The ADL project is based at very highly regarded UCSB, Department of Geography , academic home of  leading digital geographer, Dr. Michael Goodchild, and a key intersection of geospatial research programs summarized here, on the Affiliated Research Organizations page.  Besides, the ADL, here are links to affiliated organizations:

  Biogeography Lab
  Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS)
  Haptic Soundscapes
  Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS)
  Ntnl. Ctr. for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA)
  Ocean Physics Laboratory (OPL)
  Remote Sensing Research Unit (RSRU) (under construction)
  Research Ctr. for Virtual Environments and Behavior (RECVEB)
  Research Unit on Spatial Cognition and Choice (RUSCC)
  Soil Science Group
  Vehicle Intelligence and Transportation Analysis Laboratory (VITAL)

The Digital Library for Earth Science Education is another large scale NSF funded community centered project " linking teachers, students, and scientists working together to create a library of educational resources and services to support Earth system science education, at all levels, in both formal and informal settings. DLESE resources include electronic materials for both teachers and learners such as lesson plans, maps, images, data sets, visualizations, assessment activities, curriculum, online courses, and much more."

Hard core geospatial metadata techies may be interested in related DLESE on geospatial metadata standards for educational libraries.