About electronic Environmental Resources Library

www.eerl.org (http://www.eerl.org)

The Electronic Environmental Resources Library (eERL), an ATEEC (Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center) project, is a multi-faceted clearing house of valuable electronic resources. eERL results from an NSDL, or National Science Digital Library grant.

For this grant, ATEEC joined forces with the Davenport Public Library (DPL) and also collaborated with the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE) and MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE). DPL's librarians bring the skills to catalogue the resources recommended by PETE and LFEE and reviewed / vetted by eERL's handpicked team of environmental educators and practitioners.

This electronic library collects STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) resources tied to environmental science and technology resource information- from classroom-ready materials to regulatory information and global environmental issues. Some of the areas include: air quality, emergency preparedness and response, energy, natural resources management, safety and health, and sustainability. Vocational areas are covered also, from agriculture, automotive, and green building to manufacturing technology.

Thanks to the eERL Team, for their participation in the creation of this new digital library, one of the portals on NSDL:

• Dr. Ellen Kabat Lensch, PI
• Gary Olson, Instructional Technologist
• Christine Walker, Project Manager
• Chris Neuhaus, Evaluator
• Dee Canfield, Librarian
• Sue Ring, Librarian
• Meg Sarff, Librarian
• Jeff Bates, Collections
• Dan Chiras, Collections
• Sharon Flanagan, Collections
• Mike Jund, Collections
• Richard Knaub, Collections
• John Marks, Collections
• Kevin King, Collections
• Debra Rowe, Collections
• Cheryl Stith, Collections
• Beth Conlin, Collections (MIT�s LFEE)
• Liz Bishoff, Advisory Board (2003)
• Kathy Cardwell, Advisory Board (2003)
• Tim Cole, Advisory Board
• Betty Hagberg, Advisory Board
• Kent Jensen, Advisory Board (2003)
• Rajul Pandya, Advisory Board
• Marie Zimmermann, Advisory Board
• Martin Kurth, Consultant
• Frank Settle, Mentor
• Laura Bartolo, Mentor
• Think Aloud Moderators
• Classroom Implementers

Community College Role in Digital Libraries

eERL is a product of a community college based NSF center, ATEEC. As the only community college digital library portal in NSDL, eERL becomes a tool to extract vital information for students and educators. eERL serves to link research on STEM resources tied to environmental science and technology content and make it available to high school and middle school as well to its niche of community college education. eERL is working with the Gender Diversity and Technology Institute to make its resources available to middle school students witha focus on engaging girls in STEM education.

Community colleges enroll 10.4 million students annually in college transfer and workforce preparation credit and noncredit programs. 44% of all undergraduates are attending community colleges with 58% of those students being women. 46% of African Americans, 55% of Hispanic, 46% of Asian, and 55% of Native American undergraduate students attend community colleges.

MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE)

MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE) contribute original research to eERL on energy and other environmental issues. LFEE brings together collaborating faculty and staff in 14 departments to integrate sustainability research and education needs.

eERL's Library Team

A team of librarians help guide the eERL project, forming collection policies and preparing data about the resources available through the eERL database . The tremendous value librarians add to the digital library process includes organization and cataloguing information that makes the resources easy to find and identify as what the user needs and wants.

eERL for Educators

--clearing house of environmental resource information- from classroom-ready materials to regulatory information and global environmental issues

-- reliable resources for your class: They are reviewed/vetted by expert educators and practitioners

--bibliographic information is searchable and expertly crafted and organized by librarians to help you find the right resources for your needs FAST

--provides a place to submit the excellent resources you have identified

--promotes sharing of information

--use the Teacher's Guide to find ideas that you can customize for your class without starting from scratch

eERL for Students

--reliable resources reviewed and recommended by expert educators and practitioners in environmental technology

--quick location of resources as you research. Use keyword or advanced search or browse.

--find regulatory information online, bookmark favorite sites, and cut down on the time you need for research

--look up career information from locating internships and potential employers to how tos for job search

--discover contacts in your field through links to organizations and associations

--contribute resources to be reviewed and potentially to become part of eERL

--learn about hot topics, like greenbuilding, sustainability, energy, etc.

--learn how to refine your search process

--contact an on-staff librarian to find the hard-to-find resources

eERL for Practitioners

--use advanced search techniques to find resources quickly and easily

--discover links to associations and organizations that can help keep you in touch with hot topics

--keep up with the job market and opportunities in your field

--research regulations and receive update messages on new aspects to regulations

--interactive e-Reference service

--rate resources and use a Recommender function to review other users' evaluations

--participate in forums and share and discuss timely topics