Sarah Zdenek’s Weblog

I had a reply from Ted Hamilton with OSEC (he happens to be an University of Iowa MLS alumnus from the 1980s). We are going to keep a dialog going even though my project is wrapping up. He wants the chance to look at a partnership between OSEC and WiderNet to help school children on South Dakota reservations.

Cliff let me know during the last portal meeting that my project will end once I leave due to the lack of funding. This was expected, but still disappointing. I am not sure that all domestic eGranary plans will be put on hold, I think the prison work will continue. However, the K-12 project will now be cryogenically frozen, ala Walt Disney.

In my last days, I created another portal.  This one was a Biological Sciences portal for Dr. Coulter to look at and add content specific sub-headings.

A number of interesting things came up this week.  First, Cliff and I met with Dr. Coulter about the needs of tribal colleges and Biological Science curriculum and course delivery.  We discussed the role of the National Science Foundation in Dr. Coulter’s work and the possibility of a partnership in developing a portal or other means of content delivery.  Cliff explained the Knowledge Sphere concept and how it may be implemented to help entire communities with access and a safe, organized digital library.  Dr. Coulter has some contacts at specific tribal colleges that may allow us to test out some options.

Following up on a lead from Ryan from TFA, I have been researching the educational standards for reservation K-12 schools and the work done by the OSEC (Oseti Sakowin Educational Consortium). 

But the biggest news is that I created my first portal for teachers!  At this point the information is organized into four types-Math, Science, Language Arts, and teacher resources.  The teacher resources are in a browsable table whereas the other sections are split up into more specific subjects.  Next week I will try to contact Ted Hamilton at the OSEC and continue to add resources to my portal while creating more subheadings to establish a hierarchy.

Cliff and I called Ryan from TFA and talked about what the needs would be for teachers on tribal lands in South Dakota.  He gave us the name of someone else to talk to that helps facilitate connectivity in this area.  We also brainstormed a few ways to partner including Ryan passing along our request through a group email for teachers to contribute ideas and materials.  As I was setting up this phone call, Cliff also had me contact Dr. Joe Coulter who has agreed to come and meet with us this Tuesday.

At our Portal People meeting we discussed cataloging issues and interoperability with metadata schema.  As we decide how best to make the information on the eGranary more user friendly and more easily organized into portals by librarians and non-librarians alike, we need to develop standards that include rationales and documentation.  I began pulling together references with Courtney to look at creating Confluence articles that explain where we are rigt now and where we will be heading.  That way, if I am assigned to a different project next semester, there will be information for the next person to work on these issues without starting over.