W E L C O M E !

Current Projects: Cataloging

Cataloging and Development of Collections of Digital Learning Resources in Engineering Education

The NEEDS collection is comprised of a core collection of engineering education resources, a focused gender equity collection, and an extended collection of resources in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education through SMETE.ORG and the SMETE Open Federation.

From its inception in the early-1990's NEEDS' collection development efforts have focused on cataloging and providing a repository of courseware developed by Synthesis: A National Engineering Education Coalition (see Synthesis Coalition) for on undergraduate engineering education. Beginning in the mid-1990's through 1998 NEEDS expanded its collection development efforts to include locating and cataloging high-quality, Web-based digital learning resources to support undergraduate engineering education. During this period it also focused on cataloging the digital learning resources developed by the other NSF-sponsored engineering education coalitions (i.e., SUCCEED, Gateway, Foundation and Greenfield). In 1998, NEEDS expanded the scope of its courseware cataloging efforts to include digital learning resources designed to enhance teaching and learning in the physical sciences and mathematics across K-12 and higher education. This expansion coincided with the initiation of a new NSF program to develop a national digital library for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education and lead to the development of SMETE.ORG and the SMETE Open Federation.

To expand the collection NEEDS provides tools to allow users to submit a resource for inclusion in the digital library. This simple submission form provides staff catalogers with the majority of information necessary to catalog a resource and make it available through NEEDS. If the user, typically as the author of the resource or as a staff cataloger, wishes to submit a complete description of a resource or edit an existing record, NEEDS provides tools to Add and Edit a resource.

NEEDS and SMETE.ORG maintain a set of common cataloging and collection development policies and guides, they are:

• Collection Development Policy
• How to Get Started: Submitting a Resource (under development)
• How to Get Started: Adding and Editing a Resource (under development)

If you'd like more information about how to submit engineering education resources to NEEDS, collection development policies or cataloging tools, please contact Jonathan Hey at jhey03@me.berkeley.edu.