BEN collaborative poster Linda Akli, Cal Collins, and Yolanda George   View Paper (PDF)   Return to Poster Session Abstract In 1999, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) Programs and Science's Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE) --- with 11 other professional societies and coalitions for biological sciences -established the BiosciEdNet (BEN) Collaborative with limited funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) National Sciences Education Digital Library Program (NSDL). Since its inception, BEN has grown from its original 11 to 24 Collaborators.Currently, the digital library collections of BEN Collaborators provide a rich array of materials for undergraduate biological sciences educators, including ones that prepare K-12 teachers. The materials that users find via the BEN portal are unique in several ways. * First, BEN resources have been reviewed by the individual societies for standards of quality and accuracy. Although each BEN collaborator has unique review criteria, overall users find resources that are scientifically accurate and educationally sound. * Second, the BEN portal provides an extended set of search parameters to allow more productive searches by users. * Finally, due to the collaborative establishment of its metadata structure, the user can easily conduct productive interdisciplinary searches across the diverse biological sciences topics covered by the BEN Collaborators. * In general contributors can submit resources through the digital library of a BEN collaborator or directly to the BEN portal. Submissions to the BEN portal are sent to the Collaborators that are maintaining discipline specific resources. AAAS catalogs submissions that do not fit discipline specific Collaborators. Contributors enter the cataloging information at the time of submission and a BEN digital library provider or AAAS validates the metadata. Biological sciences educators, particularly in high schools and community colleges and regional comprehensive institutions, have student bodies diverse in every respect - learning styles and ability, geography, economics, race, gender, physical disabilities, and experience. To this end, BEN Collaborators are building digital collections that are inclusive of all educators and students.Biological sciences educators, particularly in high schools and community colleges and regional comprehensive institutions, have student bodies diverse in every respect - learning styles and ability, geography, economics, race, gender, physical disabilities, and experience. To this end, BEN Collaborators are building digital collections that are inclusive of all educators and students. In summary, BEN has already developed tools and services that can be shared to leverage technologies across societies, coalitions, and collections affilaites. BEN has a documentation site --- http://www.biosciednet.org/project_site/ that includes all its technical standards and specifications: * BEN metadata Repository Database Specification; * XML specification and schema for transferring BEN LOM metadata; * Search Engine Specifications; * Metadata Harvester Software Specifications using the OAI Protocol; and * Cataloging Software Specifications. For long-term sustainability the BEN Collaborative goal is to design and develop digital library collections that are valued by the members of professional societies, thereby eventually ensuring inclusion in the ongoing operating budgets of societies. Some societies are already providing in- kind support for staff and dollars for development. ©2006 Association for Computing Machinery