-------- 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