Providing Leadership, Coordination and Community Building through the DLESE Project Office

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The DLESE enterprise holds great promise for providing critical infrastructure to support the geoscience community's many efforts to advance teaching and learning about the Earth system. But DLESE's size, complexity, and success are challenging the governing structure and the effectiveness of the Core Services and partner organizations to fulfill this promise. This is limiting DLESE from reaching its full potential. DLESE needs a dedicated leader that can keep the community engaged, disciplined in thought and actions, and progressing logically toward the library's mission and goals. Through this process, DLESE can move from being a very good organization to being a great one. The PI will establish a DLESE Project Office (DPO) to lead community discussions surrounding the growth of the DLESE digital collection, coordinate the development of the services that will support the creation of exemplary resources and their use in enhancing geoscience education, and lead the community-building activities of the Core Service groups. The next two years hold many opportunities for DLESE to reevaluate its current activities and plan for the future. In particular, DLESE will implement significant enhancements to the library based on recommendations in the Quality Plan; undergo a proposed review by NSF; update the 2001 Strategic Plan; and identify strategies for continuation of the DLESE enterprise beyond 2006. Each of these activities will require significant effort and a commitment to stay focused on DLESE's goals. Each will have a lasting impact on the development and future of DLESE. As Executive Director, the PI will work with the Steering Committee and Management Council to guide DLESE through these activities. To improve the planning and operations of DLESE, the PI will use an array of management tools and will implement a formal program management system that emphasizes goal setting, prioritization, scheduling that reflects the integrated nature of the project, apportionment of resources, and program evaluation. The PI will push for development of new communication and content generation tools to encourage community-driven innovations to the library and customization of the DLESE enterprise by individuals and special interest groups, work with the Core Services to position DLESE as the educational partner for all major geo-cyberinfrastructure projects, and develop formal partnerships with all major facilities and centers supported by NSF's Directorate for Geosciences.