Digital Libraries for You

The World Wide Web is becoming more complex with every passing moment. Educational digital libraries will help you make the most of it.

by Kimberly S. Roempler, ENC Instructional Resources

Imagine sitting down at a computer and designing a lesson by accessing video, text, audio, software, and other resources on the World Wide Web. For instance, suppose you need a lesson on the hydrosphere for sixth graders. You want the lesson to last 45 minutes, and you would like to include an interactive applet that covers the water cycle, two minutes of video, a short essay for students to read, and an activity that students can take home and do with parents. You type all these requests into a search engine, click on Submit, and instantly the resources are delivered to your computer. Sounds pretty amazing, doesn't it? Educational digital libraries will make it a reality.

The term "digital library" is confusing to many people. In fact, it is reminiscent of the term "horseless carriage" before the coining of the word "automobile." Right now we are using the term digital library because we don't have a better way to describe it--just as the first people to see an automobile couldn't think of a better term than horseless carriage.

What Is an Educational Digital Library?

Resources are cataloged in an educational digital library just as they are in a traditional library, but in much greater depth. In addition to traditional bibliographic data such as title, author, and subject, resources in an educational digital library are described with a wide range of information of particular interest to educators. For example, in the case of software, the description might include how interactive the resource is; other data might be the audience for whom a resource was developed, where the learning will take place, or the level of difficulty of the material, just to name a few.

Most digital libraries are more sophisticated than search engines such as Google.com, or the web in general. Google.com reads text and infers meaning from the resource and also checks links between sites. When a user enters the word "safety" in the search engine, Google.com has trouble differentiating between lab safety, safety in schools--or safety pins. The search word "grade" could mean slope (civil engineering) or middle school. Because resources in educational digital libraries are described at such a fine level of detail, these inference errors won't happen.

Online catalogs now provide information about traditional library resources. You don't have to go to the actual library to check the card catalog any more, you still have to physically go to the library if you want to view or check out the resource you have identified online. In contrast, when you access the catalog of a digital library, you get the resource itself, not just a description.

Digital libraries provide instant, around-the-clock access to complete versions of the resources. Until recently, ENC provided an online catalog. Users came to enc.org to access descriptions of materials sitting on the shelves of our collection. But more and more, ENC is cataloging resources that can be instantly accessed. You can link from the ENC description right to the resource itself. This is a small step in the direction of ENC's becoming a digital library.

The Learning Matrix at ENC

Recently ENC received a grant to develop a collection of resources to improve the preparation of math and science teachers by supporting faculty who teach math and science courses in two- and four-year colleges. The project, called the Learning Matrix, is part of the National Science Foundation's National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education (SMETE) Digital Library (NSDL) Initiative. ENC is also collaborating with a group of universities that is developing the infrastructure that will support the NSDL Initiative.

As part of the Learning Matrix project, we are developing a web site (thelearningmatrix.enc.org) that will contain information about and examples of best practices in undergraduate teaching. We are paying particular attention to web resources with challenging mathematics and science content, course descriptions, syllabi, and lesson plans. Links to electronic communities and professional organizations will also be included.

The site will offer peer-reviewed materials, such as assessments, projects, and video clips, that illustrate standards-based teaching on the college level. Another important component will be an enriched web-based learning environment where visitors interact with their colleagues' materials to gain deeper understanding of the substance and context in both research and practice.

How will ENC's involvement with the NSDL project benefit K-12 teachers? In the short term, the services and technologies developed through the project and all the lessons learned in the process will be applied to the classification and indexing of the curriculum resources in ENC's collection. In the long term, you will be the teacher accessing a world of resources to make an instantaneous, multimedia lesson on the hydrosphere to use with your sixth graders.

Kimberly Roempler is ENC's associate director of Instructional Resources and director of The Learning Matrix, the NSDL Initiative at ENC. Email: