-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: two confusing LCGFT headings
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:57:53 +0000
From: Mark Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>
CC: Christopher Winters <[log in to unmask]>
Hi Chris,
I've just come to the library from doing GIS for the past 19 years
professionally and very often my responses to questions from my fellow
librarians are more than they want when I start talking GIS. So, I
answered as if you had limited knowledge of GIS as your original post
didn't give me much to go on. Indulge me for a moment to relive a
conversation I had when I've visited some southern states in the US.
Them: "It sure is hot today. Would you like a Coke?"
Me: "I'd love one."
Them: "Orange or root beer?"
Me: "Umm. What?"
This relates to this conversation in that I've seen very few
professional GIS users argue for the term Geodatabase to cover anything
other than ESRI's database schema. You are correct when you say the LC
didn't think this through. It is interesting that on the Library of
Congress Digital Preservation site they clearly identify "Geodatabase"
as a proprietary ESRI file format
(http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000294.shtml).
Looking through the recent report by GeoMAPP on the archival challenges
of the Geodatabase file formats the term Geodatabase is only used to
refer to ESRI's implementation of a spatial database. So, in terms of
Marc's comments I would say that there is a clear consensus among GIS
users, and from my readings archivists also recognize that Geodatabase
refers to ESRI's proprietary file format. Do a search on Google for
*"geodatabase" -ESRI*, and you still get only ESRI geodatabase results.
Look through a multitude of governmental standards for creating
Geodatabases and it all refers to ESRI geodatabases. So, I think this is
a big issue if catalogers use the LC genre/form term Geodatabase as a
generic term referring to any spatial database.
Looking at the specifics, the Harvard Geospatial Library is just that, a
library of spatial data. Much of it is not in a database, but resides in
various proprietary and open file formats. It is not a Geodatabase. By
using the genre/form term "Geodatabase" to catalog anything other than
data that is in fact an ESRI Geodatabase is in effect offering a patron
a "Coke" then bringing out the Fanta Red Cream Soda.
In conclusion, my opinion as a long time GIS user and short time
librarian is that attaching "Geodatabase" to something that isn't
actually an ESRI Geodatabase is going to be confusing to GIS users. At
the very least it has a high potential for confusion. On the other hand,
"Geospatial data" can accurately refer to vector, raster, or tabular
data no matter its actual format. It could be KML, GML, GeoTIFF, GeoPDF,
shapefile, Excel, CSV, etc. and there is no confusion because it is in
fact geospatial data. I agree with Paige that it is something that
should be addressed because Marc's suggestion that "Geodatabases are
collections of geospatial data intended to be searched" is simply off
the mark. Like it or not, ESRI has cornered the market on the term
Geodatabase.
--
Dr. Mark Jackson
Brigham Young University
Geography, Geology, Civil Engineering, & Technology Librarian
2420 HBLL
Provo UT 84602
801.422.9753
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
On Jun 15, 2012, at 3:50 PM, Christopher Winters wrote:
> Hello Mark,
>
> I've been doing GIS for a long time and of course I know what an ESRI
> geodatabase is--and have some familiarity with GIS metadata standards.
> As I'll bet you figured out, I was asking about LC's genre/form terms,
> where "Geodatabases" is clearly intended to refer to something larger
> than gdb files. I suspect that LC didn't really think this one
> through, but that Marc McGee is offering a reasonable suggestion about
> how these terms are to be used.
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> Chris Winters
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Angie Cope, American
> Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 8:00 AM
> To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: two confusing LCGFT headings
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: two confusing LCGFT headings
> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:46:44 +0000
> From: Mark Jackson <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>
>
>
> Chris,
>
> I'm not a cataloger, but I can tell you plenty about geodatabases and
> let you decide what it means to cataloging. A geodatabase is ESRI's
> (Environmental Systems Research Institute) name for their brand of
> spatial database. A "Geodatabases" is a particular filetype (*.gdb)
> which can contain both raster and vector "Geospatial Data". So,
> "Geospatial Data" is a much broader term. You mention Shapefiles, which
> is ESRI's older file format for individual vector feature layers. You
> can import the vector features from a Shapefile into a Geodatabase, but
> it is no longer a Shapefile, much the same way you could convert a JPEG
> image into a PDF. The content looks the same, but it is not the same
> filetype. It is still the same "Geospatial Data". Does that make sense?
>
> So, "Geodatabase" is strictly a form, while "Geospatial Data" is a
> genre. Shapefiles are definitely not Geodatabases, but they are
> Geospatial Data.
>
> As for your other question, I think that if patrons are going to be able
> to find it in your catalog, then it is appropriate for that purpose.
> Catalog records are not sufficient for most actual uses of geospatial
> data. Check out the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Geospatial
> Metadata Standards
> (http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/geospatial-metadata-standards) if you have
> questions on that front. For most users a connection to an actual
> geospatial database with full metadata accompanying each feature class,
> image, or attribute data table would be more desirable than searching a
> library catalog, but the catalog is better than nothing.
>
> --
> Dr. Mark Jackson
> Brigham Young University
> Geography, Geology, Civil Engineering, & Technology Librarian
> 2420 HBLL
> Provo UT 84602
> 801.422.9753
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> On Jun 14, 2012, at 8:51 AM, Angie Cope, American Geographical Society
> Library, UW
> Milwaukee wrote:
>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: two confusing LCGFT headings
>> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:31:09 +0000
>> From: Christopher Winters <[log in to unmask]
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
>> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>
>>
>> Can anyone help elucidate the difference between the two LCGFT headings
>> "Geodatabases" and "Geospatial data"? It's not at all clear from the
>> notes in the authority file. LC practice suggests that the former
>> heading (which has appeared only a couple of times) tends to be used for
>> shapefiles and the like while the latter (which is commoner) is more
>> often used for raster data (mostly georeferenced Sanborn maps). But that
>> can't really be true since the LCGFT headings "Raster data" and "Vector
>> data" both have 555s referring to "Geospatial data" (but not
>> "Geodatabases").
>>
>> I've asked the folks at LC but haven't yet gotten an answer.
>>
>> What I'd like to know most of all is what the correct LCGFT heading
>> would be for the shapefiles wthe University of Chicago Library has
>> acquired from various sources. There are hardly any recent LC records
>> for this sort of data set. (A larger issue is whether cataloging records
>> are an appropriate form of metadata for geospatial data at all--but,
>> hey, they're the kind of metadata that libraries are used to producing
>> ...)
>>
>> Many thanks.
>>
>> Chris Winters
>> Bibliographer for Anthropology, Geography, and Maps
>> University of Chicago Library
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
>> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Angie Cope, American Geographical
>> Society Library, UW Milwaukee [[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2012 8:20 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: NYC Historical GIS project... Years 1 and 2
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: NYC Historical GIS project... Years 1 and 2
>> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:52:12 -0400
>> From: Matt Knutzen <[log in to unmask]
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> To: Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee
>> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>
>> An update on the NEH funded NYC Historical GIS project...
>> http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/06/13/nyc-historical-gis-project
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Matt
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