Cataloging Consistency and
Updates
DWEL Team Meetings
January 2003
Holly Devaul
Description
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Re- work chapter headings and topical lists
to complete sentences, correct
capitalization
Use keywords for additional terms
If the resource is designed for the general
public but is useful for teaching specific
concepts or in specific settings, include this
information in description.
Description
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Avoid including detailed information that
occurs in other fields such as Resource
creator, Subject, Technical information and
Resource type
Description – what would you edit here?
This site contains graphs, tables, and charts for
the following ground water topics: What is groung
water, Groundwater flow diagrams, Ground-water
use, Importance of groundwater, Trends in
ground-water use, Ground-water quality,
Pesticides in ground water, Aquifers, Waterwells,
What is a flowing(artesian) well?, Sinkholes, and
Land subsidence. There are a variety of links
within all of the above topics and a very complete
glossary, as well as numerour charts, maps,
photographs and illustrations.
Description – what would you edit here?
This USGS site contains very useful text descriptions
about many aspects of ground water. The major topics
include Ground Water, How Ground Water Occurs, Quality
of Ground Water, Appraising the Nation's Ground-Water
Resources, and a Glossary. This is a non-technical site,
designed for use by the general public. Several charts and
diagrams are also included in this site.
Audience
High school
Middle school
Undergraduate lower division
Confusing Resource Types
Portal - A portal is a collection of diverse resources that
are produced entirely by or managed by the host
organization. We also use this for home pages for
organizations or projects.
Clearinghouse - A clearinghouse is a collection of
diverse resources that are produced by a variety of
sources, but made accessible through a single site.
The authorship and responsibility for the resources
is not solely the host organization.
Confusing Resource Types
Portal
USGS The Learning Web
http://www.usgs.gov/education/index.html
Clearinghouse
WaterWeb
http://www.waterweb.org/linksdb/
Confusing Resource Types
Tutorial
A resource that provides *guided*, practical information about a specific
subject.
Reference
A work containing useful facts or information (e.g. user's guides, technical
manuals). A student might consult this during independent research. It
does not have a guided component. It may comprise hyperlinked pages
but a specific path through it is not designated.
Confusing Resource Types
Tutorial
The Hydrologic Cycle
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hyd/home.rxml
Reference
Glaciers and Glaciation
http://craton.geol.brocku.ca/faculty/rc/teaching/1F90/glaciers/glaciers.html
Keywords
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Only one concept per field
Do not capitalize unless a proper noun
Use terms not present in the description
or title
A few too many………
glacier budget, ice flow velocity, warm glaciers, cold,
glaciers, region of shear, deformation firn, surging,
sublimation, wastage, ablation, zone of
accumulation striation, rock flour, shear plane
Greenland, Antarctica alpine glacier, ice sheet,
continental glacier, ice cap, valley glacier, piedmont
glacier cirque, fjord, till, terminal moraine, lateral
moraine, moraine, erratics, outwash, esker, drumlin
interglacial, Milankovich cycles, earth orbit
eccentricity, earth orbit obliquity
Redundant choices…….
(and capitalized)
Lakes
Curriculum
Data
Coverage – some new info
Place and event data need to be in separate
fields
 Precede each with proper identifier
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PLACE:South Florida
EVENT:Hurricane Andrew
ALL CAPS:no space
Spell out all state names and United States
Coverage
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Place name should correspond to bounding
box entered, should not contain a list of
subregions
E.g a box for the Southeastern United
States should not list the states contained
therein
PLACE:Southeastern United States
Sources for Bounding Box Data
Alexandria Gazetteer
http://fat-albert.alexandria.ucsb.edu:8827/gazetteer
Getty Thesaurus
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/
Topozone
http://www.topozone.com/
Technical
If a significant portion of the resource requires
additional software (such as Acrobat reader ) or
a critical component requires it such that the
resource is not functional without it, then choose
Known and select the proper Type. If only a
single document or lesser component requires
this software, such that the resource could be
used successfully without it, choose Other and
then note: One lesson plan requires Acrobat
reader for access, or whatever is applicable.
This is admittedly a subjective rule of thumb.
Copyright
If none can be found, use this phrase exactly:
Copyright and Other Restrictions Information is Unknown
No URL’s
Not : see USGS homepage
Subject = Technology
Select Technology as a subject only if the resource
teaches about using technology to learn concepts, or
requires the use of technology to implement the
exercises, such as GIS software. If the resource only
supplies GIS-produced maps, but does not have the
learner use the software, then do not select Technology.
YES Exploring Earthquakes…..through the Internet and GIS
http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/public/outreach/quakegis/main.html
NO Live from the Estuary http://www.estuarylive.org/index.htm
DWEL Group affiliation
Second creator tag set to allow search by
group
DWEL 9-12
DWEL Informal
DWEL K-4
DWEL 5-8
Standards
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Learning materials should be a component of
the resource, and image or dataset without
activities is not eligible.
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Standards should be associated with discrete
learning objects rather than compiled lists of a
group of objects.