Faculty, Librarian, and Student Collaboration: Enhancing Science Learning with Digital Collections....

Background

In 2009 The Five Colleges of Ohio initiated a program to integrate digital collections into the curriculum, funded by The Andrew Mellon Foundation. This poster describes science collections designed to enrich teaching and learning environments of specific courses. These projects also make private collections publicly accessible, with applicability beyond the Five Colleges. Methods

Librarians and teaching faculty jointly develop grant proposals, peer reviewed by campus committees comprised of faculty, librarians, and administrators. Criteria for projects include integration into the curriculum, and enhanced usability and access to materials through effective digitization. An assessment plan for each digital collection is required. The grant supports a full-time Digital Specialist to coordinate technical aspects and help develop institutional repositories at each campus, utilizing DSpace.

Results

Over 30 collections across the curricula are in development. More than a third are in science or impact science education in cross-disciplinary studies. An example of the latter is a GIS photo archive using GPS devices to geo-tag photographs taken by students in the field. Older pictures are retrospectively geo-tagged so students and researches can track the changes over time. This project has applications in geology, environmental science, history and other disciplines, strengthening collaborations across disciplines and serving the liberal arts focus of the consortium. Conclusions

In addition to IR archiving, the resulting collections will be available in the OhioLINK Digital Resource Commons (Fig. A). They provide unparalleled opportunities for student learning, and make accessible specimens, data, graphs, sound files, and images that were previously available only in one lab or facility. The collections make students active participants in new scholarly activities and forge important partnerships among faculty, librarians and staff.

AcknowledgementsFaculty collaborators: Greg Wiles , Shelley Judge, Matthew Mariola, College of Wooster; Andrew McCall, Erik Klemetti, Denison Univ.; Yutan Getzler, Kenyon College; Chris Wolverton, Laurel Anderson, David Johnson, Nancy Murray, Ohio Wesleyan Univ.; Steven Wojtal, Karla Parsons-Hubbard, Oberlin College. Digital specialists: Marsha Bansburg, Alan Boyd, Meghan Frazer, Emily Haddaway, Catalina Oyler, Kristen Pantle. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant supports the project Next Steps in the Next Generation Library: Integrating Digital Collections into the Liberal Arts Curriculum. Project blog: oh5-nlg-digitization-project.blogspot.com/Five Colleges

of Ohio

Faculty, Librarian and Student CollaborationEnhancing Science Learning with Digital Collections

Jessica Clemons, The College of Wooster; Moriana M. Garcia, Denison University; Aimee R. Jenkins, Kenyon College;

Deborah Carter Peoples, Ohio Wesleyan University; Alison Scott Ricker, Oberlin College.1

4

6

1. Tree Growth Data for the Bohannon and Kraus Nature Preserves (OWU)

2. Surficial Geology Changes Over Time in Wayne County (WOO)

3. Denison University Herbarium (DEN) 4. Auxin Transport During Gravitropism and

Phototropism using GFP-based Biosensor (OWU)

5. Denison Virtual Earth Material Gallery (DEN)6. Paleontology Specimen Teaching Collection

(OBE)7. Curated Database of Molecular Structure

(KEN)8. Agro-Ecological Local Histories (WOO)*9. Herbarium Teaching Collection and Flora of

Ohio Specimens (OWU)*10.Geological Images Teaching Collection (OBE)** not shown

Digital Collections

2 5

3

7 A

2004 2005

The Denison University Herbarium (Fig. a) aims to catalog and digitize all of the specimens in the Biology Department collection, with the earliest ones dating from the mid to late 1800s. Much of the herbarium was lost during the 'Science Hall' fire in 1905, but the collection was replenished using specimens from Denison professors and other naturalists (Fig. b, Clara A. Davies). The first phase of the project has digitized and cataloged the specimens from the state of Ohio (Fig. c, Royal Fern). Students use the specimens to inform their classes on local flora.

Denison University Herbarium

Faculty, Librarian and Student Collaboration (Five Colleges of Ohio) - AAAS 2012, Vancouver, Canada.

Contact: Moriana M. [email protected]

a

cb

http://drc.denison.edu/handle/2374.DEN/84



The Denison Virtual Earth Material Gallery is a sampling of the specimens in the Geosciences Department collection previously only cataloged in a manuscript book started by Prof. Clarence L. Herrick (Fig. a) in the 1890s. The items in the collection are varied, from representative mineral samples (Fig. b, galena with quartz and rhodochrosite), to rocks from important geologic locations. The collection is used both as an example of important Earth materials, and as a source of research for students during the course of their Denison career.

Denison Virtual Earth Material

Gallery


a

b

Contact: Moriana M. [email protected]


Chris WolvertonAssoc. Professor of Botany / Microbiology

Deborah Carter PeoplesScience Librarian

Emily HaddawayDigital Librarian

Contact:Deborah Carter [email protected]

More Information:http://libguides.owu.edu/NGL_Science

Ohio Wesleyan University


Laurel J. AndersonAssoc. Professor of Botany / Microbiology







David Johnson,Professor of Botany / Microbiology




Nancy MurrayCurator, Joseph A. Swallen Herbarium

Herbarium Teaching Collection and Flora of Ohio Specimens




John KrygierAssoc. Professor of Geography / Geology




David WalkerAsst. Professor of Geography / Geology

Detail from Baist’s Atlas, 1920, part of Clintonville neighborhood in north-central Columbus

Baist’s Real Estate Atlases of Columbus, Ohio



Oberlin College Paleontology

Collectiondcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/paleo


b

The physical collection consists of 9,000 accession numbers, many associated with multiple specimens, amassed by faculty, students and others since the 1800s. Students working with Associate Professor Karla Parsons- Hubbard have been learning hands-on systematic research, while organizing and digitizing the collection, which had experienced uneven preservation efforts over the decades. Over 150 images are now digitized, with more in progress. Associate Director of Libraries Alan Boyd co-sponsors the project.

Contact: Alison S. [email protected]

http://dcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/paleo





Oberlin College Geological Field

ImagesDigitization in progress


Contact: Alison S. [email protected]

b

More than 800 images of geological structures, photographed in the field by Professor Steven Wojtal, are being digitized, described, and augmented with geospatial data. The images, most of them originally formatted as 35mm slides, have been shared for years with colleagues and secondary school teachers. The online collection will make possible virtual field trips through regions that students cannot visit personally, and enrich classroom and lab instruction. Associate Director of Libraries Alan Boyd co-sponsors the project.


Contact:Aimee R. [email protected]

Kenyon College A Curated Database of Molecular

Structurehttp://us-2.wijiti.com:8080/i/kenyon/

Our NMR database allows users, via a web portal in DSpace, to submit and retrieve raw spectroscopic and supporting data. The supporting data includes information such as an image of the processed spectrum, spectrum type (i.e. 1H, 13C, COSY, etc). synthetic procedure, molecular structure, molecular formula, molecular weight, IUPAC name, common name, etc. Our database is a place where orphaned spectra can find a home and higher quality versions of published data can be archived. This collection will allow student-to-student data continuity and help strengthen scholarly collaboration between researchers at different institutions.

http://us-2.wijiti.com:8080/i/kenyon/



Contact:Jessica [email protected]

The College of WoosterGIS-Based Photographic Archive

Observations in the Wooster, Ohio area have yielded some surprising changes linked with land use change, stream erosion and two locally devastating tornadoes. Systematic observations through photography can lead to generation of hypotheses and scientific inquiry.

This geo-referenced database of archived photographs collected during field studies will chronicle environmental change in the Wooster, Ohio region. This archive will help answer questions such as: Why are streams dramatically cutting into the stream beds and banks? How fast do boulders move down a stream?

View the collection at:GIS-Based Photographic Archive

http://drc.wooster.edu/handle/2374.COLLW/10



Contact:Jessica [email protected]

The College of WoosterFarmer Oral History Collection

Each fall, students in the Sustainable Agriculture class go out into the field to hear first hand accounts of what it is like to be a farmer in Wayne County. Prior to beginning the collection, the interviews were kept on a professor’s personal computer.

Partnering with the library has had several positive effects. Students have more thorough discussions on how to interview people. This has improved the overall quality of interviews. The knowledge they learn is shared with a wider audience, from their peers to community members.

Please feel free to listen to the interviews:

Farmer Oral History Collection




Faculty, Librarian, and Student Collaboration: Enhancing Science Learning with Digital Collections....

Education

Transcript of Faculty, Librarian, and Student Collaboration: Enhancing Science Learning with Digital Collections....