The power of teaching with an Earth system approach lies in the ability to make connections among the many components of the system, with attention to processes, spatial and temporal coordinates, and relationships to the biosphere and humanity (Ireton, Manduca, and Mogk, eds., 1997). The power of digital libraries lies in their ability to establish linkages between scientific content, archived and real-time data, pedagogical practice, and the “voice” of the community (Manduca and Mogk, 2000). Virtual exploration of the Earth, and discovery of resources that support education, require information systems that intersect along many dimensions. Although necessary, it is not sufficient to characterize resources according to topic, intended audience, and resource type; descriptions limited to these domains may misdirect users or lead to non-discovery.

An expanded Earth system science vocabulary has been proposed to anticipate six distinct yet complementary ways in which instructors and learners may want to investigate the Earth: 1) “first principles” of science that form the underpinnings of how the Earth works, 2) Earth processes, 3) Earth environments (physiographic and climatologic provinces, biomes, state of human habitation, 4) time (principles and geologic history), 5) ways of knowing (via observation, measurement, analysis, theory, experiment, modeling), and 6) “hot topics” of exciting new science and Earth events in the news. These vocabularies should also help to form the conceptual framework for thematic collections that are needed to promote learning about specific components of the Earth system, a geographic region, or a set of learning goals (e.g. the National Science Education Standards, NRC, 1996). The development of thematic collections (as opposed to broad lists of resources) is particularly important because each resource gains value in the context of its connections, interrelationships and as part of an integrated whole. The proposed Earth system science vocabularies can be reviewed at: dlesecommunity.carleton.edu .