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1. RESOLVED

That user needs should drive the design, function and services of the library. A user committee, representative of the community, will be established to identify and communicate user needs to the steering committee.

 

2. ESSAY

Ultimately, we envision a digital library that will serve everyone including students at all grade levels, K – 12 teachers, and faculty in higher education. Since Earth system education is a diverse field, we expect that the digital library will emerge from that broad based community as groups organize and develop digital learning materials, digital learning spaces, collaboratories, and digital libraries that address their specific needs. As a practical matter, we believe that the initial user community emerging from the target audience of the Geoscience Digital Library (GDL) for undergraduate college educators is an important community from which to initiate and test out community development and education strategies. While our initial audience may out of necessity be undergraduate college educators, our ultimate goal is to expand the services of the library to include K¾ 12 educators, earth system researchers, and the public at large.

In order to be sustainable and viable, the library must reflect the needs and wants of the user community. The library must be a collaborative effort in spirit, perception, and reality. To that end, the library must be multifaceted in scope, multidisciplinary in its intellectual architecture and nature, and it must also model and offer best practices in pedagogy, current educational research, and standards. For example, the library must meet the needs of diverse user levels and abilities, and various institutional mandates and capabilities.

To be successful the library must have built-in and sustainable mechanisms to motivate users to belong, use their services, and contribute to its collections. Users of the library must be able to link to other digital libraries and services (as they exist and emerge) in a seamless, transparent manner. We view the GDL effort as an important prototype and platform for testing these capabilities and community responses.

We recognize that the shift to Earth Systems Science (ESS) approach to education must be supported by fundamental changes in the pedagogies employed, in the presentation of data, and in curriculum development methods and deliveries. It is our intention that the library supports this change. For this to occur, the library must engender a critical mass of users and support. If the digital library only meets the needs of the "innovators," that is, only those users who are reform minded faculty who have been at the forefront of the use of computers in learning, or are early developers of computer mediated learning, this project will fail. There is a significant gap between these innovators and other adopters, adapters and potential users. Adopters/adapters tend to be faculty and instructors who are interested in reform and willing to use instructional technology but who are not able to, or do not wish to develop their own materials. This later group of users makes up the bulk of potential users and reflects a tension between technical "haves" and "have-nots". The "haves" being people with easy access to technology, support for the use of that technology and who are facile with it. The "have-nots" do not have the resources (or access to them) to support their efforts in the instructional technology arena.

By necessity, our first priority in developing a community of users must be directed towards the technological "haves" who are also adopters or adapters. Development of this group of users is critical to creating a community of users who come to and frequently use the resources provided by the library. If the library does not meet their needs, they will not add to it or promote it to others. Our ultimate goal, however, is to integrate and support the "have-nots" with the services and resources of this library and community. This goal also reflects the need for the library to develop strategies to meet the needs of an ever-changing user population. It must be flexible enough to meet the needs of novice to expert users, as well as support student users in terms of differences in learning styles, access to computers and learning, and as a means to support the emergence of traditionally under-represented populations in earth sciences education.

The library as we envision it, is iterative and evolutionary in nature, the needs of users must be continuously monitored and refined. We expect the user community to play a critical role in this task by actively collaborating in the design and implementation of library services. The short-term activities outlined in the following action plan focuses on creating an organizational structure that is flexible, collaborative, and sustainable. Additionally, these activities ensure the integration of user feedback in the library’s design and encourage the development of a strong and growing user community that will sustain the library.

3. ACTION PLAN

Grow the Community and Remove Obstacles to Participation

1. Short Term (years 1 & 2)

During this period, we believe the existing GDL project is in the strongest position to begin to test the feasibility and implement many of the recommendations put forth in our report and others. The results from the work done by the GDL project should inform the activities and planning associated with the larger earth sciences digital library effort. The actions outlined here depend on the development of a user committee as described above.

1. A Community Outreach and User Support Coordinator needs to be established immediately within the GDL organization to ensure appropriate community user feedback and support. This person will act as a formal liaison between the user community, the steering committee, and the emerging GDL. (GDL Project)
2. A professional Evaluator position should be established immediately to coordinate the activities of the user committee, needs assessment (see Panel 1: Scope and Focus) and to begin evaluation activities for the GDL. (GDL Project)
3. Implement recommendations from Panel 1 for an additional description of the ongoing user needs and assessment for the library. (User Committee, Community Outreach and Support Coordinator, Evaluation Coordinator)
4. Implement recommendations from Panel 8 (Relationship Between Groups) for an additional description of the groups from which the user community will be drawn. (User Committee, Community Outreach and Support Coordinator)

2. Long Term (years 3 and beyond)

In the long run, we view the direction of the project being organized by the Steering Committee or body designated by that group to direct the project. This aspect of the plan assumes the development of an organizational structure during years 1 & 2 that will support the following activities. Please note that the User Committee listed in this section will be a part of the larger digital library project, not the GDL.

1. Develop a prestigious award to recognize and reward outstanding contributions in the development and production of materials for the digital library. (Steering Committee)

b. The user committee will develop a set of incentives for all kinds of users and producers/developers in order to maintain and sustain high levels of participation. For example, publishers as users may find the library useful for targeted marketing. (User Committee)

c. The user committee will inform the efforts of the governance committee’s efforts to clarify issues associated with financial sustainability. (User Committee)

 

 

Establish a User Committee

Charge: Design and implement a system for gathering user feedback and evaluation data to guide decision making and design of the library.

1. Short Term (years 1 &2)

1. Establish a preliminary user committee (8-10 members) that is representative of the initial participants of the GDL. (Steering Committee)

b. Establish and design a formative evaluation process. (User Committee)

c. Collect baseline data that will be continuously used as indicators for measuring success of the prototype library. (User Committee, Evaluation Coordinator)

• Level of use
• User satisfaction

4. Work with designers to embed an automated system for tracking and documenting user information. (User Committee, Community Outreach and Support Coordinator, Evaluation Coordinator)

e. Design a prototype evaluation system for the library that integrates automated documentation, formative evaluation and intermediate (3-4 years) and long-term (5-10 years) impact evaluation. (User Committee, Evaluation Coordinator)

 

1. Long Term (years 5-10)

1. Expand committee to 10-15 members to reflect changes in the user community. (Steering Committee)
2. Test and implement formative and automated evaluation, and design and initiate immediate and long-term impact evaluation. (User Committee, Evaluation Coordinator)
3. Collect data for measuring the success of the library. (User Committee, Evaluation Coordinator)

Example metrics include:

• Level of use
• User satisfaction
• Impact on the culture
• Number of users
• Growth in number of contributors
• Growth in resources/collection
• Rate of new users
• Quality of collection

By implementing the short and long-term strategies outlined in this action plan, the library’s user committee and staff (community outreach and evaluation coordinators) will have the resources and organizational structure that are necessary to establish and develop a strong user community. It was clear during the deliberations of this panel, and those of the entire group of workshop participants, that a strong community will be necessary for the digital library to succeed. The community will by necessity start small, but will grow as the services of the library expand to meet an ever-broadening range of user needs. Since the community membership is dynamic, the library must develop mechanisms to ensure that it is flexible enough to meet user needs as they change. By integrating users into the design process of the library, we can ensure that the library responds to its initial audience and expands to serve K¾ 12 educators, geoscience researchers, and the public at large.