On the Cutting Edge Thematic Collections


Scope of the Collections
Development of thematic collections of instructional and related resources is an integral part of the On the Cutting Edge faculty professional development program. Thematic collections are developed to support pre-workshop preparations, the workshop programs, follow-on activities and the dissemination of workshop content to geoscience faculty nationwide.
These collections aggregate and catalog existing resources related to each workshop, including resources from the open WWW and pertinent resources already cataloged in the DLESE broad collections. The On the Cutting Edge website further provides mechanisms for faculty and other participants in our program to move resources they have created into our website to enable access and dissemination through our collections. Our workshops provide mechanisms to identify areas where faculty perceive a need for additional resource development and to recruit authors to contribute these materials. Resources included in these collections fall within the scope of the DLESE Collections Policy, and are primarily composed of instructional materials and activities; datasets, interfaces and tools; pedagogical resources; course development and management resources; assessment instruments; primary sources and bibliographies. Resources are drawn as appropriate from primary scientific sources, pedagogic literature, evaluation literature, datasets (including tools), and resources from related disciplines that support workshop activities.


Collections Selection Criteria
Resources in the On the Cutting Edge collections will be selected to support workshop goals and outcomes by workshop PIs and leaders who are chosen for their expertise with respect to the workshop topic.

Quality Assurance of Metadata Records
All metadata records are created for these collections by catalogers who have been trained by the DLESE Program Center (DPC). Metadata quality is assured by review for compliance with the DCS cataloging guidelines and for proper use of language prior to submission by a second DPC trained cataloger. This is consistent with current practice established by the collections efforts at Montana State University and by the catalogers working at the American Geological Institute.

Intellectual Property
Copyright for information created for this project is held jointly by the project Principle Investigators unless otherwise noted. We encourage the reuse and dissemination of the material on this site for educational, noncommercial purposes as long as attribution is retained. To this end the material on this site is offered under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0).


Authors of original works submitted through Cutting Edge websites and discussion lists retain their copyright. But in volunteering the works they agree to offer it under this license allowing for reuse and redistribution with attribution. Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permission for all materials that they distribute within their work.

Metadata created for these collections may be shared with the DLESE Discovery System, and may be used by third parties according to the DLESE Term of Use.



Persistence Plan
On the Cutting Edge collections will be maintained by the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College for the duration of the workshop series (2002-2006), as per the terms of the CCLI-ND grant and into the future as long as the SERC website is in operation. If the SERC website ceases to operate, we will seek partners to ensure persistence of the collection.