Planning a community based digital library for Earth system education

The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is being built by the Earth system education community. The need to organize and facilitate sharing of high-quality educational materials, provide teacher and learner access to data describing the Earth, and to bring together Earth science educators from K-16 and beyond were identified as high priority objectives by leaders in Earth system education in the report "Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Earth Science Education". Participants in several meetings of large consortia further endorsed the essential nature of these objectives. In response, leaders in Earth system education, library science, and information technology were brought together for a "Portal to the Future" workshop in August, 1999 to develop a strategic plan for building a community-owned and managed digital library. Results from the workshop have been integrated with broader community input to create the DLESE Community Plan. To move forward with implementing the Community Plan, an initial governance structure has been developed, Governance of the library and the setting of library policy are currently entrusted to a Steering Committee elected by the DLESE community. Four subcommittees each maintaining an active and unrestricted e-mail list server, report to the Steering Committee and provide broad-based community input to inform policy and infrastructure decisions.