The Natural Resources Digital Library Needs, Partners, and Challenges

Bonnie Avery, Janine Salwasser, & Janet WebsterOregon State University

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OSU Libraries: Land grant roles and goals

Goals– Enhance the collection in areas of historical

strength and institutional excellence (e.g. natural resources)

– Provide user centered services and user self-sufficiency

– Take a lead role in developing a natural resources digital library for the State of Oregon

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OSU Libraries: Shifting information environments

• Digital – Provide internet access

to information – Provide a quality filter – Provide metadata and

implement standards – Facilitate web use and

resource discovery– Assess user needs and

incorporate user input

• Classic/Traditional – Build on collection

strengths – Validate information– Catalog and organize

information – Share Resources– Help current users – Plan with the user in mind

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Natural Resources Digital Library

• Working definition: “… a managed environment of multimedia

materials in digital form, designed for the benefit of its user population, structured to facilitate access to its contents, and equipped with aids to navigate the global network …”

Mel Collier,ISDL’97,http://www.dl.ulis.ac.jp/ISDL97/proceedings/collier.htm

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Needs Assessment

• Goal: Create the OSU Natural Resources Digital Library vision based on what users want and need– Content– Access– Geographic Scope– Uses and Usability– Services

• Method: 35 face-to-face interviews and 1 workshop with users of natural resources information

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Needs Assessment: How, Who?

• 37 meetings with key contacts• 35 face-to-face interviews with users of natural

resources information:– Academia (10)– Business (1)– Conservation/Environmental Groups (5)– Extension Services (6)– Government (10)– Watershed Councils (3)

• 1 workshop with 20+ participants (mix of users and key contacts)

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Needs Assessment:2001 Findings

• Users can articulate what they want and need from a digital library

• Users want a wide variety of information in a wide variety of formats

• Topics of greatest interest include: forestry, watersheds, land and water use

• Place matters: Access to multiple spatial scales wanted and needed (watershed, county, state, region)

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Moving Forward with a Natural Resources Digital Library

• Users were not aware of any accessible system or digital library that enables:– Spatial and non-spatial information discovery; – Information integration and synthesis; – Evaluation of information quality; and – People networking.

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Digital LibraryConceptual Framework

Users

Web Portal

Data/Content Tools People

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Partnerships provide the expertise

• Infrastructure Development

• Content

• Funding

• Usability

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Natural Resources Digital Library Case Studies

• OSU Projects– Tsunami Digital Library

– Willamette Basin Stream Survey Photographs

– Willamette River Basin Natural Resources Digital Library

• Highlights– Digital Library Features

– Partnerships

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Tsunami Digital Library

Digital Library features: access to articles and data compilations is enhanced by user questions and ratings.

Partnership expertise: computer science, library science, international tsunami research

Digital Library features: access to articles and data compilations is enhanced by user questions and ratings.

Partnership expertise: computer science, library science, international tsunami research

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Willamette Basin Stream Survey Photographs

Digital Library features: searchable photo archive.

Partnership expertise: library science, forest and fisheries science

Digital Library features: searchable photo archive.

Partnership expertise: library science, forest and fisheries science

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Willamette River Basin Natural Resources Digital Library

Digital Library features: web-enabled GIS.

Partnership expertise: library science, computer science, local restoration/conservation groups

Digital Library features: web-enabled GIS.

Partnership expertise: library science, computer science, local restoration/conservation groups

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Technology Features

• Tsunami Digital Library– Collaborative filtering

• Willamette Basin Stream Survey Photos– Photo archiving & a geographic search interface

• Willamette River Basin Natural Resources Digital Library– Web enabled GIS services

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Digital LibraryConceptual Framework

Users

Web Portal

Data/Content Tools People

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Emerging Social Challenges

• Identifying the key user communities

• Identifying partners with the right expertise

• Showing the benefits to all the constituents

• Communicating across the different expertise groups and user communities

• Developing a process for reaching agreement on how to move forward

• Managing expectations of users and partners

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Emerging Functional Challenges

• Searching across collections

• Providing centralized access to distributed data and content

• Creating an effective user experience

• Balancing strategic goals with opportunistic possibilities

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Concluding Remarks

• Our needs assessment proved an important process for identifying content and technology parameters important to users

• Partnerships in development, content, funding, and usability are an effective means to address the full spectrum of expertise needed to create a useful digital library

• Social, technical, and economic challenges exist, but can be worked through when you can clearly and frequently communicate the collective vision, needs, benefits and costs

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Contacts and Bibliography

• Contact Informationbonnie.avery@oregonstate.edu

janine.salwasser@oregonstate.edu

janet.webster@oregonstate.edu

• Bibliography http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/staff/averyb/NAP.htm

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Discussion Topics: Functional & social challenges

• Searching across collections

• Providing centralized and secure web services from distributed data/content holdings

• Creating an effective user experience

• Balancing strategic and opportunistic approaches

• Identifying key users• Identifying partners • Showing the benefits to all

the constituents • Communicating across the

different expertise groups and user communities

• Developing a process for reaching agreement on how to move forward

• Managing expectations of users and partners