[Whiteboard-subscribers] Whiteboard Report #123, 10/17/07

[Brad Edmondson]

NSDL WHITEBOARD REPORT #123

Whiteboard Report news is on the Web at http://NSDL.org and http:// 
expertvoices.nsdl.org/whiteboardtalkback.
Back issues are available at http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue-- 
Archive.php.

October 17, 2007

NEWS

Shodor Honored by Cisco and ALA

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/pathwaysnews

Shodor Inc., the NSDL Pathways partner for computational science, has  
been awarded the grand prize for nonprofit organizations in Cisco  
Inc.’s annual Growing with Technology Awards. “We’re honored to  
receive this national distinction for our work,” said Dr. Robert  
Panoff, president and executive director. “We started in 1995 with  
one Cisco router, one Cisco switch, and three computational science  
tools.” Today, Shodor’s website averages more than 3 million page  
views a month. Cisco’s awards recognize small and midsize  
organizations that use networking technology in innovative ways. A  
panel of 10 judges selected 15 winners in five categories from more  
than 570 applications. “Shodor is ahead of its peers in terms of  
being a smart business,” said Peter Alexander, vice president of  
Business Marketing at Cisco. “We hope other organizations will be  
inspired by Shodor’s creative and resourceful approach.”

When it rains, it pours. Shodor was also named as one of the Best  
Free Reference Web Sites of 2007 last week by the Machine-Assisted  
Reference Section (MARS) of the American Library Association.

Comment on NDSL Privacy and Collections Policies

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/policy_comment

The NSDL Policy Committee seeks community comment on two proposed  
NSDL policy drafts: a Collections Development Policy and a revised  
Privacy Policy. The Expert Voices blog contains links to both drafts,  
along with an accompanying non-policy document that provides  
recommendations supporting privacy policy implementation. Both policy  
drafts outline NSDL’s approaches to these critical areas of library  
development and interaction.  The policies will be finalized at the  
NSDL Annual Meeting on November 8.

STARS Alliance De-Geekifies Computing

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/roadreports
http://www.starsalliance.org

The STARS Alliance (Students & Technology in Academia, Research, and  
Service) is a NSF-funded program that proves that the next generation  
of computer scientists does not have to be, as one speaker put it,  
“white guys with glasses who talk in a monotone.” Although their  
total numbers are still small, the black and Latino college students  
studying computer science who gathered at the fourth Richard Tapia  
Celebration of Diversity in Computing this week looked pretty much  
like college students do everywhere. Eve Powell, of the University of  
North Carolina, Charlotte, described one recent student project that  
allows you to sketch out a routine for a break-dancing avatar.  The  
STARS Alliance is active on about 20 college campuses in the  
Southeast, says Jan Cuny, program director for the Broadening  
Partipating in Computing program at the National Science Foundation.

National Chemistry Week

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/chemeddl

Next Monday marks the 20th anniversary of National Chemistry Week,  
and the High School Chemistry Club in Niles, Illinois has been  
getting ready by exploding balloons filled with hydrogen, oxygen, and  
a mixture, then noting the differences in sound and force. “It makes  
the students excited and enthusiastic about science,” says club  
advisor Ami LeFevre.  The 182 local sections of the American Chemical  
Society will hold demonstrations at malls, schools, museums, and  
stores, with a special emphasis on introducing elementary and middle  
school students to this year’s theme, “The Many Faces of Chemistry.”  
Niles High School is one of about 60 Chemistry Clubs supported by an  
ACS pilot project, with a formal launch anticipated next fall.

Chemistry Comes Alive Again October 23rd

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL2/ 
webseminar3.aspx

NSDL celebrates Chemistry Week with its next web seminar, on October  
23rd from 6:30pm to 8:00pm eastern time. This second session by the  
“Chemistry Comes Alive” team will focus on solubility, polarity, and  
other chemistry related topics through fun classroom activities and  
background content to support these activities.   Dr. John Moore, W.  
T. Lippincott Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin  
at Madison and editor of the Journal of Chemical Education, will join  
Dr. Lynn Diener, Outreach Specialist at the University of Wisconsin,  
to describe resources from the NSDL Chemistry Pathway that will make  
chemistry come alive for students. Free pre-registration is required:
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/SeminarRegistration.aspx.

BOOKMARKS

Call for Papers On Open Repositories

http://www.openrepositories.org/2008

The Third International Conference on Open Repositories will be held  
April 1st through 4th, 2008 at the School of Electronics and Computer  
Science at the University of Southampton, UK.  Southhampton has two  
decades of research into hypertext, multimedia, digital libraries and  
open access, spawning products like the Microcosm open hypertext  
system and the EPrints repository platform. Developers, researchers  
and practitioners are invited to submit papers describing novel  
experiences or developments in the construction and use of  
repositories. Submissions of up to 4 pages in length are requested in  
PDF or HTML format; the deadline is December 7.

Call For NSF Proposals: Data Preservation and Access

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07601/nsf07601.pdf

The NSF’s DataNet program aims to support new types of digital data  
preservation and access organizations that combine expertise in  
library and archival sciences, computer, computational, and  
information sciences, cyberinfrastructure, and domain sciences and  
engineering These organizations should develop models for economic  
and technological sustainability over multiple decades; engage at the  
frontiers of science and engineering research and education as an  
information resource, an object of research, and a research entity;  
and work cooperatively to create a functional data network with  
revolutionary new capabilities for information access.  An  
informational meeting for prospective Principal Investigators will be  
held 10 am to noon, Tuesday, November 6, 2007, Room 595 NSF Stafford  
II building, Arlington, Virginia. The meeting will be webcast for  
remote viewing and archived for delayed viewing. Details will be  
posted on the Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) web page or may be  
obtained by contacting any of the program contacts listed on this  
solicitation or calling OCI at 703-292-8970. OCI Webpage: www.nsf.gov/ 
dir/index.jsp?org=OCI.

Call for NSF Proposals: Science/Engineering Research (REESE)

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07595/nsf07595.pdf

The NSF’s Research and Evaluation in Science and Engineering (REESE)  
program is dedicated to advancing research at the frontiers of  
learning, education, and evaluation in science, technology,  
engineering, and math (STEM).  Proposals are solicited that will  
provide the foundation knowledge necessary to improve STEM teaching  
and learning at all education levels and in all settings. It is  
anticipated that a total of $30 million will be awarded.  Optional  
letters of intent are due by November 8, and the proposal deadline is  
January 8, 2008.

Future of Scholarly Communication

http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~repwkshop

Six months ago, the NSF and the British Joint Information Systems  
Committee co-sponsored a workshop on the possibilities of data-driven  
science and scholarship.  Their final report discusses the technical  
and organizational problems associated with analyzing large amounts  
of data, the changing word of scholarly communication, and other  
subjects.

INSPIRATION

“I’m Looking For Something To Eat”

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/overview.php

Some of the earliest surviving recorded sounds are available at the  
site of the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. This  
collection of the Donald Davidson Library at the University of  
California, Santa Barbara consists of about 7,000 songs and  
performances recorded on wax cylinders between 1894 and the 1920s.  
They are all available for free and legal downloading, since they  
were recorded before copyright laws. They are educational,  
occasionally baffling, and always fun.  If you’re watching your  
weight, don’t miss the title track by Miss Stella Mayhew (1909).

NSDL Whiteboard Report describes research, news, and notes from the  
National Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Education Digital  
Library (http://NSDL.org), which is funded by the National Science  
Foundation. Whiteboard is published bi-weekly and includes  
information from NSDL projects and programs nationwide. Please  
redistribute. To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://nsdl.org/ 
publications/?pager=signup.

Whiteboard Report is edited by Brad Edmondson (gbe2 at cornell.edu).  
Project leaders and participants from the NSDL community are  
encouraged to send the editor research news and notes of interest.  
Please limit these items to 200 words or less and provide web links  
to additional information.

The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is the nation's online  
library of resources for science, technology, engineering, and  
mathematics education and research.

NSDL would like to thank the National Science Foundation for its  
generous support and advocacy of NSDL as the NSF digital library of  
science education. This material is based upon work supported by the  
National Science Foundation under Grants No. 0227648, 0424671, and  
0227888. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations  
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not  
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.



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