PTEC Collection Development Policy
From ComPADRE Wiki
This policy is adapted from multiple sources specified in Appendix B.
1 Introduction
1.1 Clientele
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PTEC) Collection (hereafter referred to as the Library) is dedicated to the goals of PTEC. Its mission is to disseminate resources that facilitate Physics Teacher Education and Professional Development. The primary clientele for the Library are current and future pre-service physics teachers and physics teacher educators. The Library also supports general information needs for all areas of physics teacher preparation.
1.2 PTEC Mission and Philosophy
1.2.1 Physics Teacher Education Coalition Mission
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PTEC) is an association of institutions of higher education dedicated to the improvement of K-12 physics and physical science teacher preparation. PTEC is an inclusive organization that recognizes the value of diverse approaches to the reform of teacher preparation and provides a forum for the dissemination of innovative approaches and best practices in the field. The broad goals of PTEC include constructing bridges among physics departments, schools of education and school districts; engaging future teachers in inquiry-based science learning; and recognizing the continuum of efforts required to successfully train and support physics and physical science teachers.
PTEC is a joint effort of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), the American Institute of Physics (AIP), and the American Physical Society (APS), with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education, and private and corporate donations to the American Physical Society.
1.2.2 PTEC Philosophy
PTEC understands that the future of both an educated, scientifically literate population and of physics as a discipline is dependent on high quality teachers. Our desire is that through the Coalition, members can share innovative approaches, learn from national leaders in the field, and help raise the level of understanding of importance of physics and physical science teacher preparation nationwide.
1.3 PTEC Collection Mission, Goals, Objectives, and Governance
1.3.1 Mission and Goals of the PTEC Collection
The PTEC Collection supports the mission of the Physics Teacher Education Coalition by providing material useful for all aspects of physics teacher preparation. The Library staff will strive to provide: (a) easy access to high-quality materials about physics teacher preparation for use by K-12 teachers and teacher educators, (b) information, tools and services to maximize the usefulness of the materials provided; and (c) a community center that fosters interaction, collaboration and sharing among the PTEC community.
The Library is provided by the APS in conjunction with the AAPT. It is supported in part by the NSF-NSDL, and is a member of the ComPADRE Digital Library.
1.3.2 Objectives
- Library staff will create, collect or provide access to digital content that is about or for physics teacher preparation at the K-12 level.
- Library staff will create, maintain and organize records that link to material that furthers the Library mission stored elsewhere on the Internet.
- Library resources will provide for all aspects of the PTEC community needs.
- The Library staff will maintain the long-standing library traditions of service, longevity, equal access, fair use, and privacy, as well as provide access to innovations that foster a spirit of inquiry and the accessibility of science information to all.
1.3.3 Planning, Responsibility, and Evaluation
The Library development strategy draws from the visions of its parent institutions, including the PTEC, APS, AAPT, NSDL, and ComPADRE Digital Library.
The APS Director of Education has overall responsibility for the development of the PTEC collection. The Director may designate a Library Editor (hereafter referred to as the PTEC Editor) to manage the selection of materials and day-to-day operations of the Library. As appropriate, the Director may also designate certain additional Library functions or database maintenance to associate editors.
Evaluation of the collection is an ongoing process which is managed collaboratively by the APS Director of Education, the PTEC Editor, the ComPADRE PI, and ...
The line above needs to be filled out appropriately with whatever
board, etc. is in charge of evaluating PTEC.
1.4 Document Purpose, Organization, and Maintenance
1.4.1 Document Purpose
This document is intended for users of and contributors to the Library. The document describes the Collection Development Policy.
As the Library Objectives are potentially open-ended activities, this document specifies certain types of content that will, or will not, be included in the Library. It is accepted that the policy will be kept under review and is likely to evolve as the Library develops.
This document does not cover Library technical tools or services. For information about tools and services, see http://www.compadre.org/portal/comTech.cfm.
1.4.2 Document Maintenance
This document was initially organized and compiled by the ComPADRE Technical Lead, Lyle Barbato, for review by the ComPADRE PI, the APS Director of Education, and the PTEC Editor. Upon approval, the PTEC Editor will be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the document in consultation with the Library community and other interested parties. Any changes made in the document will be subject to approval by the APS Director of Education and ComPADRE PI.
The line above needs to be filled out with whoever is in charge of approving policies.
2 Definitions
2.1 Resource
The term resource is used to describe any material that may be stored in or linked from the Library. Resources may be static or dynamic materials, formally or informally published, contributed by users, developed by information or domain specialists, or generated dynamically. The term resource makes no distinction between materials and collections of materials.
2.2 Electronic Resource
An “electronic resource” is defined as any work available for access through the use of an electronic device, typically a computer. The Library may be considered a set of electronic resources focused on physics teacher preparation.
2.3 Electronic Resource Collecting Levels
2.3.1 Stored
The electronic resource is hosted on the Library’s servers, and the Library intends to keep the material available in the local digital repository until further notice.
2.3.2 Mirrored
A copy of an electronic resource residing elsewhere is hosted on the Library’s servers, but an institution other than the Library has primary responsibility for the content and its maintenance.
2.3.3 Linked
The material is hosted elsewhere and the Library points to it at that location. Library staff has no control over the information.
2.4 Coverage Levels
2.4.1 Comprehensive Coverage
A collection in which a library endeavors to include all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, other forms), in all applicable languages, for a limited field.
2.4.2 Research Coverage
A collection which includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research. It also aims to include all important reference works, as well as an extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field.
2.4.3 Study Coverage
A collection which supports undergraduate and most graduate course work; that is, it is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes of less than research intensity.
2.3.4 Basic Coverage
A collection that serves to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere.
2.3.5 Minimal Coverage
A subject in which few selections are made beyond very specific works.
3 Scope
3.1 General Components
PTEC.org contains information about and links to a wide range of materials for the use of people conducting research on the teaching and learning of physics. Some of these materials are also useful to teachers and administrators interested in applying the findings of Physics Education Research (PER).
As well as offering access to linked resources of potential use to physics teachers and physics teacher educators, the Library provides community news and events, public information, and stored resources created by staff in PTEC institutions.
3.1.1 Library Linked Content
Material that supports the mission of the PTEC will be linked to from the Library. Links to articles describing instructional materials based on PER research will form the core of the site. Additional material that supports physics teacher preparation may also be linked, including but not limited to: (a) organizations that promote physics teacher preparation or research, such as Quarknet sites, university and college departments conducting teaching or research, or other educational associations; (b) multimedia presentations; or (c) books or journal articles to which the collection does not have copyright.
3.1.2 Library Stored Content
Stored electronic resources are subject to the same criteria for retention decisions as other media. However, the commitment to provide local access to electronic resources should not be made lightly. Any hosted materials should be of the highest quality.
Initially, stored content will primarily consist of papers and presentations created for the annual PTEC National Conference. Future plans for original stored content will include the provision of a Wiki devoted to topics on physics teacher preparation.
3.1.3 Community Information and Local Databases
News, events, and items of community interest will be made available on the Library front page as necessary for community outreach.
Databases of additional materials that support physics teacher preparation may be maintained. These may include programs such as Research Experiences for Teachers, Department of Energy Physics Teacher Preparation Programs, or physics teacher preparation position openings
3.2 Geographic and Language Coverage
The Library is initially intended to support physics teacher preparation in the United States. However, physics teacher preparation is international in scope, and many resources located in the Library will be of value to students and instructors outside the USA.
The Library currently stores and links to predominantly English materials, but resources in other languages commonly used in schools in the United States are certainly in scope, and will be added as they become available.
3.3 Subject Coverage
Library topics (Appendix A) are currently composed of a subset of the ComPADRE Digital Library subjects. However, the PTEC Editor is currently creating a subject vocabulary appropriate to the physics teacher preparation audience. Once this vocabulary is fully developed, this section will assign priorities based on the coverage definitions in Section 2.4. At this time, the Library staff intends to provide study coverage for top-level subject topics and research coverage on particular areas of focus. Therefore, any resources of potential use in physics teacher preparation that relate to the broad topics in Appendix A are relevant to the Library.
3.4 Partnerships
The Library will seek to manage a broader collection of digital content by working with other projects and organizations to provide a coherent service greater than the sum of its parts. To help achieve this goal the PTEC Collection will work to comply with the existing national and international projects/standards such as those created by the NSDL, Open Archives Initiative, or federal accessibility guidelines.
The Library will aim to avoid duplication of activities by working with other organizations and projects in a standards-based distributed information environment. To this effect, where well-maintained current listings already exist elsewhere, the PTEC Collection will link to rather than duplicate existing efforts.
3.5 Acceptable Resource Formats
The Library may store or link to resources in a wide variety of formats, including dynamic, interactive and executable resources.
Examples of electronic resources in scope include, but are not limited to: web sites, online databases, e-journals, e-books, data sets, or multimedia.
The Library may also include information about items that are not available digitally, but which are necessary to satisfy coverage requirements. These may include records for books, articles in physical journals not available online, or organizations and institutions of interest.
Resources that may require a proprietary or special piece of software or hardware are within scope. If additional software (e.g. Acrobat, Flash, MP3 player) is required to access content, then Library staff will include a suitable indication of the software requirements as part of the resource description.
These guidelines are intentionally general to avoid restricting the collection of needed materials and to allow the Library to make these resources available as technology changes.
4 Resource Identification and Selection Responsibility
4.1 Resource Identification
Initially, Library staff will attempt to store all resources produced for the past PTEC National Conferences. Secondly, resources will be chosen with the intention of providing a minimal coverage for every topical area. These resources will be identified by the PTEC Editor, a content expert on physics teacher preparation.
Additionally, library users are actively solicited to suggest resources for inclusion in the collection via web forms and other methods. Partner libraries may also identify resources within the scope of the Library.
4.2 Selection Responsibility
Member submissions of items to the Library are reviewed initially by the ComPADRE Filter. If a submission fits within the much broader scope of the ComPADRE Library, a Cataloger will be assigned to create a record for the material. Once this record is approved by a Librarian, the material will be passed to the PTEC Editor. The PTEC Editor must approve each material before a Library resource is accessible to the public.
Should the above be flushed out more? I haven't really mentioned
ComPADRE very much up to this point.
5 General Guidelines and Criteria
5.1 Acceptable Content
Materials suggested by users for inclusion in the collection will be judged on the accuracy, quality, and appropriateness of content to the Library mission. The dynamic nature of the medium means changes in materials may occur after links have been created, and inappropriate materials will be removed when found.
All electronic resources in the Library must comply with prevailing United States law and with the terms of the Acceptable Use Policy available at http://www.ptec.org/webdocs/AUP.cfm.
5.2 General Criteria
The PTEC program encourages broad variety in the resources available, but resources are most valuable to the Library if they satisfy the following criteria:
- Content is appropriate to fulfilling the mission of the PTEC.
- Content is serves the current or future informational needs of the PTEC community.
- Content matches the subject scope of PTEC Collection. Since almost all scientific materials have the potential to be used in some aspect of education, this scope is very broad.
- Format matches the format scope of PTEC Collection.
- Content fills a gap identified via user feedback, evaluation studies, or content analysis.
- Content is well managed by a reliable source.
- Content developed for PTEC Events have special importance.
6 Specific Guidelines
6.1 Scientific and/or Educational Quality
The scientific and/or educational quality of a resource is based on the Library’s mission of providing for physics teacher preparation.
Scientific and/or educational quality is subjective and will depend on the judgment of individuals. Taking this into account, the selector should review each resource for information that is:
- Scientifically accurate.
- Important or significant.
- Pedagogically effective.
- Well-documented.
- Understandable by the typical patron.
Scientific accuracy is most commonly assessed by peer review for articles. Pedagogical effectiveness is commonly evaluated by experts through classroom observation, interviews, questionnaires, and other instruments. Selectors should attend to such requirements appropriately when determining a resource’s suitability for the Library.
6.2 Accessibility and User Interface Design
Resources may be open-access, or restricted, requiring some form of authentication. A common situation is that access to a resource is restricted, but there is another resource that describes it (e.g., a metadata record) that is open-access.
Policy on access control is likely to develop in accordance with the priorities of the Library and its partner institutions. As an interim policy, linked Library resources should normally be freely available. If authorization is required to access content then:
- If registration is free, resources may be included.
- If payment is required, resources should not be included.
- If payment is required for full access, but certain content is freely available such as an abstract, thumbnail, or catalog record, then the resource may be included.
In general, the PTEC Collection will include restricted access resources only when they are described by open-access metadata records.
Here we should have a section that discusses what happens
when we include a record for something not available
anywhere digitally (like an out of print book) to satisfy
coverage requirements.
Additionally, consider these accessibility and design factors when selecting resources:
- Reliability;
- Appropriate use of multimedia;
- Adherence to copyright and fair use guidelines;
- Registration if needed is judged appropriate and accompanied by a privacy notice;
- Fully functioning design elements;
- Interactive features that facilitate use.
6.3 Standards and Disability Guidelines
Priority will be given to resources that adhere to federal accessibility guidelines and prevailing technical standards. In particular, the provision of links to sources for the plug-in software should be provided, if needed, and the navigation should be organized and easy to use.
7 Donations and Gifts
7.1 Donations
Donations of time and/or money are always welcome. Please contact the PTEC Editor for information on what you can do to help the Library.
7.2 Gifts
Gifts of material to be stored in the Library will be accepted if the following conditions are met:
- The material is in scope.
- The material satisfies the general and specific criteria denoted in sections 4, 5, and 6.
- The expected usage will not exceed a threshold that will hamper the delivery of existing resources.
Additionally, dynamic material, such as complete websites, will only be hosted assuming the cost of overcoming any technical difficulties is less than or equal to the value of the resource to the Library.
"less than or equal to the value of the
resource to the Library" - Who determines this?
8 Library Maintenance and Deaccession
8.1 Unsuitable Resources
The PTEC Editor will strive not to include resources that are:
- inaccurate or pseudoscience, except when appropriately tagged or embedded in educational materials that raise awareness on these matters;
- Irrelevant and/or out of scope resources;
- Poorly designed or presented resources;
- Out of date resources;
- Resources no longer available online.
However, given the dynamic nature of the medium, records will regularly need to be updated or removed based on content changes. In such situations, a method of alerting the PTEC Editor to an issue is provided on each record in the Library.
8.2 Removal of Material
The Library staff will consider the removal of data, images, or links from the Library primarily for reasons stated above, as well as for intellectual property or copyright violations.
8.3 Emergency Measures
The Library technical staff may take such emergency actions as may be necessary to protect the technical integrity of the Library and its participating institutions from electronic trespassing, virus attack, and other such actions.
9 Copyright, Intellectual Freedom, and Complaints
9.1 Copyright
It is the Library’s policy to obtain electronic resources through copyright unless they are not subject to deposit under sections 407 or 408 of the copyright law.
What does this mean?
PTEC does not claim ownership of resources in the Library, but operates under the principle that ownership remains with the originating institution or authors. Institutions and authors may request that links to their materials be removed from the Library. Owners of resources included in the Library agree to defend and hold the Library, PTEC, and ComPADRE harmless from any claims or damages that may result from users who download or otherwise use data in violation of an owner’s rights under state or federal law.
Users agree by use of the Library to all conditions in the Terms of Use available at http://www.ptec.org/webdocs/Terms.cfm. These terms include not posting any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by the user, except as permitted by the "fair use" provisions of the U.S. copyright laws.
The Library may be used without providing any personal information. However, only registered users may participate on the message boards, comment or review existing resources, suggest new resources, or create a personal filing cabinet. Personal data collected by the website will be used in keeping with the Privacy Policy available at http://www.ptec.org/webdocs/Privacy.cfm.
9.2 Complaints and Intellectual Freedom
PTEC is an inclusive organization that recognizes the value of diverse approaches to the reform of teacher preparation and provides a forum for the dissemination of innovative approaches and best practices in the field. However, material must conform to the listed criteria to be included. The PTEC Editor will deaccession any material deemed inappropriate. In the event of a complaint regarding material inclusion, the APS Director of Education and ComPADRE PI will render final judgment regarding the material following a request to webmaster@compadre.org.
There should be a path up to the board level, but I’m not
familiar enough with the process to handle this section.
Appendix A: Library Subject Vocabulary
Astronomy: Astronomy Education, Cosmic Time and Distance, Cosmology, Exoplanets, Fundamentals, Galaxies, Historical Astronomy, Instrumentation, Solar System, Space Exploration, Stars, The Sun
Classical Mechanics: Applications of Newton's Laws, Gravity, Kepler's Laws, Linear Momentum, Motion in One Dimension, Motion in Two Dimensions, Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, None, Projectile Motion, Relative Motion, Rotational Dynamics, Statics of Rigid Bodies, Work and Energy
Education Foundations: Achievement, Alternative Conceptions, Assessment of Students, Cognition, Learning Theory, Societal Issues, Student Characteristics, Teacher Characteristics
Education Practices: Active Learning, Careers, Classroom Management, Curriculum Development, Pedagogy, Professional Development, School Improvement, Teacher Preparation, Technology
Electricity & Magnetism: Capacitance, DC Circuits, Electric Fields and Potential, Electromagnetic Induction, Electromagnetic Radiation, Electromotive Force and Current, Electrostatics, Magnetic Fields and Forces, Magnetic Materials, None, Semiconductors and Tubes
Fluid Mechanics: Dynamics of Fluids, Statics of Fluids
General Physics: Collections, Curriculum, Equipment, History, Mathematical Physics, Measurement/Units, None, Philosophy, Physics Education Research, Properties of Matter, Reference Material, Vector Algebra
Modern Physics: Atomic Physics, Biophysics, Chaos & Non-linear Dynamics, Condensed Matter, Elementary Particles, None, Nuclear Physics, Plasma Physics, Relativity
Optics: Color, Diffraction, Geometrical Optics, Interference, Lasers, Modern Optics, None, Photometry, The Eye
Oscillations & Waves: Acoustics, Instruments, None, Oscillations, Pendulum Motion, Sound Reproduction, Wave Motion
Other Sciences: Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Geoscience, Mathematics, None
Quantum Physics: Approximation Techniques, Bound State Systems, Entanglement and Quantum Information, Foundations and Measurement Theory, General, Multi-particle Systems, Probability, Waves, and Interference, Scattering and Continuum State Systems, Spin and Finite Dimensional Systems, Symmetries in Quantum Mechanics
Thermodynamics & Statistical Mechanics: Change of State, Entropy and the Second Law, Gas Law, Heat and the First Law, Kinetic Theory, None, Thermal Properties of Matter
Appendix B: Resources Consulted and Utilized in Developing this Policy
The structure of the policy was adapted from the National Science Digital Library Collection Development Policy Draft, available from http://collections.comm.nsdl.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DevelopmentPolicy. Additional resources, definitions, criteria, and sections were adapted or come directly from the following resources: Digital Library SunSITE Collection and Preservation Policy. 1996. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Admin/collection.html
Glasgow Digital Library Collection Development and Management Policy. 2002. http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/documents/gdlcollectionpolicy.htm
Kastens, K. A., and John C. Butler. 2001. How to Identify the "Best" Resources for the Reviewed Collection of the Digital Library for Earth System Education. Computers and the Geosciences 27 (3): 375-378. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/edu/DLESE/collections/CGms.html
Library of Congress Electronic Resources, Selection Guidelines. 2004. http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/electronicselectionguidelines.html
New Jersey Digital Highway Collection Development Policy. http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/documents/njdh-coll-dev-policy.pdf
NSDL Collection Development Policy Draft. 2006. http://collections.comm.nsdl.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DevelopmentPolicy
NSDL Collections Development. 2004. http://collections.comm.nsdl.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SelectionCriteriaandQualityIssues
PTEC. 2007. http://www.ptec.org/
