Building and Using the Digital Water Education Library (DWEL) for K-12 Education

Abstract

DWEL is the first major collection building effort to bring a large block of high quality, K-12 resources into the Digital Library for Earth Systems Education (DLESE). Efforts are currently underway to provide teachers, students and informal educators with easy, searchable access to over 500 exemplary digital resources related to the science, policy and economics of water by the end of 2003. One of the unique features of this collection is that it is being developed by practicing educators from the K-12 and informal setting communities. A discovery tool will allow users to search the library catalogue by content area, grade level, resource and the National Science Education Standards to obtain the resources they desire. A large part of this presentation will describe the mechanisms that were utilized in the creation of this community-developed collection. The balance will focus on how to access this tool and specific ways to use it more effectively.