The DLESE Evaluation Serv ices group will further the DLESE mission through interaction and collaboration with the other core service entities (DPC, Community, Collections, and Data Centers) and through its own evaluative and community-building activities. There are two central goals: building capacity for sustained evaluation efforts in all parts of DLESE and providing understanding of the degree to which DLESE is achieving its goals. In order to meet these goals, the Evaluation service center will serve four important functions or roles. They are to: 1) develop an overarching DLESE evaluation plan, 2) serve as central evaluation consultant to the core service centers and build capacity for evaluation, 3) conduct and coordinate evaluation work needed to address major DLESE evaluation questions (user characteristics, Broad Collection quality, classroom impact of DLESE implementation), and 4) collect, synthesize and report upon the body of findings from all sources. This effort will address the use and development of digital libraries in general and within geoscience education in particular. The development of evaluation capacity within the DLESE community will continue to provide DLESE evaluation data, promote work that is goal-oriented and reflective, and contribute to the body of evaluation knowledge specific to geoscience education. The evaluative work directed at DLESE overarching goals will provide data to guide the further development of the library.
