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Building the NSDL William Y. Arms Cornell University

Thinking aloud about the NSDL. Building the NSDL William Y. Arms Cornell University. Acknowledgement and Disclaimer. The NSDL is a program of the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education.

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Building the NSDL William Y. Arms Cornell University

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  1. Thinking aloud about the NSDL Building the NSDL William Y. Arms Cornell University

  2. Acknowledgement and Disclaimer The NSDL is a program of the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education. The ideas discussed in this talk do not represent the official views of the NSF (or of anybody except the author).

  3. What's in a name?

  4. National Digital Library SMETE Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education The NSDL

  5. National Digital Library Science? The NSDL Can we build a comprehensive digital library for science education, without building a National Science Digital Library?

  6. The National Science Digital Library

  7. The National Science Digital Library It's BIG!

  8. How big might the NSDL be? To be comprehensive—all branches of science, all levels of education, very broadly defined: Five year targets • 1,000,000 different users • 10,000,000 digital objects • 100,000 independent sites

  9. Scientific and technical information in digital form Materials used in education Materials tailored to education Digital collections for science

  10. Opportunities for the NSDL • Categories of material that have been given lower priority by libraries and publishers, e.g., datasets, software, and other dynamic content, ... • Materials that are accessible for automatic processing, e.g., scientific web sites and databases, image collections, ... • Materials designed for education, e.g.,learning objects, curricula, problem sets, ... Less opportunity for the NSDL • Conventional scientific literature with restricted access

  11. The NSF's strategy

  12. The NSF cannot fund all collections

  13. The NSF is funding selected collections ...

  14. ... and a Core Integration team The Core Integration task is to provide a coherent set of services for users across great diversity.

  15. Resources Core Integration Budget $4 million Staff 25 - 30 Management Diffuse How can a small team, without direct management control, create a very large-scale digital library?

  16. A spectrum of interoperability

  17. Approaches to interoperability The conventional approach  Wise people develop standards: protocols, formats, etc.  Everybody implements the standards.  This creates an integrated, distributed system. Unfortunately ...  Standards are expensive to adopt.  Concepts are continually changing.  Systems are continually changing.

  18. Interoperability is about agreements Technical agreements cover formats, protocols, security systems so that messages can be exchanged, etc. Content agreements cover the data and metadata, and include semantic agreements on the interpretation of the messages. Organizational agreements cover the ground rules for access, for changing collections and services, payment, authentication, etc. The challenge is to create incentives for independent digital libraries to adopt agreements

  19. Function versus cost of acceptance Cost of acceptance Few adopters Many adopters Function

  20. Example: Textual mark-up Cost of acceptance SGML XML HTML Function ASCII

  21. Levels of interoperability Federations Collections follow strict standards for content, metadata, protocols, authentication, etc. Harvested Collections Each collection makes metadata about its collections available in a simple exchange format (Open Archives metadata harvesting protocol). Gathered Collections Material is gathered automatically by selective web crawling.

  22. Levels of interoperability Level Agreements Example Federation Strict use of standards AACR, MARC (syntax, semantic, Z 39.50 and business) Harvesting Digital libraries expose Open Archives metadata; simple protocol and registry Gathering Digital libraries do not Web crawlers cooperate; services must and search engines seek out information

  23. Metadata is expensive The NSDL cannot afford to create it manually

  24. User portals Metadata repository Distributed collections

  25. Every collection is different

  26. From an NSF-funded collection: “We are pleased with the technical side…of the database and web access…but we are complete novices in terms of how to make our collection part of the digital library. I assume this hinges on appropriate metadata, but I am not sure exactly what kinds…”

  27. Metadata strategy• Support eight standard formats • Collect all existing metadata in these formats • Provide crosswalks to Dublin Core • Expose records in the metadata repository for others to harvest • Concentrate on collection-level metadata • Use automatic generation to augment item-level metadata Most Core Integration services will be created automatically from collection-level metadata or directly from the content (e.g automatic indexing of text, automatic reference linking).

  28. Managing the NSDL Responsibility without authority

  29. A personal observation Despite all the evidence to the contrary, ... we repeatedly over-estimate the benefits of collaboration ... and under-estimate the obstacles.

  30. The NSDL challenge During the preliminary phases ... • Each project worked independently (NSF grants have little control) • Coordination was through a loose set of committees, with mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.

  31. The NSDL challenge During the preliminary phases ... • Each project worked independently (NSF grants have little control) • Coordination was through a loose set of committees, with mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc. For the production phase ... • We must develop a robust, reliable set of services • We must make compromises, decide priorities, etc. • Yet we must attract the energy of many independent individuals and organizations

  32. What doesn't work Decision making by online forums • Become dominated by a few people, not necessarily the most knowledgeable. • Either usage dies away, or too many low-value messages drive away the busy people. Decision making without responsibility • Vision is easy. Implementation is hard.

  33. What does work? Money • Thank you NSF! Online discussions on specific topics • Structured discussions as part of a decision-making process are often productive Patience and persistence Success builds on success

  34. United we stand. The last word From the Lisle, NY Volunteer Fire Brigade September 17,2001 God bless America. Bingo, Tuesday 7:30 - 10:00.

  35. Building the National S Digital Library William Y. Arms Cornell University

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