The Gender and Science Digital Library (GSDL), a collaborative project between the Gender and Diversities Institute at Education Development Center, Inc. and the Eisenhower NationalClearinghouse (ENC) at Ohio State University, seeks to create a high-quality, interactive library of K-16 gender and science resources. The GSDL assists educators in promoting and implementing gender-equitable science education in both formal and informal settings. This is accomplished by developing, piloting, and launching a cohesive collection focused primarily on classroom climate, curriculum, and practice, including copies of print materials, videos, interactive websites, and other resources. Focus groups with a diverse population of K-16 educators and students, and teacher preparation faculty and students are used in developing an intuitive interface that allow multiple approaches for users. These approaches are integrated into the existing ENC digital library structure. While the primary audience is K-16 science educators, teacher educators, and gender equity specialists, the collection is also be useful to families, community organizations, and to researchers, and students in post-secondary education. Materials for the GSDL are from the ENC and Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) Resource Center, NSF grants, and the collections of various science education centers and equity assistance centers. The project also aggressively solicits submissions through its websites, listservs, and links to equity and science networks and to publishers. Guidelines for submissions to assist publishers, or for developers to place their work into the collection are in place. Submissions are reviewed, catalogued and abstracted according to a criteria developed with our national advisors and collaborating organizations. The library infrastructure uses a structured, query-language relational database and the USMARC framework, thus aligning the GSDL with the national digital library system.
