Developing a Digital National Library for Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education Report of a Workshop (1998) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-14
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and to "provide specific problem training sessions for faculty across institutions, in topics such as how to do inquiry and collaborative learning in large 'lecture' classes, how to assess learning outcomes, and how to document learning gains at the departmental and institutional levels" (National Science Foundation, 1996b, page 72~. Digital libraries)
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Some 50 guests from acacleme, digital library initiatives, private laborato~ies, private foundations, research and teaching libraries, and the commercial publishing sector participated in this workshop. ISSUES CONSIDERED The issues that these papers ant]
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Users and Needs These issues pervaded the entire workshop. A broad agreement developed that faculty engaged in SMELT education would be included among the primary users targeted by an NL.
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However, some workshop participants and commissioned papers pointed out that, in addition to providing high-quality materials for improving learning of SME&T, an NSF-sponsored initiative to support an NE could have an important impact on unclergraduate SME&T education by underscoring and showcasing the importance of educational reform in highly tangible ways. On the other hand, funds used to support an NE would then not be available to support other educational initiatives, and there is no current analysis available that indicates the relative efficacy of an NE compared to alternatives.
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Pointers are much less expensive to create and maintain than stored source content, more easily allow for contributions from a wider spectrum of interests and organizations in the SMELT community, and minimize current legal challenges related to intellectual property rights, copyright law, and licensing agreements. However, an NE could face several important constraints if it were to rely exclusively on the use of pointers rather than commissioning and storing at least some materials.
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Different standards also would have to be developed for accepting materials that have undergone peer review vs. materials that have not been subjected to such scrutiny (e.g., course syllabi, courseware applications, annotations and (liscussions about other materials included in the proposed NL)
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I Economic issues: While government agencies and private foundations might provide key start-up funding for an NE, workshop participants agreed that this resource would eventually need to become financially self-sustaining.
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(Smith and Weingarten, 1997) 4A reviewer of this report, who must remain anonymous under the Report Review Guidelines of the National Research Council, wrote to disagree with the workshop discussion regarding lack of wide accessibility to Internet II: This person indicated that his institution has had access to the Very Broadband Network Service (VBNS)
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software platforms. · Technology employed in the proposed Nl, should be cleve70pecl with advice and oversight from the professional communities who are most knowledgeable about how people both organize and use information: librarians and social and behavioral scientists.
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However, the Steering Committee recommencis that, prior to making final decisions about this issue, the NSF should make a concerted effort to bring together in a series of focus groups representatives from all communities that might be an NUs likely users and service providers. Focus groups should be small and should be structured to encourage participants to discuss freely T)
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Differences in cost between the two systems, evolving legal precedents with respect to copyright and fair use of materials, and the emergence of new technologies that may overcome some of the limitations of pointing to information stored elsewhere all must be factored into the final structure of an NL. Moreover, these parameters are likely to change cluring the clevelopment phase of the project.
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2.5 The Steering Committee recommends that the NSF also seek a new, more encompassing descriptor for this project. Workshop participants recognized, and the Steering Committee concurs, that "Digital National Library" or "National Library"the terms that have been most commonly used to describe this entity may be more confusing than enlightening to anyone who envisions the potential stakeholders in this project and the services it may provide.
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Steering Committee members envision that the smaller initiatives suggested in Option 2 might be incorporated into a program similar to those that the NSF's Division of Unclergraduate Education has sponsored in recent years to change the ways in which chemistry and calculus are taught. Optimally, this new initiative would incorporate many similar components, including those delineates!
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Feedback ant! evaluation of information from these groups of users and providers could then serve as the basis for constructing RFPs that would help eventual awarclees to aciciress specifically the established needs and requirements of potential NE users.
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