Digital Library Educational Module Development and Field-Testing Results from Virginia Tech
Seungwon Yang (seungwon@vt.edu)
    Computer Science
Edward Fox (fox@vt.edu)
    Computer Science
Barbara Wildemuth (wildem@ils.unc.edu)
   
Barbara Wildemuth (wildem@ils.unc.edu)
   
Sanghee Oh (shoh@email.unc.edu)
   
Jeffrey Pomerantz (pomerantz@unc.edu)
   
Digital library (DL) courses have been developed from both Computer Science (CS) and Library and Information Science (LIS) perspectives. In general, CS has put more emphasis on the ‘digital’ aspects of DLs (e.g., software systems, digitization and compression methods), whereas the ‘library’ services side (e.g., identifying information needs, online information seeking behavior, references services) was emphasized by LIS schools. As a result, there was a need for a unified interdisciplinary DL curriculum that could provide more complete learning opportunities for both areas. The DL Curriculum Development Project, which is a joint effort of CS at Virginia Tech and the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been developing DL educational modules for graduate students since January 2006. Out of 47 modules specified in the project’s curriculum framework, 15 have been developed (already more than originally was proposed). VT participated in the field-testing of 13 modules (four of them newly developed at VT). In our presentation, we introduce the project, and elaborate on the module development and field-test results from VT. The comments gathered from four module development teams at VT also are presented.