Summary of AMNH/NYU Meeting held in AMNH Library on March 24, 2003
Staff from AMNH and NYU held a preliminary “scoping session” at the AMNH Library to
consider a possible collaborative proposal in response to the IMLS National Leadership Grant
Program for library-museum cooperation Request for Proposals “To Develop Innovative
Approaches to the Use of Broadband Technologies for Learning”
(http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/current/030703.htm ).
The RFP states:
“The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites proposals for projects to develop
innovative approaches to the use of broadband technologies for learning. Successful proposals
will demonstrate the ability to develop innovative educational programming drawing on content
from libraries and museums and using high-bandwidth capacity for delivery. “
And the “Program Overview specifies:
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Deadline for submission (postmark deadline): May 15, 2003
Maximum award: $500,000
Award announcement: mid-September 2003
Grant period: 2 years beginning September 30, 2003
A somewhat arbitrarily selected group of AMNH staff attended, including Library staff, the
AMNH digital library’s senior consultant, a rep from CBC, from Education and from the
Research Informatics Group – (some other invited AMNH staff were unable to attend and it was
apparent to AMNH staff that both the CIO/IT staff, Scinece Bulletins and NCSLET should be
involved in further discussions). From NYU were: representatives of NYU Library and the NYU
graduate program in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) They agreed that there
was adequate scope to pursue possible collaboration.
Content: The group discussed content and generally agreed that adapting content from
already existing sources (or sources already under development) made best sense. It was
generally agreed that for purposes of this proposal, AMNH would be the primary source of content.
AMNH staff identified several prime possibilities including, CBC’s Vietnam work –
currently supported by an NSF grant, a Macarthur Foundation grant and other initiatives,
the CBC’s biodiversity curriculum development project, the Education Department’s
Science Bulletins and SEM microscopical work from the AMNH IDL. It was also
suggested that the existing NYCEP program, a graduate training program in all aspects of the
behavioral and evolutionary biology of primates.( AMNH and NYU are members
http://research.amnh.org/nycep/index.html ) might be engaged in this project.
Expertise: NYU will contribute their considerable, nationally recognized, technical expertise to
research project development. AMNH will draw on it’s cumulated experience in scientific data
management and digital library development.
Existing Infrastructure: The existing AMNH Digital Resource Management System,
already under development, can be readily adapted to serve as the source from which
content can be delivered. (DRMS, an open source software system, has the capability to
index, search and retrieve time based digital resources in numerous multi-media formats.
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The system is currently being implemented by the AMNH Education Department to
manage their Science Bulletins multi-media productions and by the Library’s Special
Collections to manage their still image collections.) Both institutions currently have
broadband delivery capabilities (Internet2 and for AMNH, the NY “Dark Fiber” network).
Applications Development: Broadband-quality content derived from library and museum
collections and delivered programmatically as educational resources to various audience levels at
both institutions and beyond to public schools and libraries. Some discussion was devoted to the
issue of resource assessment, persistence of broadband resources, and sustained preservation; it was
felt that these are issues that would need to be carefully addressed in the frame of this proposal. An
educational interface could be developed with a view to compatibility with major LMS
(learning management systems). Interface development could also be informed by
analyses of state curriculum (and other model curriculum – such as the AAAS and the
NSTA); it was agreed that NSDL approaches to this problem could also be applied.
Questions of “digital divide” and of delivery to international users (particularly to “trailing edge”
users “beyond the end of the wire”) should be considered. The possibility of dynamically
addressing network segment variabilities in bandwidth and client workstations was also discussed.
The possibility of applying the existing AMNH video-conferencing system (connected to 28
schools City-wide) was discussed as a delivery mechanism.
Products:
 Library and Museum Resource Products:
1. Development and publication of the open source software program to manage multimedia content to enable its use for educational work, taking full advantage of the
capabilities of broadband transmission.
2. Exploration of applications of the METS standard in adapting resources for
transmission from the AMNH DRMS system to various Learning Management
Systems (like Blackboard http://company.blackboard.com/ ) was discussed.
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Educational Products that demonstrate their use. Vietnam seems a strong possible choice for a
subject focus in product development.
1. Development of a multi-media resource base from which teachers (K-12) could
develop curriculum based on state requirements. An “off the shelf” sample on a
specific topic of the type of resource that teachers could produce can be included with
the actual resource.
2. Building upon Nat Johnson’s work in Education to create real time interactive
programs between AMNH staff and school children and life long learners in local
libraries.
3. Interactive programmatic curricula and resources developed for undergraduate and
graduate classes and students. As noted above, this could draw on the existing AMNH
CBC curriculum development work for undergraduates already under development.
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