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##  The National Science Foundation's Massive Digital Library for                   Education: Opportunities and Challenges for Teachers and Librarians.            ERIC Digest.                                                                 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) released its first call for               proposals for the National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and               Technology Education Digital Library (NSDL) program early in 2000.              Building on work supported under the multi-agency Digital Libraries             Initiative, this program aims to establish a national digital                   library that will constitute an online network of learning                      environments and resources for science, mathematics, engineering,               and technology education at all levels. BACKGROUNDFiscal year             1994 marked the beginning of the Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI),            a multi-agency research effort involving the National Science                   Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space                            Administration (NASA), and the Department of Defense's Advanced                 Research Projects Agency (ARPA). NSF served as the lead agency in               this program that provided support for basic research into the                  transformative potential of information technology as applied to                library and information science. 
Six multi-year projects were                 funded in the first four years, featuring collaborations of                     researchers and users from a variety of organizations, including                leading universities, state agencies, secondary schools, prominent              libraries and museums, the publishing community, government                     laboratories, and the computer and communications industry. In a                brief note in Educom Review, Paul Evan Peters (1995) provided very              short summaries of these projects; but more importantly he posited              the term "digital library" as the logical replacement for what                  Peters called two prior terms of art: the "electronic library," with            its basic "bits on silicon rather than ink on paper" concept, and               the "virtual library," as captured in the idea of "not only what you            own but what you have access to." (It bears mentioning that this                same early to mid-1990s time period also marked the emergence of the            first text-based browsers, which were followed very quickly by                  graphical browsers.) 
In 1995 initial thinking about digital                   libraries for science education began with an internal concept paper            for the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE), and the                  concepts were developed and informed by a series of workshops and               accompanying reports (Manduca & Mogk, 1999; NRC, 1998, 1999; NSF,               1998, 1999a, 1999b). By FY98 the initial DLI had gained more partner            agencies and under the umbrella of a new DLI-2 effort, a prototype              program was conducted for two years to explore the application of               digital library research to undergraduate science education test                beds. Spurred by both enthusiasm from the broad educational                     community and both the legislative and executive branches for the               promise of digital libraries to enable improvements in education,               the formal NSDL                                                                 program (http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/due/programs/nsdl) was                      established in 2000. 
The "virtual facility" envisioned by the                 program is intended to serve the needs of students and teachers                 alike at all levels -- preK-12, undergraduate, graduate, and                    life-long learning, by providing seamless access to rich interactive            learning materials and resources, marked by the breadth and depth of            the subject matter addressed, and valued for their authority and                reliability. The NSDL will also enhance the services of existing                libraries through the intelligent retrieval of relevant information,            indexing and online annotation of resources, and archiving.                     Moreover, the emerging broadband potential of the Next Generation               Internet offers new capabilities, such as access to virtual                     collaborative work areas, interactive networked laboratory                      experiences, tools for analysis and visualization, remote operation             of instrumentation, mining of large databases of real time data, and            exploitation of simulated environments. By enabling broad access to             comprehensive high-quality collections of teaching and learning                 resources in a digital environment, along with value-added services,            the NSDL is expected to encourage and support continual improvements            in the quality of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology             education for all students. CURRENT PROJECTSThe NSDL program              features four tracks: Core Integration, Collections, Services, and              Targeted Research. In the core integration track, projects are                  expected to focus on the coordination and management of the                     library's core collections and services and to develop the library's            central portal. Collections track projects are expected to aggregate            and manage a subset of the library's content within a coherent theme            or specialty, while services projects are expected to develop                   services that support users, collection providers, and the core                 integration capabilities that enhance the impact, efficiency, and               value of the library. Finally targeted research projects are                    expected to explore specific topics that have immediate                         applicability to one of the other three tracks. 
In fiscal year                2000 eighty-nine proposals were received across these various tracks            requesting approximately 59 million dollars. Twenty-nine new awards             were made in September 2000 including six pilot projects in the core            integration track (Zia, 2000). In FY01 the program received one                 hundred and five proposals across its four tracks requesting                    approximately 74 million dollars. In September 2001 grants were                 awarded to support thirty-five new projects: one full development               project in the core integration track, eighteen projects in the                 collections track, thirteen in the services track, and three in                 targeted research (Zia, 2001b). 
Although the first-year grants are            barely a year old, projects have been developing and testing                    prototype models of aspects of the NSDL. Issues being addressed                 include collection development policies, distributed review and                 quality control, user access and authentication services, standards             development, metadata frameworks, and intellectual property. Because            the program is seeking to build an enterprise much larger than any              individual project, there has been a conscious effort on the part of            NSF and the principal investigators of the various grants to foster             a collective sense of mission. For example, project participants                have self-organized into various working                                        groups (see <http://www.smete.org/nsdl/workgroups>) that are helping            to define user requirements and to develop technical specifications             such as protocols for tagging resources with metadata and indexing              taxonomies to facilitate searches. A fundamental organizational and             technical infrastructure is also being created to support the                   interoperability of the distributed collections and                             services. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIESAs the NSDL program                 begins its second full year of project support there are numerous               opportunities and challenges that present themselves (Zia, 2001a).              With respect to the preK-12 community, the traditional roles for                librarians and teachers are evolving, just as they are beginning to             evolve at the post-secondary level. If indeed the distinctions                  between the two roles are blurring, and the requisite skills of each            are enlarging, then there are certainly implications for pre-service            preparation and continued professional development. 
As new                    learning resources become available, new materials and curricular               Development possibilities also open up, along with opportunities to             reuse, repackage, and repurpose the digital learning objects. New               sources of such materials are also becoming available, for example              the vast museum holdings whose availability to date has been bound              by place. Recognizing the opportunities in this area, NSF and                   another federal agency, the Institute for Museum and Library                    Services (IMLS), have brought together a set of grant recipients to             explore ways in which library and museum holdings may be                        appropriately leveraged in support of new course and curricular                 materials. A joint IMLS-NSDL working group is currently developing a            report of its activities. 
There is also a key opportunity for                 teachers and librarians to provide important "end-user" perspectives            to the development of the collections and services of the NSDL. In              the previous section above various working groups were mentioned.               Communication within these groups is primarily through public                   listserves, which can be accessed at the site given above.                      Participation in these discussions is strongly encouraged and will              be especially valued. 
Finally, evaluation in its many forms is                exceedingly important to undertake as the NSDL continues to grow.               Here again the teacher and librarian communities represent a vital              resource to be tapped by the various projects in the NSDL program.              Plans are underway for evaluation of a variety of aspects of the                digital library including ease of accessibility, user satisfaction              with content and services, the use made of materials, documentation             of learning gains due to using NSDL material, to name but a                     few. 
The NSF conceives of the NSDL as a community-built and                   community-governed public resource for the nation's students and                teachers. Significant involvement of the country's teachers and                 librarians will be vital to achieving this                                      vision. REFERENCESManduca, C.A., and Mogk,                                D.W. (1999). "Portal to the Future: A Digital Library for Earth                 System Education." [Online]. Available:                                         http://www.dlese.org 
National Research                                        Council (NRC). (1998). "Developing a Digital National Library for               Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology                 Education." NRC workshop, August 7-8, 1997. [Online]. Washington,               D.C.: National Academy Press. Available:                                        http://books.nap.edu/books/0309059771/html/R1.html (ED 425                      928) 
-----. (1999). "Serving the Needs of Pre-College Science and             Mathematics Education: Impact of a Digital National Library on                  Teacher Education and Practice." NRC workshop, September 24-25,                 1998. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council. [Online].                    Available: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9584.html 
National Science              Foundation (NSF). (1998). "Information Technology: Its Impact on                Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and               Technology." NSF workshop, April 18-20, 1996 (NSF 98-82). Arlington,            VA: National Science Foundation. [Online]. Available:                           http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf9882 
-----. (1999a). "Report             of the SMETE Library Workshop." NSF workshop, July 21-23, 1998 (NSF             99-112). Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. [Online].                  Available:                                                                      http://www.dlib.org/smete/public/report.html 
-----. (1999b).                  "Digital Libraries and Education Working Meeting." January 4-6,                 1999. [Online]. Available:                                                      http://www.dli2.nsf.gov/dljanmtg.pdf 
Peters, P.                               E. (1995). "Digital Libraries Are Much More Than Digitized                      Collections." "Educom Review," 30 (4), 11-15. (EJ 508 756) 
Zia, L.            L. (2000). "The NSF National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and             Technology Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program: A Progress                 Report." "D-Lib Magazine," 6 (10). [Online]. Available:                         http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october00/zia/10zia.html 
----- (2001a).              "Growing a National Learning Environments and Resources Network for             Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education." "D-Lib            Magazine," 7 (3). [Online]. Available:                                          http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/zia/03zia.html 
----- (2001b). "The           NSF National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics                  Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program: New Projects and a                    Progress Report." "D-Lib Magazine," 7 (11). [Online]. Available:                http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november01/zia/11zia.html PROJECTS OF                  PARTICULAR INTEREST TO THE ERIC COMMUNITY Available at:                         http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/due/programs/nsdl/ 
Core Integration                Track 
DUE 0127298, 0127308, and 0127520: Collaborative Project:               Core Integration of the National SMETE Digital Library.                         Institutions: University Corporation for Atmospheric                            Research (UCAR), Cornell University, and Columbia University. PIs:              Dave Fulker, Bill Arms, and Kate Wittenberg. 
Collections                      Track 
DUE-0085874. Biology Education Online - An Interactive                  Electronic Journal. Institution: National Association of Biology                Teachers. PI: Wayne Carley. 
DUE-0085823. National Digital Library             for Undergraduate Mathematics, Science, and Technology Teacher                  Preparation and Professional Development. Institution: Ohio State               University. PI: Kim Roempler. 
DUE 0121636. Teachers Domain                    Collection: Life Sciences, K-12. Institution: WGBH Educational                  Foundation. PI: Michele Korf 
DUE 0121650. National Digital Library            for Technological Literacy. Institution: International Technology               Education Association. PI: Brigitte Valesey 
DUE 0121677. Gender               and Science Digital Library. Institution: Education Development                 Center. PI: Katherine Hanson. 
DUE 0121724. Water in the Earth                 System (WES): An NSDL K-12 Collection Project. Institution: Colorado            State University. PI: Ed Geary. Services Track 
DUE-0085855. The               Instructional Architect: A System for Discovering, Recommending, and            Combining Learning Objects. Institution: Utah State University. PI:             Mimi Recker. 
DUE 0121525. Developing Virtual Reference Desk                   Capabilities for the NSDL. Institution: Syracuse University. PI:                Richard Lankes. 
DUE 0121692. Digital Library Services for American            Indians. Institution: American Indian Higher Education Consortium.              PI: Carrie Billy. 
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Lee L. Zia is Lead Program Director of              the National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology                  Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program, Division of Undergraduate             Education, National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. The              views expressed in this article are solely the author's and do not              necessarily represent official NSF policy statements. 
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This publication is funded in part with            Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under contract              number ED-99-CO-0005. The content of this publication does not                  necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of             Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or              organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government. Visit the               Department of Education's Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/                    **Title:** The National Science Foundation's Massive Digital Library for                   Education: Opportunities and Challenges for Teachers and Librarians.            ERIC Digest.                                                                 **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, Syracuse University,            621 Skytop Rd., Suite 160, Syracuse, NY 13244-5290. Tel:                        315-443-3640; Tel: 800-464-9107 (Toll Free); Fax: 315-443-5448;                 e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://ericit.org.                    **Descriptors:** Access to Information,  Educational Resources,  Electronic                      Libraries, Elementary Secondary Education, Higher Education,                     Information Networks, Information Sources,  Instructional                      Materials, Mathematics, Online Systems, Program Development, Science            Education, Technology Education                                              **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests, National Science Foundation                                    
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