History

Recordings in the Macaulay Library date back to 1929, and it has long been used as a resource by professional scientists and graduate students. However, the growing collection of video recordings and the digitization of our library of audio recordings has created an enormous potential resource for education. Major efforts that have benefited the educational community include two NSF National Science Digital Library awards to Dr. Jack Bradbury, "A Digital Rich Media Library of Animal Behavior" (DUE 0332872) in 2003, and "Facilitating K-12 Selection in an Annotated Rich Media Library of Animal Behavior" (DUE 0532786) in 2005.

The latter award enabled the hiring of a dedicated educational liaison with a graduate degree in animal behavior and an interest in K-12 outreach. Dr. Colleen McLinn was brought on to partner with two educational service providers in creating lessons at three K-12 levels tied to New York State Physical Setting standards. The primary contacts were Sharon Bassage at the Wayne-Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services and Dr. Monica Plisch and her successor Dr. Julie Nucci at the Cornell Center for Nanoscale Systems Institute for Physics Teachers. Many experienced teachers as well as Dr. Mya Thompson, who was then a Cornell graduate student, were also involved in developing, piloting, and refining the curriculum.

In 2008, Dr. McLinn moved from the Macaulay Library to the Education Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where she began to broaden her efforts into undergraduate and adult education about animal behavior and communication. She plays a continuing role in expansion and dissemination of the original lessons today, although the primary means of promoting the lessons is through the CIPT and W-FL BOCES lending libraries and professional development workshops.