Purpose & Principles
• Describe resources in a structured &
consistent
• Help users find resources efficiently and
understand their scope
• Metadata Principles:
 Required
metadata (information that all
records contain)
 Controlled
vocabularies (terms used are
the same and well defined)
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 Consistent
cataloging
DLESE Required Metadata
• ADN
• News and Opportunities
• Annotation
• Each framework has required metadata
• Will cover ADN required metadata
• Attend consult session to see required
metadata for News-Opps or Annotation
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DLESE Required Metadata - ADN Format
• Title - the name of the resource
(Cataloger Provided)
• URL - the URL to an online resource
• Description - a narrative describing the content/purpose
• Subject - general topic areas that the resource is about
• Technical reqs - browser or platform requirements
• Resource type - type of educational resource (lab, photo)
• Audience - grade range of the resource
• Copyright - copyright statement
• Cost - yes/no/unknown cost to use or access resource
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• Resource creator - author or publisher information
• Resource cataloger - cataloger information
DLESE Required Metadata - ADN Format
(Administrative)
• Language - of the resource and metadata
• Copyright of the metadata - ownership of the metadata
• Terms of use - how the metadata may be used
• Metadata framework - catalog scheme (e.g. ADN)
• Creation date - creation date of metadata record
• Accession date - the accession date of the item in to the
collection builder's collection
• Catalog name and number - name of collection and an
id number for the metadata record like a library call #
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• Record status - status of the metadata record within a
collection (e.g.accessioned, working)
Methods for Creating Metadata - the how
All metadata records are XML files
• DCS (DLESE Collection System):
 Exploration
activity
• Template or Own System:
 See
sample record and complete required
metadata fields
• Translation:
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 Talk
to Katy
Cataloging Activity (DCS demo)
• Goal:
 Explore
generating metadata via the
DLESE Collection System (DCS)
• Directions:
 Go
to http://dcs.dlese.org/preview
 Explore controlled vocabularies
 Explore required metadata
 Explore validating metadata
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Cataloging Best Practices
• Tips about what to do and not do when
creating metadata for DLESE
• Each field has examples
• Fields may provide additional tips in
special situations
• Controlled vocabularies are defined too
• See example for title (in guide)
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DLESE Controlled Vocabularies
• To provide consistent search results
• Aid users in browsing the library
• Aids DLESE in assessing library content
• Each metadata framework has their own
• Used in the required ADN fields of:
 Subject,
resource type, grade range, cost
 Technical reqs, language, record status
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How to get records to DLESE
• OAI-PMH: A protocol for metadata
harvesting by the Open Archives Initiative
(DLESE has software to support it See it at the Share Fair)
• Email: Send a zip or tar file of metadata
records to support@dlese.org
• Ftp: Can send anonymously to DLESE; talk
to Katy
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Collections Accessioning/Approval Process
• Ensures alignment to DLESE collection
policies and guidelines
• Reviews scope statement to determine
DLESE appropriateness
• Examines resources, metadata & collection
reports to judge overall vitality
• Corresponds directly with collection builder
in regards to approval
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Maintaining collections
• DLESE checks active collections:
 URL
link checking
 Improper XML encoding
 Duplicates within a collection
 Required metadata
 Presence of new records in tar/zip files
 Resources are still within DLESE scope
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• DLESE notifies collection builder and the
collection builder is responsible for the
actual updates and changes
Tips for Collection Builders
• Perform internal and ongoing quality
assurance and technical checks
• Update and respond to maintenance
requests
• Involve the DPC early because technically
there is a lot for a collection builder to do
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Questionnaire for DLESE
• Do you plan to create a DLESE collection?
• Do you have enough information to start
collection work?
• What collection support or training do you
anticipate needing?
• Complete New Collection Survey
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Contacts
• Email: support@dlese.org
• Web: http://www.dlese.org/Metadata
• ShareFair: See collection building table
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Definitions (1)
• Metadata - structured descriptive
information about resources (e.g. info in a
card catalog)
• Metadata Standard - a representation
that is developed & available from a
standards body or metadata organization
(e.g Dublin Core)
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• Metadata Framework - a representation
that may or may not be based on or
derived from a standard by a standards
body (e.g. collection, annotation)
Definitions (2)
• Resource - actual content - web based
learning material, annotations, reviews,
data, imagery, audio clips, code etc.
• Record - an XML file containing metadata
describing a resource
• Collection - a group of metadata records
organized around a theme
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• Annotation - more content / metadata
appropriate to associate with a resource
Definitions (3)
• Schema - XML schema files (code) of
the metadata representation
• Metadata Format - the metadata
representation the XML metadata files
are using (e.g. ADN, IMS, Dublin Core)
• Harvest - methods to get metadata files
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