October 30, 2000
Institute of Museum & Library Services
Office of Library Services
Program Officer, National Leadership Awards
1100 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Rm 802
Washington, DC 20506
RE: Interim Report
This fourth interim report covering April 2000 through October 2000 is submitted in compliance with grant number LL-80016-98, "Linking Florida's Natural Heritage". This report is organized according to the five goals stated in the proposal, all of which relate to building the Natural Heritage digital library.
Goal 1: Mapping common to scientific names to enhance searchability of Museum collections
An updated common name to scientific name matrix was completed and sent to FCLA. More than 9,920 names have been mapped for freshwater and saltwater mollusks and fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, butterflies and mammals. 2,556 vascular plant names have been included. An online thesaurus version of this matrix may be found at http://susdl.fcla.edu/lfnh/matrix/T/index.html.
Authorities consulted in the construction of this crosswalk may be found at: http://susdl.fcla.edu/lfnh/authority.html.
Goal 2: Creation of a Florida Ecosystem/Species Thesaurus
The FEOL Thesaurus database now contains 4155 terms: 3681 postable terms; 474 non-postable terms; 1869 top terms. All terms are organized under nine Subject Categories, as follows:
Atmosphere
Lithosphere
Biosphere
Hydrosphere
Land, landscapes and ecosystems
Chemicals
Anthrosphere (Human settlements and human impacts)
Natural Resources
Names (Individuals and Organizations)
Place names have been extracted from the file and being added to the separate file for use in the Florida Gazetteer.
From September-December 2000, the thesaurus effort will be assisted by Lynn Badger, Librarian, Marston Science Library, University of Florida who will be working on the Biosphere section of the thesaurus. Specifically, she will focus on harmonizing terms and linking orphans to top terms within this section of the thesaurus.
Goal 3: Selection, Digitization, and Indexing of a "Core" Collection of Florida Ecosystem/Species Texts
The majority of the 200 texts have been digitized. Quality control and the structural metadata are being completed. TIFF and PDF files are then sent to FCLA for storage and serving.
Goal 4: Creation of the Florida Environments Online Database
The Florida Environments Online database (FEOL) is available at: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/feol
Due to the tremendous time investment needed to populate records with taxonomic information, alternative methods for record enhancement will be explored during the next quarter.
Goal 5: Computer Integration with Z39.50: Electronic gateway to museum and library information services
Work continues on stabilizing the functionality of the Z39.50 interface. At this point, access to four specimen databases: herpetology and ichthyology from the Florida Museum of Natural History, bryophytes and lichens at Camp Blanding, and birds from Tall Timbers Research Station and seven bibliographic databases: Everglades Online, Florida Environments Online, FORMIS Ant Bibliography, LFNH Core Collection, Sea Turtle Bibliography, Sea Grant Abstracts, and the 13 Florida State University Library Catalogs is being tested.
The WebZ client accesses two Z39.50 servers written by FCLA as part of this project using the Z39.50-1995 toolkit by Index Data. One server is designed to handle the bibliographic data in library files and one handles the SQL data in museum specimen databases. For retrievals from museum files, SQL table columns are mapped to MARC-like fields and returned as MARC records. The Z39.50 client and server use the bib-1 attribute set enhanced with non-conflicting local use attributes for museum data elements. For example, genus is given a use attribute of 8002, species is use attribute 8003, and collector is use attribute 8005.
In addition to the individual goal progress discussion above, the completion of the educational modules and state-related activities deserve special mention.
Under the supervision of Professor Martha Monroe, Jeanette Randall, a graduate student in Forestry, completed four curriculum units:
Jeanette pilot tested the lessons with ten students and got feedback from twelve teachers and content experts.
Each lesson consists of 1) Web-base interactive background information for the students; 2) An activity based on each topic that uses the database; and 3) An FCAT writing prompt that directs them to reflect and write on the topic.
There is also a lesson, "Writing for Science," that will help students learn how to write effectively by providing them with practice writing, editing, and revising. The overall unit is designed to help students meet FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test) writing goals while still learning basic environmental concepts.
All of the lessons and their components can now be found on the web at http://susdl.fcla.edu/lfnh/currmat/EdModindex.html.
Jeanette trained three teachers in the Gainesville area and three teachers in the Miami area to implement the curriculum and participate in a research study. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the database and to determine the effectiveness of the curriculum. Students’ ability to use the database will be measured by a pre- and post-test survey. Knowledge gained about the environmental topics covered will also be measured. The students’ improvements in writing skills will be measured by comparing the scores of a pre- and post- unit writing sample. The writing samples will be scored using the official FCAT rubric.
Two of the teachers have already begun the study and their feedback has been very positive. One teacher remarked, "This is really cool; the students are really enjoying the lessons! They are on task, helping each other, and are even much better behaved than I had expected in doing an assignment so different than usual."
Jeanette participated in an open house for teachers at the Florida Museum of Natural History in mid September. She was able to talk with teachers about the curriculum and hand out fliers for them to take to other teachers.
In mid October, Jeanette presented the project and research thus far at the annual conference for the North American Association of Environmental Education in South Padre Island, Texas. At this conference, she shared information with educators and environmentalists from around the world about the database, curriculum development, and integrating environmental science with other subjects.
In June, Stephanie Haas presented "Linking Florida’s Natural Heritage: Science & Citizenry" A Case Study in Crossing Information Boundaries at the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia.
As a follow up to the July 1999 workshop Finding Common Ground and the May 2000 workshop Z39.50 in Museums, a GeoReferencing Florida: FIPS, HUCS, Points, and Polygons was held August 23-24, 2000 at the Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI), St. Petersburg, Florida. This workshop was developed by Stephanie Haas and Chris Friel, FMRI, and explored georeferencing biological data in Florida and the challenges of creating interoperability between library science, mapping science, biological sciences, and data stewardship. Susan Rappaport, Assistant Director, Technical Services and Head of Digital Projects and Tom Moritz, Library Director, American Museum of Natural History attended and discussed the georeferencing aspects of their Congo Expedition project. From this workshop new directions were set for the Florida Biotic Information Consortium (FBIC) and missions and tasks to move the state effort forward were assigned. The new FBIC web site is http://susdl.fcla.edu/lfnh/related/fbic/FBICindex.html.
As a result of tasks assigned, a December 1 Working Group on Bibliographic Databases and the Florida Biotic Information Consortium Initiative will be held at the Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota to discuss integration avenues, format compatibilities, commonality of descriptive fields, and interoperability.
Sincerely,
James F. Corey Principal Investigator