# Joined Digital Library for Science Education (JDL)

## Basic Proposal Information

  ---------------------- ------------------------------------------------
  Title:                 Joined Digital Library for Science Education
                         (JDL)

  Brief Description:     Currently, educators struggle to locate NASA
                         educational resources. Our web sites lack
                         consistent organization and broad searching
                         capabilities. But with JDL, customers can, for
                         the first time, access these resources through a
                         single web interface. JDL is a low-cost dynamic
                         network, connecting distributed education
                         collections. This Phase will add operational
                         capabilities, harden the system for operation,
                         integrate JDL with NASA portal, and initiate
                         integration of JDL into NASA's infrastructure.

  Partners:              Dr. Blanche Meeson (Head, Earth Science
                         Enterprise Implementation Office), Dr. Jeffrey
                         Rosendhal (Space Science Education & Public
                         Outreach Director), Jeanne Holm (JPL/ NASA
                         Portal), and Contractors

  Center:                Goddard Space Flight Center

  Endorsee:              Shelley Canright

  Primary Contact Name:  Dr. Blanche Meeson

  Primary Contact Phone: 301-286-7831

  Primary Contact Email: <bmeeson@see.gsfc.nasa.gov>

  Secondary Contact      Shelley E. Olds
  Name:                  

  Secondary Contact      301-286-1799
  Phone:                 

  Secondary Contact      <solds@see.gsfc.nasa.gov>
  Email:                 
  ---------------------- ------------------------------------------------

## Milestones

### Milestones (Year 1)

### April 2002

-   Project Begins

-   Testing and review of current JDL to create specific fix list

-   Ongoing:

    -   Operation & maintenance

    -   Bug fixes

### November 2002

-   Hardening for operational use

-   Create redundant (failsafe) JDL lookup server and portal index

-   Test scalability

-   Address additional security issues

-   Improve performance

### February 2003

-   Add missing operational capabilities

-   Create OAI server to provide data sharing

-   Transform metadata framework to schema

-   Provide robust collection & administrative tools

-   Assessment & evaluation

### March 2003

Integrate JDL with NASA web portal & begin Agency integration

### April 2003

Full JDL demonstration

The JOINed Digital Library leverages metadata and software development
produced by NSF's funded Digital Library for Earth System Education and
will continue to do so. This proposed effort is intended to ready the
JDL to support Agency objectives in education and if integrated into the
NASA infrastructure should be supported by the Agency.

## Project Purpose

### Overview:

Currently, the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
education communities struggle to locate educational resources that meet
their needs. NASA?s educational resources are vast and widely
distributed, they occur in both on-line (websites) and off-line form
(videotape, print, CD, audiotape), and they are owned by an extremely
wide array of organizations and individuals. Each of these groups want
the freedom to specify organization of their educational resource(s)
and, if on-line, the searching methods. As a result, NASA?s educational
resources lack consistent organization and broad searching capabilities,
and as such have limited interoperability, portability, and
recoverability. Lastly, because they have limited interoperability they
are unable to interoperate with the systems which provide access to the
even greater number of educational resources which are available outside
of NASA.

To solve these problems, the Earth Science Enterprise Implementation
Office has been developing the JOINed Digital Library for Science
Education (JDL), an innovative, low-cost, JiniTM -based network which
connects collections dynamically together. With JDL, customers can, for
the first time, access NASA education resources through a single web
interface without needing to know how to navigate individual
collections. The JDL has generated much interest within the education
and digital library communities. Much work remains to harden this pilot
system for operational use and to integrate it into the Agency
infrastructure.

### Goals and Objectives:

The goal of the JOINed Digital Library system is to dramatically improve
how customers connect to educational resources by completely changing
how resources are connected together. JDL has the potential to transform
content based access to NASA?s educational resources in much the same
way that the world-wide-web transformed access to off-line resources.

While customers currently have to search multiple web sites, using the
JDL customers will have a seamless connection to Agency education
resources. The Library will have an extensive improvement of the
discovery of resources and reduce the time to search for resources. To
accomplish this, we propose to harden the current JDL system for
operational use, add missing operational capabilities and features,
integrate JDL with the NASA web portal, and initiate integration of the
JDL into the Agency's infrastructure.

## Innovation

### Technology Focus and Innovation:

The JOINed Digital Library is innovative in two main aspects. It employs
the newly developed Java-based JiniTM Networking Technology and departs
from the centralized collection model of many digital libraries by
promoting a distributed architecture of its collections. Currently there
are three main components to the JDL: the JiniTM networking
infrastructure, the JiniTM -enhanced metadata collections distributed
around the country (and eventually the world), and a 'bare-bones' web
interface. The JiniTM networking infrastructure is the cornerstone of
the JDL and provides the glue to connect education metadata collections
together to make them accessible from one entry point.

Since JiniTM is based on Java, the JiniTM infrastructure and JiniTM
-enhanced collections are platform independent and can be hosted on any
modern operating system; this makes the JDL portable and low-cost. Older
digital library systems were often limited to specific operating systems
and required proprietary software, which was costly. The JDL uses
current library harvesting protocols (OAI and SDLIP) and a standard
education oriented metadata language (IMS) which has translators to
other metadata standards; this makes the JDL interoperable with other
digital libraries

Previous centralized systems had the enormous and costly burden of
record upkeep and often were hampered by lower participation of
established collections, who were reluctant to lose control of their
content. Distributed collections were also burdened with the costs
associated proprietary hardware and software required.

In the JDL, collection owners retain control of their metadata
collections and since they have a vested interest in their collection
holdings, their job is to keep the collection information up-to-date,
alleviating the JDL of this burden. The overall cost to participating
collections is low as they can use the same web servers they already own
to host the JiniTM -modules and the JDL collection software is free.

The JiniTM -based network is more robust than previous networks. While
older systems had fragile, proprietary, and unstable network connections
between the collections and central interface with frequent system
slow-downs or crashes, the dynamic nature of the JDL system provides for
collections and other services going on- and off-line (e.g., crash)
without interfering with the overall system operation; this makes JDL
recoverable. The JDL system simply notes that a particular collection is
not available and continues with its normal operation. This process is
done so elegantly by the JDL, new users of this distributed technology
have no sense of the complexity of this operation. Exactly the desired
response! These automated recovery and connection features of JiniTM
allow for very low maintenance costs for the JiniTM infrastructure and
the JDL system as a whole.

### Data Sources:

Our data sources are and will be educational products and resources
which reside on the Web or are available through an ordering site (such
as the NASA CORE). Our initial connected collections leverage cataloging
efforts of the Earth and Space Science Enterprises, at Goddard's
Education Office (a prototypical Center educational office) and at one
of the NSF National STEM Digital Libraries: Earthgazer, Space Science
Education Resource Directory, Edmall, and Digital Library for Earth
System Education (DLESE), respectively. The next set of collections we
intend to connect are the Earth Science Enterprise approved Educational
Resources, Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio collection, and
selected components of the Earth Observatory. As the JDL is incorporated
into the Agency architecture, additional funds will be required to
connect other existing collections and to catalog uncataloged resources
within those collections.

### Research and Development Plan:

This proposal will create a web-based resource discovery system for the
education community. There are multiple components to be addressed to
make this technology feasible as a component of the Agency
infrastructure:

Maturation of the JiniTM technology: JiniTM is continuously growing and
maturing. Services such as basic security of the system have been built;
however additional security measures must be developed before this
system can go 'prime-time'.

Robustness (scalability and stability) of the system: As a pilot system,
the JDL works well, but how well will the system scale? Conceptually, it
is infinitely scalable, like the world-wide-web. However, this has not
been tested. We will create and test redundant JiniTM -infrastructure
systems which will host very large collections (tens to hundreds of
thousands of records) to test scalability and stability.

Performance improvement: Once there are hundreds of (test) collections
and many thousands of records connected to the JDL, we will conduct
tests to identify and alleviate performance bottlenecks.

Interface Development: The current web interface was developed to be a
bare-bones' but usable interface. With the maturing and roll-out of the
NASA portal project, we intend to utilize the portal concept to create a
customer-driven customizable web interfaces.

## Diffusion Potential

Dissemination Plan:

Previous sections have discussed how this technology addresses common
and prevalent problems for our educational communities and the
cost-effectiveness and improvements a JiniTM -based distributed
collection approach provides over existing systems. As mentioned
previously, customer specific interfaces, which are also customizable,
will be created to address specific community needs as part of the
portal integration effort. Additional JiniTM --structures based on other
metadata vocabularies are possible, and are poised to become an Agency
resource that encompasses the education resources of all NASA
Enterprises.

One effective way to communicate this resource to the education
community is through Agency newsletters and through conferences. To be
successful, an understanding of the needs of both the potential
collection holders/providers and the users of the digital library are
essential. Conferences that draw both communities will be targeted.

### Education Application:

The JOINed Digital Library will be a valuable tool to our full
educational community of users; formal education, informal education,
and professional development. As collections are connected to JDL and it
is integrated into the Agency infrastructure, its value to the community
will increase, particularly to communities we had not focused on
previously. The JDL will become an Agency asset that our customers
value. The new technology will dramatically improve our customer's
discovery of desired resources while reducing their time to search for
resources.

## Project Feasibility

See Part 2. Milesones and Part 4. Innovation: Technology Focus, Data
Sources, and Research and Development Plan.

## Partnerships

Dr. Blanche Meeson (Head, Earth Science Enterprise Implementation
Office),

Dr. Jeffrey Rosendhal (Education & Public Outreach Director for the
Office of Space Science),

Jeanne Holm (JPL/ NASA Portal), and

Contractors (Design and Software Development) NSF funded Digital Library
for Earth Systems Education (Metadata and Library development partner)

This proposed technology, JOINed Digital Library, has generated many
potential partners within and external to NASA. Nationally, the JDL is
poised to be integrated with NSF's NSDL effort and with the Department
of Education's Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM).

## Evaluation

### Assessment and Evaluation:

An important component to determine the success of the JDL will be usage
and testing of the system bythe education community and the collection
holders/providers. Metrics to show success of the JDL with our education
community include:

### Short-term measures:

-   Ease of operation of the interface,

-   Reliability of the system,

-   Ease of connection of a collection to the system.

### Long-term measures:

-   Use of our educational materials by audiences which do not use them
    (e.g., interpreters at National Parks, etc.),

-   Increased usage of our educational knowledge products by all sectors
    of the educational community

-   Reduction of cost to serve an individual customer

-   Expanded use of NASA knowledge products with no direct funding from
    NASA.