-------- Original Message --------
Subject: MAPS-L: Searching by coordinates questions
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 13:51:30 -0500
From: Paige Andrew <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Jimmie,
I don't have an algorithm to offer, but some years ago I did see a demo at
LC G&M showing what Voyager was capable of doing using coordinate-based
searching. It was a bit clumsy and needed some refinement, but I do not
know where the company has gone with this capability, it is my
understanding that they developed this as a "package" or "unit" of Voyager
that the institution had to choose to pay extra for at one time. That said,
the best way to make this useable would be to plug in a set of coordinates
and have all items that overlapped within the given geographic area be
retrieved. Map scale would not matter, what you are attempting to do is
retrieve all items that touched upon or fell within a polygon (which could
be a bounding box too) of coordinates and then allow the patron to sort
through that set by some other parameter, one of which might be scale. I
believe the coordinates searching capability on the Alexandria Digital
Library works this way, and if not I'm sure Mary L. can straighten me out
in a hurry!
I see this as a very powerful means of retrieval, and more exact than
textual combinations as well. In my workshops that I teach I always tell
attendees that putting coordinates in a given record is an option withon
our current standards, that the "LC practice" is to input coordinates when
they appear on the map, but that in reality we should all be inputting
coordinates at the very least when they do appear on the map because the
time is coming when coordinate-based searching is going to really take off
and thus we will be contributing to the good of such a mechanism. Its still
up to each cataloger, but I have always input coordinates when they appear
on the map, and will also input U.S. state coordinates even when they are
not on the map simply because of a handy chart I still have from the map
cataloging workshop I took from Arlyn Booth back in 1987!
Paige
At 11:28 AM 1/17/2006, you wrote:
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: Searching by coordinates questions
>Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 10:05:50 -0500
>From: Jimmie Lundgren <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>Dear MAPS-L Subscribers,
>
> Regarding the MARC Discussion Paper 2006 DP01 on adding
>geographic coordinates to authority records for places, the following
>message was sent to the MARC discussion list by Karen Coyle. I am hoping
>that some of you or your associates will be willing to help address
>these questions. Thanks in advance for any help!
>
>"I would like to see discussion about the use of coordinates for
>searching. This DP says: "Searching by geographic coordinates is offered
>as a mode of access by only a few library catalog systems vendors at
>this time, although it may be offered more frequently in the future."
>The one time that I was involved in an attempt to define a search based
>on coordinates, we ended up not doing it because we couldn't find a
>clear definition of how such a search would work. Would the coordinates
>of a search query have to match the coordinates in the record exactly?
>Would a record be retrieved if query coordinates were within the
>coordinates in the record? Overlapping with the coordinates in the
>record? Would a record be retrieved if the coordinates in the record
>were within the coordinates of the query? Does map scale matter?
>
>So if someone has a query algorithm to offer, I, for one, would be
>interested in seeing it."
>
>Best regards,
>Jimmie
>
>Jimmie Lundgren
>U of Florida
>POB 117007
>Gainesville, FL 32611
>[log in to unmask]
>352-392-0351
>
>
>
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