TITLE
The Plant Information Center (PIC): A Web-based Learning Center
for Botanical Study
ABSTRACT
The Plant Information Center (PIC) is a project funded under the Institute
of Museum and Library Studies that aims to provide global access to both
primary and secondary botanical resources via the World Wide Web.
Central to the project is the development and employment of a series of
applications that facilitate resource discovery, interactive learning,
and contributory opportunities within the PIC system. Initial testing
of PIC will be through sixth-grade science curriculum activities involving
plant identification. On a larger scale, PIC intends to promote the
flow of scientific information to researchers, amateur botanists, students
(elementary through higher education), and other communities interested
in botanical science. This paper provides an overview of PIC, reviews
the development and implementation of PIC applications, and comments on
the research activities that will measure the project’s overall success.
INTRODUCTION
The networked environment enables scientific and cultural resource
centers to provide access to primary resources and permits students, researchers,
and the general public to visit, view, and experience virtually far more
than they physically could in an entire lifetime. Within the context
of digital libraries, students can now take “vicarious field trips” (Marchionini
& Mauer, 1995) and access “rare and unique” resources on a daily basis.
This can augment and enhance the experience garnered from an actual field
trip to a museum or science center. Virtual field trips can, however,
be limited by the absence of contextual features. An interactive
lesson plan, the ability to communicate with classmates or subject experts
via electronic means, or the option to contribute new knowledge to a resource
center can greatly enrich the overall learning experience. Partnerships
between resource centers and educators can enhance the traditional digital
library model, and through a variety of applications provide a web-based
learning center. This paper shows how one such partnership is developing
applications, resources, and experience that will support a creative web-based
learning environment.
WEB-BASED LEARNING CENTERS
The term digital library refers to electronic collections as well as
digital resource centers with “fuller capabilities” (Borgman, 1999).
Digital resource centers build on traditional library operations of collection
development and reference assistance for all kinds of collections, with
the goal of facilitating resource creation, enhancement, and use through
interaction. Activities supported in this sophisticated digital library
environment require the development of multiple applications. Within
the educational arena, these developments underlie what might be more precisely
defined as a web-based learning center.
Web-based learning centers include collections of digital resources that are augmented by the ability to conduct a variety of operations beyond mere search and retrieval. An example of this type of learning center is the Pennsylvania Educational Network Digital Object Repository (PEN-DOR) project (http://cumorah.sis.pitt.edu/pen_dor/start.htm). Central to PEN-DOR is a database of educational resources for both K-12 general education (e.g., math, science, history, social studies, English, and the arts) and Pennsylvania local and regional historical education. What distinguishes PEN-DOR from the more conservative view of a digital library is an interactive module and community memory reserve. PEN-DOR is supported by an application that enables teacher to build and modify existing lesson plans and share commentary on use of lesson plans via a community memory store.
The Plant Information Center (PIC) discussed in this paper is a web-based learning center that references a digital repository of botanical specimens collected for research purposes. PIC extends beyond the boundaries of a traditional library through a series of applications that support interactive learning, communication with botanical experts, and a channel for contributing resources and knowledge to PIC’s information store.
THE PLANT INFORMATION CENTER (PIC)
PIC is a partnership of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, the University
of North Carolina (UNC) Herbarium, the UNC School of Information and Library
Science, the McDougle Middle School, and the Orange County, North Carolina,
Public Library. A web-based educational initiative, PIC provides
an integrated mechanism for botanical study by unifying resources and permitting
access from numerous entry points. PIC includes a searchable database
with digitized herbarium specimens (currently gymnosperms of the Southeast),
a glossary of botanical terms, both print and electronic bibliographic
resources that support botanical identification, and a list of web links
to major virtual herbaria worldwide. PIC is in the process of developing
an “Ask the Expert” application and an “Interactive Contributory Module”
that will permit users to submit botanical resources to a community store.
The contributory module will permit teachers to construct and share plant
identification exercises and other lesson plans that work with PIC.
An advisory group of fifteen members with expertise in the areas of science
education, school media practices, botany and related sciences, database
design, and digital photography have played an important role in PIC’s
development and continue to advise with a variety of ongoing activities.
PIC GOALS
PIC activities are supported by Institute of Museum and Library
Service (IMLS), and are guided by four major goals:
· To create and test the interactive component of PIC for the
general public within the context of the library environment and the public
school system,
· To test the usefulness of digital images of herbarium specimens
for plant identification and for inspiring the public and public school
children with the aims and methods of professional botanical science,
· To demonstrate successful cooperation among the university,
the public school system, and the public library in the development and
implementation of a web-based learning center, and
· To develop educational experiences using virtual primary research
materials from the herbarium for 6th grade students.
Project partners are working together to meet these objectives and to incorporate PIC into 6th grade curriculum activities that involve plant identification and larger questions about man’s relationship to the natural world. PIC’s long-term goals include making museum specimens and expert knowledge more widely available through the World Wide Web and promoting the flow of scientific information to researchers, amateur botanists, students (elementary through higher education), and other scientific communities interested in botanical science. Underlying these initiatives are a number of research goals addressing web-based educational initiatives that incorporate primary scientific source material for learning purposes. Through research and testing, the PIC team will explore image access and use, metadata issues, and electronic access to subject experts. Through publication and other communication means, the PIC team will make these research results available to the larger community that has implemented or is investigating the construction of a web-based learning center.
PIC ARCHITECTURE AND APPLICATIONS
PIC’s architecture has four main components: 1.) a botanical
specimen database, 2.) the Botanical Information Network (BOTNET), 3.)
the “Ask the Expert” feature, and 4.) the “Interactive Contributory Module.”
Each one of these components represents a PIC application.
*Database of Botanical Specimens*
At the core of PIC is a relational database that links specimens
and metadata. The database currently contains 500 images representing
50 taxa of gymnosperms (pines, spruces, firs, cedars, cypress) found in
the Southeast. The database structure includes fifteen major classes
that identify specimen nomenclature, link specimens to the classification
authority (organization or individual), identify the specimen collection
locale, document taxonomic changes in plant classification, and record
digital processing information pertinent to archival images of each specimen.
One central component of the database is the specimen class. This
includes a number of useful attributes, such as specimen title and class;
the name of the specimen collector and his/her unique identification collector
number; the country, state, county, city, elevation, and other specimen
collection location data; the date the specimen was collected and the condition
of the specimen; and the data the specimen documentation was modified.
The database developed in Microsoft ACCESS permits a user to query using a variety of criteria, such as collector name, specimen genus, common name, locale where specimen was collected and so forth. Working with database forms, data-imputers transcribe specimen metadata from digitized copies of the original specimen labels. Data-imputers are assisted by drop down menus and the UNC Herbarium Code Book (2000). The creation of active server pages permits the database to be accessed from the World Wide Web platform. Searching activities are supported by a series of Standard Query Language (SQL) constructed queries, which can easily be enhanced, modified, or developed as needed. The ease with which 6th grade students and other general users can use the standard queries and create their own will be tested.
*Botanical Information Network*
A predecessor project, BOTNET (Botanical Information Network),
a virtual herbarium, is ongoing and provides a major research base for
PIC to draw from. Herbaria are collections of dried and pressed plant
specimens that document botanical life from around the globe (Radford,
1986). The proliferation of the World Wide Web has permitted the
development of virtual herbaria, although none are extensive at this point.
Two leading virtual herbaria are the Harvard University’s Herbaria project
(http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/5million/) and the Missouri Botanical
Garden's w-3-Tropicos database (http://mobot.mobot.org/Pick/Search/pick.html).
Virtual herbaria provide scientific researchers and other user communities
with specimen access on a global scale. These projects are significant
because they preserve collection integrity by providing access to virtual
specimens, while protecting the original.
BOTNET was initially constructed with funds from the University of North Carolina’s Technology Development Program. It consists of resources that botanists require to conduct plant identification activities (Murphy, 1997). BOTNET includes virtual specimens accessible via the Access database. BOTNET also includes two Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) applications; one for web accessible taxonomic schema and one for a web accessible plant glossary (e.g., Radford, et al, 1976). The BOTNET application is being enhanced via the PIC program.
*Ask the Expert*
The “Ask The Expert” component is a web-based application that
facilitates communication between PIC users and botanical experts.
A web-based form written in Perl script will permit users to submit general
botanical and PIC-specific queries to an electronic bulletin board.
PIC users can respond to the query through the form, and the response will
also be posted on the electronic bulletin board. Botanical experts
will respond to queries through a second form in a way that will ensure
that authoritative answers are given to users. The expert answers
will be posted to the electronic bulletin board in a different color to
distinguish them from the initial query and answers coming from other PIC
users. The electronic bulletin board model was selected for
this feature because queries will come from PIC users working in the public
library, academic or research center, or public school setting, where individuals
do not necessarily have electronic mail access. If the PIC user provides
an e-mail address with his/her query, the expert reply will automatically
be sent to the given address as well as to the electronic bulletin board.
Sharing queries and answers via this application will document PIC use
and provide a community information store that will assist in the compilation
of frequently asked questions (FAQ) document, which will also be incorporated
into the PIC framework.
*Interactive Contributory Module*
The Interactive Contributory Module is designed so that PIC users
can submit additional botanical resources to a community store. Resources
can be in the form of atomic objects (a digitized photograph, audio clips,
or textual document), a collection of objects, or a lesson plan.
This module is under construction and consists of an HTML form, an Extensible
Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD) for a metadata schema,
and an XML database. The HTML form permits the contributor to upload
the resource with accompanying metadata. The metadata schema used
in this project is based on the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (http://purl.org/dc),
an international and interdisciplinary schema designed to facilitate resource
discovery of electronic resources on the World Wide Web. The metadata
schema for this application differs from the Dublin Core in that it includes
elements specific to the identification of botanical resources, such as
family, genus, and species name. Once uploaded through the HTML form,
a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script processes the metadata and the
resource for inclusion in the XML structured database. The XML database
is distinct from the PIC central database, because resources are not from
the UNC Herbarium and because the contributors/resource creators produce
the metadata rather than information science and botanical documentation
experts. To insure database integrity, quality control measures will
be implemented. This module will allow teachers to build lesson plans
by integrating specimens from PIC's central database and resources from
the XML database. The XML framework will permit experimenting with
partitioning the database into separate units for atomic objects, collections
of objects, lesson plans for access purposes.
PIC RESEARCH
During the last few years there has been a tremendous increase in educationally-based
digital projects (e.g., the University of Michigan Digital Library project:
http://www.si.umich.edu/UMDL/, Carnegie Mellon University Informedia project:
http://informedia.cs.cmu.edu/ SMETE Digital Library Information Portal:
http://www.smete.org). The success of these projects relies not only
on the teachers and on student willingness to work with these tools, but
also on efficient and effective resource access, quality metadata, and
the ability to communicate with and benefit from the knowledge of human
subject experts. PIC provides a prototype for investigating how to
effectively develop, implement, and maintain a digital learning center
that is comprised of virtual scientific specimens, textual documentation,
glossaries, and an array of other resources, and that supports interactive
communication and contributory activities. The PIC team intends to
evaluate the success of this project conducting research in the following
three areas: 1.) image access and use, 2.) metadata effectiveness,
and 3.) electronic access to subject expertise.
*Image Access and Use*
Most digital educational projects include image materials. Success
with images depends on image upload time, the image’s ability to serve
as an independent resource, and the image’s integration with textual or
other resource types. The PIC team will investigate the relationship
between image use and image download time. A botanical specimen identification
study will be conducted by comparing the use of the following: 1.)
textual materials found in the public library, 2.) textual materials supplemented
by the PIC system, and 3.) PIC system exclusively. Research on image
access and use will also examine how teachers integrate PIC images into
their instructional plans.
*Effective Metadata*
Metadata is important to the PIC project because it facilitates resource
discovery and use. Some examples of metadata for a botanical specimen
are the scientific name, the geographic location where the specimen was
collected, and the date the specimen was collected. Teachers, students,
and other PIC users will search metadata records in PIC’s central database
and the XML contributory module via public interface that is similar to
an online library catalog. Transaction logs will be kept in order
to track metadata searching. Quantifiable research will be conducted
to identify the metadata that is important for specimen access in the learning
environment. This research will also help to improve the overall
effectiveness of the PIC database metadata framework.
*Electronic access to subject experts.
While many digital educational projects include a communication with
expert component, there is little research on the success of such features.
PIC’s “Ask the Expert” module will provide a data store for research in
this area. Through content analyses of electronic postings and experts’
responses, researchers will examine the effectiveness of this type of feature
within the PIC system and raise questions about the implications of this
feature for the greater digital learning environment.
CONCLUSION
PIC intends to promote the flow of scientific information to communities
interested in botanical science and to provide a learning tool for students
studying botanical identification. The PIC project also provides
a prototype system for studying the development and employment of a series
of applications that facilitate resource discovery, interactive learning,
and contributory opportunities within networked environment. Through
research on image access and use, metadata effectiveness, electronic access
to subject experts, and the development of tools for web-based learning
centers, the PIC team will contribute knowledge about the overall construction
and implementation of web-based learning centers.
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Murphy, J. C. (1997). The North Carolina Botanical Information Network. Master’s paper. School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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