Discover Te Kohinga Taonga

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Benefits

• An increasing number of New Zealand resources are now available online
• Schools from Kaitaia to Bluff can access online resources irrespective of location.

About the National Library

Digitisation has opened up new opportunities for New Zealanders to access this country's documentary heritage.

As part of its Digital Library Strategy, the National Library's long-term aim is to boost the free online resources to support the New Zealand curriculum.

Discover Te Kohinga Taonga is an online resource developed for New Zealand schools. It is a database containing more than 2500 multimedia items, almost all from the National Library's collections. Included are photographs, paintings, posters, music, video clips, essays, and biographies. Designed to support the Visual Arts and Music disciplines of the Arts/Ngā Toi curriculum Discover can also be used by teachers of other learning areas, for example Social Sciences.

Background to School Services

The National Library delivers programmes and resources to schools via 'School Services'. Through its Curriculum Information Service, there is a continual strong demand in schools for New Zealand resources.

Curators, teachers and librarians brought together different areas of expertise to identify items in the Library's collections suitable for Discover. Strong partnerships within the Library and with the Ministry of Education were essential to ensure Discover's success.

The result for schools has been free access to an increased range of heritage items from the Library's collections, including many items significant to Māori.

Increasing NZ learning resources

Discover is a valuable online resource for schools. The New Zealand content has made Discover particularly popular by extending schools resources beyond what they hold or are able to buy, for example, rare or expensive art books. Students can view examples of New Zealand artwork from their desktops instead of having to visit the National Library in Wellington.

Website features

The National Library has created an effective, easy to use website. Easy to navigate Discover is logical and text based. Students and teachers can either use the search function or browse topics in the Art or Music sections.

A comprehensive user guide is easily accessible from Discover's homepage. Here the technical requirements for using the site are clearly explained in everyday language. Similarly, web pages are written in clean, accessible html. Discover also demonstrates good use of macrons for Māori orthography. Clear copyright statements are provided, as well as instructions on using and citing items from Discover. Most of the collection items can be printed off and used within the classroom.

Accessibility

Full descriptions of resources on the site, such as artwork, are provided alongside each item. A quick loading web page includes a 'thumbnail' size image so that you can decide whether to view a full-size version. Full size images are quick to download, and the image viewer can be used to resize them. A 'zoom' feature is potentially useful for partially sighted people, or those seeking greater detail in an image.

The site may not be accessible using older technology, as online images need to be of a particularly high viewing standard.

Interoperability

The standards-based approach allows interoperability with other online collections. In the long term Discover'sdatabase will be searchable across other collections, even when content is held outside the National Library. The site uses Dublin Core standards. The rights information sits within the metadata. The depth of the metadata describes items in detail.

Resources for Teachers

The site gives teachers specific topics to support learning. For example, in a music class, video clips of white water rafting can inspire students to compose their own soundtrack. Bibliographies, essays and introductions to each subject support multimedia items by supplying background and context.

Links to related sites provide further sources of information, for example the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and the National Library's Te Puna Web Directory.

e-learning

Through Discover, the National Library is widening the range of resources available to schools. There are also plans to take Discover into other curriculum areas. A recent Learning Centre Trust report, 'ICT in Schools 2003', has found that seven in ten schools make learning material available to students over the web.

Critical Success Factors

• Keep the project small and deliver on it; then move on from a solid functional base.
• Don't underestimate the complexities, standards and timeframes required for digitising items
• Ensure metadata is sorted from the beginning
• Importance of architecture - to allow for cross-database searching later on.
• Take into account all the issues surrounding rights management
• Ensure you get client feedback throughout the project via focus groups

See for yourself

http://discover.natlib.govt.nz/