Christina Woodall

Dec.7th,2015

Data Curation
Fall 15

Final Project: Digital Collection Proposal

Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and Acceptance to Todays Youth

The explosion on the World Wide Web in the 21st Century has allowed for the spreading
of information in an unprecedented way. Libraries today are changing and growing more than
ever before, thanks to the digital revolution. The integration of technology into the library has
opened the door to opportunities that were once impossible. By digitizing resources and creating
digital collections, it is now easier to share ideas, resources, and information with others than
ever before.
This can be extremely beneficial, but information overload can make it difficult to find
the right resources at the right time. For people who are already short on time and energy, like
teachers, this can be overwhelming. I was once a teacher and I worked in a racially divided area
with students who didnt always have good role models to show what treating others, especially
those different from us, with kindness looked like. I know the frustration that can occur when
you lose precious time looking for resources and advice on how to address a particular lesson or
issue in your classroom, only to walk away with little helpful information. It can be
discouraging, and the overwhelming amount of pertinent information on the Web goes unfound
and unused.
This is a proposal to create a digital collection of resources that educators and mentors
can use to facilitate teaching tolerance and social and emotional learning (SEL) in their
classroom. We will begin by discussing our recommendation for software, followed by other
essential building blocks needed for digital collection development, including schema selection,
metadata design, staffing, and issues surrounding interoperability and quality control. In addition
to discussing the logistics of creation, we will begin to discuss how to move forward after laying
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the foundation of our repository through grant application and regular assessment to ensure
longevity.
Our Repository & Why Its Important
Our digital collection, titled Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and SEL to
Todays Youth will be an online repository that includes lesson plans, images, research, and other
resources helpful to those teaching tolerance and SEL in a classroom or workshop setting. We
will focus on providing resources, in one easy to search and browse database. These resources
will l help educators reduce prejudice, improve intergroup relations and support equitable school
experiences for the children in their care.
Our primary user will be educators. Teachers are constantly short on time and resources.
By making it easier for them to access resources, they can spend less time planning and more
time teaching. Why focus our database on teaching tolerance and SEL? Childrens attitudes
concerning difference begin to form in the preschool years (Kutner, 1997). Students dont
always have good role models to show what treating others, especially those different from us,
with kindness. And in divided communities, whether it is be by race or socio-economic class or
culture, this is a critical area. Additionally, its an investment in our academic future. Once a
feeling of community and acceptance is established in classrooms, students are more able to
focus their energy on academics and are less distracted.
Research has consistently revealed that cooperative learning is more effective than either
competitive or individualistic learning in promoting student enhancement of intrinsic motivation
and effort to achieve, material retained, the quality of interpersonal relationships, reasoning skills
used, psychological health, and academic achievement. These findings were consistent across
various content areas, grade levels, countries, and decades (Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R.

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T.,1994). However, oftentimes, students cant get there on their own. They need help to develop
their social and emotional skills and learn how to interact with each other in a productive and
cooperative way. This is why resources that facilitate teachers in this area are so important and a
foundation to academic learning.
Collection of Repository Materials
We will collect materials for our repository in two different ways. First, we will pull
resources already accessible on the internet. Many of the materials already available online are
free to the public. For example, all Teaching Tolerance resources are provided free of cost
thanks to the generosity of the Southern Poverty Law Centers supporters. However, we will ask
permission to put their resources in our repository. If they would prefer, we could simply harvest
information from their website for our repository, but direct users to the Teaching Tolerance
website to actually collect the materials. This would allow these resources to still be searchable
with our database, but the resource provider will still get full recognition and they wont be
losing website traffic. However, we hope to have little push-back from publishers in the
collection of resources for our digital repository. This is an area where, if the cost of the materials
has already been paid for, it is beneficial to everyone to make the materials as accessible as
possible.
Secondly, we will allow for other organizations and educators to deposit their own
resources and research into our repository. There are many reasons why a scholar, educator, or
organization would want to deposit their research or materials. Most obvious is the fact that by
depositing materials to other outlets, you are increasing the impact of your work. For individual
teachers looking to share resources, it can help connect you to a larger network of like-minded
educators. For researchers, depositing resources can lead to increased readership, increased

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Data Curation
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presentation and promotion of your individual and/or departments research, and increased
citation to your work. Additionally, a digital repository is stable and permanent. Teachers dont
have to find ways to store their lesson plans and researchers dont have to worry about the cost of
creating their own storage solutions.
One of the main features of Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and SEL to Todays
Youth will be an exhibit of images that can be used as a way to initiate meaningful conversations
in the classroom. Timothy Lintor (2005) states, By using photographs to build compassion and
understanding in elementary students, teachers are creating an environment in which students
understand and respect differences. By taking advantage of open access photographs or video
on Flickr and image collection at institutions like the New York Public Library and the Digital
Public Library or America, we can curate a collection of resources teachers can use to engage
students and facilitate conversations. Overall, since all of our resources will have been given to
us freely, or already open access, our collection should keep clear or any copyright issue.
Additionally, these strategies will cut down on the unnecessary cost of purchasing materials for
distribution or earning access.
Recommendation of Software & Framework
Deciding on a digital collection software that best fits your needs and budget is a critical
initial step in any digital collection plan. Our goal is to build a repository that showcases our
current collection, while setting the framework for future growth. We want a respiratory thats
scalable and can grow as we grow.. After much consideration of various available softwares, it is
my recommendation that we use Omeka, an open source software, for our digital library. Omeka
is a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum,
archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. Omega prides itself on easy setup and claims

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to, [make] launching an online exhibition as easy as launching a blog. It falls at a crossroads of
Web Content Management, Collections Management, and Archival Digital Collections Systems.
It is designed so that people without IT experience can create collections with ease, allowing
users to focus on content and interpretation rather than programming. It brings Web 2.0
technologies and approaches to academic and cultural websites to foster user interaction and
participation. Additionally, Omeka is an affordable way to create a beautiful viewing experience
for our patrons, which is important if we plan to showcase what we can do and encourage
funding for future projects. Its templating system makes customizable design attainable for all.
Its robust open-source developer and user communities underwrite Omekas stability and
sustainability. Through the use of plugins, it is incredibly customizable and will will be able to
design our site in the ways the make the most sense for us. Omeka supports all data formats,
which is important because although we will start as a small collection, it is likely we will have a
variety of materials including books, papers, donated items, and images of artwork. Identities:
Understanding Islam in a Cross-Cultural Context is a collection using Omeka and is a good
example of the kind of website we hope to accomplish with time. I hope Resources for Unity:
Teaching Tolerance and SEL to Todays Youth will have a similar feel and structure.
We will host our website on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Amazon S3,
provides developers and IT teams with secure, durable, highly-scalable object storage
(Amazon S3 Homepage) Amazon S3 is easy to use, and its simple interface allows us to store
and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. Most importantly, its affordable.
Storing our website on a server with high fees would minimize the length of time we could use
the service before needing additional funding. Using Amazon S3 is budget friendly and gives us

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more breathing room to create a collection worth funding before the need for additional money
becomes critical.
Recommendation for Metadata Schema
A fundamental part of creating a digital collection is choosing the metadata schema that
will best work for your collections needs. Due to the wide range of materials our collection will
have, I recommend we use qualified Dublin Core. This works well with our digital software,
Omeka, and allows our information to be discoverable through OAI, RSS, and a full API.
Issues Surrounding Interoperability and Quality
Dublin Core is an excellent metadata scheme that lends itself to interoperability. That
being said, there are still many things that have to be done in order for our metadata to
communicate well with other systems. For example, consistency is key. Controlled vocabularies
and content standards are critical for keeping consistency and making sure that we have high
quality metadata with strong interoperability. Because our library collection is relatively small,
and the materials arent too specialized, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. I plan to use US
Library of Congress Subject Headings for the Subject element and DCMI Type Vocabulary for
the Type element. DCMI Period and DCMI Point will be used for the Date and Coverage
elements. For the language element, we will use ISO 639-2. In addition to using controlled
vocabulary, I propose we use content standards to help staff understand how to input data into
elements. We will primarily use Cooperative Digitization Programs guideline document Dublin
Core Metadata Best Practices. This way, when we create metadata, we can make sure staff in
entering more ambiguous information, such as how to handle abbreviations and punctuation, and
capitalization.

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Data Curation
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Controlled vocabularies and standards are only half of the battle to interoperability. We
also have to make sure staff, especially those creating metadata, understand the important of
consistency. Its not enough to just have standards in place, staff have to understand and agree
with their importance, and use them well. There will always be some challenges in this, because
not everyone will agree on what information should go where, as creating metadata isnt exactly
a black and white science, but by providing good training and using as many pre-established
standards and controlled vocabularies as possible, we can do our best.
Necessary Resources
Digitizing resources can be time consuming, but since most of the resources we plan to
use have already been digitized, or were digitally born, we wont have to do much digitization.
However, I would suggest we purchase scanner, because we may occasionally need to digitize
resources and a scanner is a relatively small expense. Im not sure what other hardware needs we
may have at this time, but I plan to allocate a small budget for miscellaneous hardware spending,
as I expect there to be unanticipated needs as the program gets started.
We will also be eliminating a lot of staffing needs by using materials already available
online and free to the public. However, we will still need a contractual programmer to build our
Omeka site and take care of trouble-shooting as we grow, and a systems librarian to manage the
creation of metadata and the digitization of the few resources we may need to digitize. The other
staffing needs for this program could potentially be covered by student workers, interns, or less
specialized librarian staff. These tasks include the loading and editing of files, metadata creation,
completing grant applications, and managing an advertisement campaign for the digital
collection.
Securing our Future

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Data Curation
Fall 15

If we want to ensure our future, we have to drive traffic to our repository. User
engagement will help us grow, and help us show our worth when applying for grants. We will
gain awareness through a multitude of ways. First, we will create a Google AdWords campaign
after our initial collection has been built to help drive traffic to our site. Ideally, this will help
teachers find our repository when theyre searching for research or lessons online. Secondly, we
will work in conjunction with other teaching organizations with similar goals, such as Teaching
Tolerance and One Clip at a Time. Ideally, they will provide a link to our repository from their
site and promote us in their marketing materials. Thirdly, we can team up with school districts
who are working on initiatives to improve teacher training and student development for teaching
tolerance and SEL. Inform their staff of our resources requires little work or money on their part,
but there are significant gains for them.
We will need to apply for grants to ensure sustainability of our collection. An example of
the types of grants we will be applying for is the Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller
Institutions from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Preservation Assistance Grants
help small and mid-sized institutionssuch as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival
repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and
universitiesimprove their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities
collections. These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and
manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and
cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic
artifacts, furniture, historical objects, and digital materials (NEH website). These grants will
help Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and SEL to Todays Youth achieve their goal of

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providing helpful resources and lessons to teachers interested in the social and emotional
learning of their students for many years to come.
Assessment
Assessing the success of our project is a key responsibility of the staff managing
Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and SEL to Todays Youth. We will begin performing
regular formal assessments at the one-year mark. We will conduct the formal assessments in two
ways. First, we will be assessing how our digital collection is used based on feedback received
from Google Analytics on a quarterly basis. These reports will be used to identify trends amongst
the visitors to Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and SEL to Todays Youth, what they are
looking for, and how they came to visit the site.
Secondly, we will coordinate a survey of our patrons to determine how user-friendly it is,
how helpful it is, and how, in their opinion, we could do better. SurveyMonkey is an excellent
website that allows you to create personalized questionnaires, and then examine the responses in
a multitude of ways to make data-driven decisions. Additionally, SurveyMonkey is convenient
for our user because they can access and respond to the survey in several ways, including
through SurveyMonkeys mobile app. We will send out the survey through social media and
email. We will conduct a user survey once a year to help us find out how to better adjust our
collection to fit our users needs.
Conclusion
We are able to do more now than ever before with the integration of technology and
libraries. It is our responsibility, as information professionals, to use our skills and technology to
create better and easier ways for people to access information that matters. My hope is that one
day Resources for Unity: Teaching Tolerance and Acceptance to Todays Youth will become a

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lifeline for teachers inspired to help their students develop, not just academically, but both
socially and emotionally as well.

Controlled Vocabularies & Content Standards

ISO 639-2 Standard 3-letter code for languages. http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso6392/php/code_list.php
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) authority for textual documents, such as
correspondence, transcripts, or books. http://authorities.loc.gov/
DCMI Type Vocabulary for the Type element. http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmitype-vocabulary/
DCMI Period for the Date element. http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-period/
DCMI Point for the Coverage element. http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-point/
Cooperative Digitization Programs guideline document Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices
http://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/system/files/atoms/file/CDPDublinCoreBPs_0.pdf
Bibliography
Chopey, Michael A. "Planning and Implementing a MetadataDriven Digital Repository." In
Metadata: A Cataloger's Primer, edited by Richard P. Smiraglia, 255287.
Binghamton,
NY: Haworth Press.
Agnew, Grace. "Staffing for Digital Projects." From the Staffing section of the NJ Digital
Highway Project.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1994). Learning Together and Alone. Cooperative,
Competitive, and Individualistic Learning. Fourth Edition.
Teaching Tolerance: A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (n.d.) About us. Retrieved
from http://www.tolerance.org/about.
Miller, Steven J. Metadata for Digital Collections: A HowTo-DoIt Manual. Chapter 5:
Controlled Vocabularies for Improved Resource Discovery
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Lintner, T. (2005). A World of Difference: Teaching Tolerance through Photographs in

Elementary School. Social Studies, 96(1), 34-37.
Kutner, L. (1997). Teaching tolerance. Parenting 72 (8): 11011.
Identities. (2015). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from http://marb.kennesaw.edu/identities/
Dublin Core Qualifiers. (2000, July 11). Retrieved October 29, 2015,
from http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmes-qualifiers/
Omeka. ( 20072015 CHNM). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from http://omeka.org/

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