-------- Original Message --------
Subject: MAGERT's  GeoTech Program
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 09:28:36 -0400
From: "Tsering W. Shawa" <[log in to unmask]>


MAGERT's GeoTech Committee has organized a program called "Providing
Access to Geospatial Data" at ALA Annual Conference in Toronto. This
program will be held at CRO Caledon from 2:00-4:00pm on June 23, 2003.

The following are the brief descriptions of our program.

Open Source Solution
Dave McIlhagga, President, DM Solutions Group

This presentation is about a variety of open source
technologies based on the MapServer product from the University of
Minnesota that facilitates the search, discovery and access to
geographic
information.  The presentation will include information about emerging
international standards and how they have been adopted in Canada to
provide access to map data and associated metadata.  This talk will also
touch on how librarians can participate in the ongoing development of
geographic data
infrastructure, and readily access geographic information today and into
the future.

Making Metadata Easier
Jason Cupp and Angela Lee, ESRI

One of the challenges for libraries with GIS data collections is working
with GIS metadata.  GIS metadata standards and tools are fairly young
compared to MARC standards and tools.  While this can present challenges
to
catalogers wondering how to document a GIS data set (or users trying to
locate GIS data), it also provides an opportunity to shape the
development
of GIS metadata to make it easier to create, manage and use.  This
session
will provide a look at some of ESRI's strategies to make metadata
easier,
and we hope will spark a discussion about strategies from the library
community to improve GIS metadata and its interoperability with library
standards and tools.

Canadian Experience
Marcel Fortin, GIS/Map Librarian at the University of Toronto

This presentation is about the GIS/Map situation in Canada following
several years of mergers with other academic units such as the
Government publication division. The talk will also include the pros and
cons of these
mergers.


Thanks.
-Wangyal
Tsering Wangyal Shawa
Geographic Information Systems Librarian
Head, Digital Map and Geospatial Information Center
Geosciences and Map Library
Guyot Hall, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Phone: (609) 258-6804
Fax: (609) 258-4607
www.princeton.edu/~geolib/gis