Digital Library on Societal Impacts (DLSI)

DLSI Resources:
DLSI Progress Report | Current Catalog | DLSI Requirements Doc. (pdf -summary) | DLSI Requirements Doc. (pdf -detail)

DLSI Progress Report - 27-Sep-2004

We currently have 30 entries cataloged in detail, with more being added daily. The current contents of the library, in a very simple form (listing all entries alphabetically) can be found at here.

I have been working on the publishing infrastructure for the library. The goal of this work is to facilitate the cataloging of entries in the library. The cataloging team need to document library entries in a structured format. I have created a suite of tools to support this process. Catalogers can quickly create entries and use some automated tools to convert these entries into a form that the Digital Library uses internally. This internal format is used to organize the entries by topic, author, kind of resource, and so on. My tools automatically generate Web pages from these entry files so that the cataloging team can quickly see the results of the data entry process.

While leading the cataloging team, I have used an informal bottom-up process to catalog entries. This cataloging process was derived from conversations with the cataloging experts at DLESE. Based on the common features we have identified in articles, we have determined ways to organize entries, such as type of study, impacts discussed, and storms being analyzed. The tools I created are being used to automatically generate a schema, or outline for library organization, directly from the entries themselves.

We are actively seeking feedback to determine if the scope of materials and the type of categorization is appropriate for the user community. I have recruited and am currently supervising a team of three masters students from the University of Colorado. As part of a course project in User Interface Design, they will be developing a prototype interface for the library. By the end of the semester (November 2004) they will provide us with detailed mockups from which a final interface can be derived.

In addition, I am modifying the current DLESE tools to interoperate with other geoscience digital libraries and use some of the powerful DLESE browsing and searching capabilities.

In the upcoming weeks, I will supplement the simple Web pages being created with browse and search functionality. I am also interested in any feedback about how information in the library should be presented, what resources we should catalog, and other comments about presentation to make the library as useful for the target audience as possible.