About ASDL

Who is ASDL's Audience? ASDL is intended for use by anyone who has a need for information about analytical measurements or innovative ways to learn more about them: educators, students, lay persons, and practitioners.

What is ASDL? The Analytical Sciences Digital Library, ASDL, is an NSF-funded digital library, accessed at www.asdlib.org, that collects, catalogs, links and publishes peer reviewed web-based discovery materials pertinent to innovations in curricular development and supporting technical resources in the analytical sciences. The ASDL website (www.asdlib.org) is one of several collections funded by NSF s National Science Digital Library (NSDL) program. ASDL was formed as a result of discussions at several regional and national meetings about ways to implement recommendations that were embodied in an earlier workshop report on Curricular Developments in the Analytical Sciences. This report is available as a .pdf by clicking here .

What types of materials are collected by ASDL? ASDL materials have been selected for their educational value through a peer review process by experts in the field of analytical science and in the various fields of its application. Each web resource in the main collection of ASDL includes a detailed annotation describing the site and its useful attributes. In addition, ASDL has started limited publication of peer-reviewed Online Articles in the categories of eCourseWare, eLabWare, eEducational Practices, and eUndergraduate Research Highlights. Because it is an ungated, Open Source site, all publication is under the Creative Commons license (www.creativecommons.org), in which the author retains copyright but the licensee has the right to distribute without limit and web users can read, download, and hotlink without limit. Copies can be made, as long as the original author is cited as the creator of the material, and the copies are distributed at cost. All economic benefit, if any, from the material remains with the author.

What is the ASDL Community? The ASDL Community is a feature designed to facilitate interactions among analytical scientists. Some ASDL Community features, such as blogs for the Online Articles, are still under development. The ASDL Faculty Directory will allow you to identify scientists with similar research interests to stimulate research or teaching collaborations or consider as potential reviewers for manuscripts, proposals or tenure packages. The ASDL Review System is a password locked page that is used by editors and reviewers. The NSDL Whiteboard report is an electronic newsletter of announcements, features, and other items of interest to the NSDL community that is released twice a month.

How can I be part of the ASDL Community? Anyone interested in the field of Analytical Science and its applications is invited to join the ASDL Community. There are many ways that you can participate. The simplest way to be a part of the ASDL Community is to help publicize the website by telling others about its useful features. You can help build the collection by suggesting new sites or by writing an Online Article. You can help keep the community informed by submitting News or Calendar items and, if you are a faculty member, adding your profile to the Faculty Directory. Consider volunteering to review ASDL content materials