----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Christopher Thiry <[log in to unmask]>
To: WAML <[log in to unmask]>, Air Photo Maps, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>, GISCO <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 17:11:25 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: MAKING A DREAM INTO REALITY – a GIS-based index to Colorado School of Mines’ paper topographic maps of the world
MAKING A DREAM INTO REALITY – a GIS-based index to Colorado School of Mines’ paper topographic maps of the world
All,
In the 20+ years that I have been a Map Librarian, I have dreamed of having a single, visual, computerized catalog to the maps in my library—a simple portal to greater access to the collection. Rather than typing proper terms into a library catalog or consulting photo-copied, hand-colored indexes, I dreamed of a system that all one had to do is look at map, and click the mouse, and say, “I want that map.” This dream has become a reality.
Google Earth, Map Quest, etc. are great for a variety of things but paper topographic maps often have greater details. More importantly, the popular websites cannot show people what is available in a library. On other side of the access problem, the best a library catalog can do is to give you a list of maps that are available. Barring sheet-by-sheet cataloging, library catalogs cannot tell you the boundaries of individual map sheets within a set. Many library catalogs now incorporate non-interactive indexes to collections.
Inspired by work done at Yale University, I have used GIS to create the index to the Colorado School of Mines’ maps. The following websites are the culmination of almost 2 years of work. Patrons can now access our collection in a way that I have always dreamt about. People can click on a map or use the search-box to find the maps they need. No more using the “correct” geographic terms or trying to figure what sheet something is on. Users will be able to see immediately where we do or don’t have map coverage. A bonus is that I can use this site to do better collection development.
The sheets that owned by the Colorado School of Mines’ Library are highlighted in blue. A click on a highlighted quadrangle reveals a pop-up box that contains information about the individual paper maps--series name, sheet name, sheet number, year, etc., as well as a link to the map’s record in the Mines’ Library’s catalog. Not all information is available for every map. By clicking on an unmarked area of the map, the website also show information about sheets that we do not own
Maps at scales 1:50,000 to 1:125,000.
http://tinyurl.com/k93l6ds
Maps at scales 1:200,000 to 1:250,000
http://tinyurl.com/my5wkg4
The process to make these websites involved using ArcGIS to create indexes for each individual map set and populate the indexes with data obtained from a variety of sources, including the maps themselves, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee American Geographic Society (AGS) Library, Yale University, University of Texas’ Perry-Castañeda Library, GeoKatalog 2 by ILH Scientific Cartography, World Mapping Today by R.B. Parry & C.R. Perkins, EastView, and Omni Resources. After each index was made, I created a “service” on arcgis.com. Eventually, I combined the indexes into these master websites, hosted by ESRI’s cloud. The sites were constructed using their “storytelling” template.
DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A SIMILAR INDEX FOR YOUR COLLECTION??????? I created base versions of the indexes and posted them on arcgis.com. They are free for all to use. I am hopeful that others will create more indexes. It is my goal to turn the creation of map indexes into a cooperative project. To use a popular term, I hope we can crowdsource this project. The indexes themselves are listed on website which is administered by me. It is free and open to all.
Please contact me directly regarding the creation or use of the GIS-based indexes.
Christopher J.J. Thiry
Map Librarian
Colorado School of Mines
1400 Illinois
Golden, CO 80401
p. 303-273-3697
f. 303-273-3199
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
http://library.mines.edu/
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