March 2003-- Last week the Senate and House approved the appropriations bill for FY03 programs which included funding of $101 million for the Math and Science Partnerships (Title II Part B) at the US Department of Education. The funding was included as part of a giant omnibus spending package, which rolled together funding for most federal programs. The $101 million figure passed by the House and Senate is very important, because the authorizing law for these programs (Title II Part B of No Child Left Behind) requires the funds to be disbursed to the states when funding reaches $100 million. Currently, since the program only received $12.5 million in funding for FY02, the grants were administered by the U. S. Department of Education. Initially these partnerships were to receive $100 million, and were subject to a .65 percent across the board cut that Congress put in place for all programs. Since the $100 million trigger may not have been implemented because of the across the board cuts, the funding for the partnerships was raised to $101 million. This means that now these partnership funds will go as formula grants directly to each State, and the State Education Agency will be responsible for administering local grants to partnerships throughout the state. (For an estimate of how much each state will receive, visit the NSTA website at http://www.nsta.org/, click on Math and Science Partnerships on the front page).
Related Link: http://www.nsta.org/

March 2003-- More information about how to enter a new international contest on scientific visualization, sponsored by The National Science Foundation and the journal Science , published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), can be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/events/sevc/start.htm. This new international contest is designed to recognize outstanding achievements by scientists and engineers in the use of visual media to promote understanding of research results.
Related Link: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/events/sevc/start.htm

March 2003-- Scholarly Publishing and Archiving on the Web: New Opportunities" will be held on April 7, 8:45 am - 4 pm, in Albany, New York at University of Albany`s Campus Center. The day-long symposium will focus on the changing nature of academic publishing and scholarly communication. Digital full-text and image files are becoming the norm for academic communication. Scholars now use world-wide networks to distribute articles, data, and images to colleagues. Commercial publishing is no longer the only option for disciplinary peers and the scholarly community. This symposium, the fifth in the last several years to be offered by Albany`s University Libraries, will explore emerging models for Web publishing and archiving electronic scholarship using institutional venues. The symposium will present several options to facilitate self-publishing and institutional archiving by scholars. Additionally, speakers will discuss various implications and issues surrounding scholarly electronic publishing and the creation of repositories. Para More information is available at http://library.albany.edu/symposium. Reservations for the symposium are due Monday, April 1, 2003. Lorre Smith will provide details (518-437-3966 or email: LSmith@uamail.albany.edu). The deadline for registration is Monday, April 1, 2003.
Related Link: http://library.albany.edu/symposium

March 2003-- The American Medical Publishers Association and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) are co- sponsoring a one-day conference to be held March 4, 2003 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia. Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, will give the keynote address on, "Essential Elements of an Archiving Strategy." The program features presentations on three electronic journal archiving strategies - Elsevier's agreement with the Royal Library of the Netherlands, PubMed Central, and JSTOR - from the perspectives of publishers who have chosen each strategy and the organizations that are maintaining the archives. The broader digital archiving landscape will also be covered, including initiatives of the Library of Congress, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Council of Library and Information Resources, the Mellon Foundation, and NLMOs "Profiles in Science," which makes the papers of Nobel Prize-winning scientists accessible via the Web.
Related Link: http://www.ampaonline.org

March 2003-- Visit NSDL in the Exhibit Hall at the upcoming National Science Teachers Association annual convention in Philadelphia, March 27-30, 2003. This should be an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about NSDL with the science education community. Stop by and get information about the NSDL, share your NSDL experiences, pick up a poster and other goodies, and help us spread the word about NSDL as a premier resource. For more information, including booth location, please contact Susan Van Gundy at 303-497-2946 or vangundy@ucar.edu
Related Link: http://www.nsta.org/

March 2003-- A draft report from the 2002 Using Data in the Classroom NSDL Workshop held at Carlton College in Northfield, MN will be revised based on comments before March 4. For those who participated in the workshop, please send comments to cmanduca@carleton.edu and mogk@montana.edu. If there are items you would like to discuss more broadly with the group, please send those to usingdata - discussion@comm.nsdlib.org. For those who did not attend the workshop, you may launch a discussion of any part of the content on the list. The report refers to examples of current practice at: http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/usingdata/examples.html. This site began as the collection of posters presented at the workshop. You may contribute new examples via the website (create a html page or powerpoint document with your example) by submitting a url for an html page at http://dlesecommunity.carleton.edu/research_education/usingdata/index.html. Submit powerpoints by e-mailing cmanduca@carleton.edu. Examples should have information about what is done in the classroom. You can also submit datasets and tools, which are the urls to things you use without the information about what is done in the classroom. Workshop participants may want to check submissions to make sure that you like the way they look as well as the short descriptions. Send changes or questions to cmanduca@carleton.edu. Thank you to all who contributed to the report and resource collection and in advance to all of you for your feedback.-- Cathy Manduca and Dave Mogk.
Related Link: http://dlesecommunity.carleton.edu/research_education/usingdata/index.htm

March 2003-- The AVC now has a CD that highlights lesson plans, conceptual simulations (models), and QuickTime movies of students performing these AVC activities. The CD was produced for the American Meteorological Society (AMS) conference in Long Beach, CA. Educators may request AVC CDs from Chris Klaus at klaus@anl.gov.
Related Link: http://www.nsdl.arm.gov

March 2003-- An NSF project to create a Digital Library of Ceramic Microstructures (DLCM) is underway at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI). The goal is to collect images with associated data for functional advanced ceramics with emphasis on materials used for structural, electronic and thermal applications. This library will be used in ceramic education to: Illustrate the role of microstructure in dictating macroscopic properties; highlight changes in the microstructure resulting from degradation processes such as corrosion, creep, oxidation, associated with the intended function, and; conduct virtual experiments using selected micrographs and datasets. The DLCM will be used to enhance the educational experience at all universities teaching ceramic science and engineering. UDRI's primary role is to compile the information, create the preliminary database, develop software for accessing the information via the Internet, and maintain the DLCM.The University of Missouri-Rolla, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina A&T State University,Mechanical Test Instrumentation and Control LLC(MTIC) and Dr. Victor Tennery are each working with UDRI to provide the information required to create the library.MTIC is reponsible for construction of the virtual experiments. The website (under construction) can be viewed at: http://131.238.53.232/CeramicsLibrary/Home.asp For further information or comments contact: Dr. Roger Wills, Tel: 937 229 4341 Email: Roger.Wills@udri.udayton.edu
Related Link: http://131.238.53.232/CeramicsLibrary/Home.asp

March 2003-- Users are increasingly wary of the content they find on the Internet, according to the third annual UCLA Internet Report, a yearly examination of the impact of online technology in America. According to the report, only 52.8 percent of Internet users believe that most or all online information available on the Internet is reliable and accurate, down from 58 percent in 2001. The report addresses five subject areas: Internet users and nonusers, media use and trust, consumer behavior, communication patterns, and social effects. It is an outgrowth of the World Internet Project (WIP), coordinated by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy. The WIP includes studies from partners in 18 other countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. It was funded by several tech corporations, as well as foundations. The complete report, as well as earlier studies, can be found at http://ccp.ucla.edu/pages/internet-report.asp. --Library Journal Academic News Wire, February 18, 2003.
Related Link: http://ccp.ucla.edu/pages/internet-report.asp

March 2003-- The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) is a proposed state contract law developed to regulate transactions in computer information products such as computer software, online databases, software access contracts or e-books. Libraries annually purchase over $100 million in electronic information products so that the passage of UCITA will have a great impact on the ability of libraries to access and use the information products they purchase.
Related Link: http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita/

March 2003-- London, Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier PLC again proved the resilience of its subscription-based operations Thursday, reporting double-digit earnings growth for 2002 and reiterating that target for 2003 and the years ahead. --By Kay Larsen, "Reed Elsevier Posts Strong Earnings Growth for 2002," Dow Jones Business News, February 20, 2003.
Related Link: http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030220/1059000597_1.ht

March 2003-- Founded in April 1996, Alexa Internet grew out of a vision of Web navigation that is intelligent and constantly improving with the participation of its users. Amazon, Google, and the Internet Archive Wayback Machine have combined ideas to provide users with a birds-eye view of what is possible when the best of multiple information worlds collide.
Related Link: http://www.alexa.com

March 2003-- "The digital history of this nation is imperiled by the very technology that is used to create it," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. --by Nicholas Johnston, Washington Post Writer, Washington Post Online, February 15, 2003.
Related Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/w

March 2003-- "The JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) have agreed to fund a programme which will provide exciting new content and a range of benefits to education sectors on both sides of the Atlantic. The five-year programme, called "Digital Libraries in the Classroom" will cost around £6m ($9.5m) and will draw on best practice in the creation and delivery of content from both the UK and the US, resulting in a range of resources in four key subject areas..."
Related Link: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=pr_nsfjisc01

March 2003-- This program supports fellowships and associated training that enable graduate students and advanced undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to serve in K-12 schools as resources knowledgeable about both the content and applications of these disciplines.
Related Link: http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?nsf03532

March 2003-- The wisdom of keeping it simple is apparent in Bell South's bold enterprise metadata strategy begun in February of 2000 by the Metadata Services Group (MSG) which was formed to research, design and implement findings. Bell South`s MSG is directed by R. Todd Stephens who is "wildly enthusiastic about what metadata can do for the organization."
Related Link: http://www.wilshireconferences.com/interviews/Stephens.htm

March 2003--The wisdom of keeping it simple is apparent in Bell South's bold enterprise metadata strategy begun in February of 2000 by the Metadata Services Group (MSG) which was formed to research, design and implement findings. Bell South's MSG is directed by R. Todd Stephens who is "wildly enthusiastic about what metadata can do for the organization." 
Related Link: http://www.wilshireconferences.com/inter

March 2003-- Utilizing over 800 scanned documents, photographs, audio clips and video excerpts, this website narrates the breathless details of the pursuit of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Scattered throughout the project are images of a number of very important and extremely rare items, all of which are held within The Valley Library`s Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, and many of which have not been previously displayed.
Related Link: http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/index.html