-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Google Maps/Earth as sources
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 17:31:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Julie Sweetkind-Singer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Julie Sweetkind-Singer <[log in to unmask]>
To: Air Photo Maps, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>
Michael,
Have you found any metadata to go with the boundary files? I would say
you are being reasonably cautious to shy away from making any sweeping
statements about the accuracy of the information at large scales.
Julie
***
Julie Sweetkind-Singer
Assistant Director of Geospatial, Cartographic and Scientific Data &
Services
Head Librarian, Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections
Stanford University
397 Panama Mall; MC 2211
Stanford, CA 94305
(650)725-1102
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *"Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW
Milwaukee" <[log in to unmask]>
*To: *[log in to unmask]
*Sent: *Monday, August 6, 2012 9:46:41 AM
*Subject: *Google Maps/Earth as sources
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Google Maps/Earth as sources
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 12:37:48 -0400
From: Fry, Michael <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>
Some of this has been discussed here before (search the archives for a
2008 thread entitled "Google Earth miss-matches") but I thought I'd try
to get an update...
How do you all regard Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps, etc. as
sources for accurate boundary-related data? Aside from several
high-profile mistakes (e.g., http://goo.gl/nP6ev and
http://goo.gl/0gKfH), how dependable do you think Google, Bing, etc. are?
I understand that Google gets more than half of its boundary files from
the State Dept's Office of the Geographer, so there certainly are places
where boundary data comes from a highly reputable source. But it's not
clear to me how reliable and accurate the depicted boundaries are at
large scales. My primary concern is that users can zoom way in--to
scales much larger than most anything they'd ever see in print--and may
draw conclusions about the boundaries that the underlying data, if not
also the legal documentation, don't actually support.
Am I right to think that boundaries, at the very least, should be viewed
skeptically, particularly at large scales?
Thanks.
mf
--
Michael Fry
Senior Map Librarian
National Geographic Society
1145 17th St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
202.857.7098 <tel:202.857.7098>
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
|