October 2003--
Dear friends and colleagues:
I apologize for having to miss this last day of the meeting. Some of you know that I am taking part in a panel at the Internet2 Fall Meeting today in place of Judith Ramaley (Assistant Director of EHR) who is involved in the National Science Board meeting going on this week at NSF. Internet2 is an effort that many of you are probably aware of and it has many interesting points of intersection with NSDL that I hope to explore while I'm there. (Perhaps I'll also be able to pick up a bumper sticker that I've heard about, urging freedom for the Indianapolis 500!)
Thank you all for your participation in NSDL. It is a complex undertaking, seemingly mysterious at times and yes, potentially frustrating too. But please do not lose hope, I believe in you. Yesterday afternoon I heard the word "passion" used in several sessions to describe the involvement of participants in your own individual projects. That term applies to you too. Your abundant passion matched with your collective expertise is what gives me confidence.
Thanks also for your responses to my "assignment" from yesterday morning! At least one submission came via a wireless connection during the session! Remember that you can still send these in! (I was always an easy mark when it came to granting extensions!) I was also delighted to find several submissions in haiku format!! I hope you'll let me share these when I summarize and report back on the responses.
Speaking of haiku... Some parting observations. Thanks, and safe travels!

Lee Zia
NSDL Program Officer
National Science Foundation


More metadata?!
Will we have to tag the tags?
Think carefully here.

"1 is not 0."
A bit of metadata!
Wait, let's not go there!

Reuse, repackage,
Repurpose: it's a mindset.
Perfect this practice!

"Amazon-dot-com."
Annotation springs to mind.
But please, not a verb!

We connect to learn.
The digital world beckons.
We learn to connect.

Users and usage.
Who are they? What do they do?
Direction lies there!

Reviewers wanted.
Rewards not monetary.
Take part anyway!!

Views are author's own.
Not official policy
Of the NSF.

Related Link: http://nsdl.org

October 2003-- Lee Zia has invited the NSDL community to send ideas about what Cyberinfrastructure plus Education equals. Send your thoughts to with the following subject line: education + cyberinfrastructure.
Related Link: http://nsdl.org

October 2003-- The NSDL Educational Impact and Evaluation Standing Committee and NSDL Core Integration are pleased to distribute the premiere annual NSDL Progress Report, Fall 2000-Summer 2003 that tells the story of NSDL's great beginnings. Contact Donna Cummings at donnac@ucar.edu to have additional copies of the report mailed to you. The report is on line at nsdl.org>community>documents.
Related Link: nsdl.org

October 2003-- Developing Digital Libraries for K-12 Education, edited by Marcia Mardis, was released on October 1. The book is available from the ERIC IT Clearinghouse digitally and in print.
The authors represent the leading researchers and practitioners of K-12 digital libraries, many of whom are members of the NSDL community.
You can view or order the book at: http://www.ericit.org/books.shtml#DevelopingDigital
Related Link: http://www.ericit.org/books.shtml#DevelopingDigital

October 2003-- The Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS), a research center of Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, has received a $250,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) to create a nationwide digital reference education initiative. Co-principal investigators are SU Assistant Professors Abby Goodrum and R. David Lankes, with Joseph Janes of the University of Washington. The grant will be used to educate librarians, students, and paraprofessionals in digital reference and build a web portal for them to access training materials, online courses, and hands-on experience with digital reference software. The portal will also provide a common place for posting digital reference job and internship opportunities. "Digital reference allows the heart of the library, the librarian, to be just as accessible as the online catalog," said Goodrum.The project will begin with meetings at this year's Virtual Reference Desk Conference (http://www.vrd2003.org/index.cfm), to be held November 17-18 in San Antonio.--Library Academic Newswire, October 16
Related Link: http://web.syr.edu/~edraiten/

October 2003--A new Google feature allows users to type a nine digit telephone number with hyphens into the search box, hit enter, and view names and and links to maps leading to an individual's home address. Block Google from divulging your private information by searching on your phone number, clicking on the telephone icon next to your name, and completing a form. Removal takes 48-hours.
Related Link: http://www.google.com

October 2003-- "With Lawrence Lessig on the Board, the PLOS team are taking the Creative Commons to the world of science publishing and hope to compete with the big-name journals Science and Nature. The move towards freely-available scientific journals is supported by major funding bodies who are tired of seeing their grant money spent on subscriptions to commercial journals that can cost thousands of dollars a year."
Related Link: http://science.slashdot.org/science/03/10/13/119223.shtml?tid=134&tid=98&tid=99

October 2003--On October 14 the Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) site was launched. The AGORA site provides access to over 400 journals from major scientific publishers in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA is available to students and researchers in qualifying not-for-profit institutions in eligible developing countries.
Related Link: http://www.aginternetwork.org

October 2003-- A collective look--thoughts, notes, and power points--of the NSDL Annual Meeting can be viewed here. Please continue to submit your notes and ideas. Send email to caseyj@ucar.edu if you have any questions about how to do this. NSDL Standing Committee meeting minutes will be posted at nsdl.org>community>groups.
Related Link: http://swiki.dlese.org/nsdl2003/1