Month: July 2013

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Map Literature Review

For this literature review I selected two sources, one practical and one fanciful. The practical source is “Digital Map Librarianship: A Working Syllabus” from the IFLA Section of Geography and Map Libraries. The fanciful one is You Are Here: Personal Geographies and other Maps of the Imagination by Katherine Harmon.

 

“Digital Map Librarianship: A Working Syllabus,” IFLA Section of Geography and Map Libraries. Accessed July 24, 2013, http://magic.lib.uconn.edu/exhibits/ifla/.

“Digital Map Librarianship: A Working Syllabus” was prepared by the IFLA Section of Geography and Map Libraries to provide a framework for teaching librarians how to use digital cartographic materials and metadata, developing a collection website and preparing a reference guide. The materials are divided into sections, each of which contain detailed information about a series of subtopics and a suggested citation for further reading.

What is a digital map

This section compares the function and features of paper versus digital maps and explains basic concepts of digital maps such as raster and vector data, primary and secondary sources, and features of the spatial database like scale, projection, symbols, spatial data quality that may be unique to digital information.

Working with geodata

This section walks the reader through the process of accessing and downloading digital data from ESRI’s “Digital Chart of the World.” It also provides links to other digital data sources and the user guide for ArcExplorer. Unfortunately some of the links on the website are broken, including most of the external library references and the link to ArcExplorer. According to ESRI’s website, ArcExplorer has been superseded by ArcGIS Explorer, a newer version of the online software. In this case the page directs the user to the updated site.

Library function

This section contains information on developing an online reference guide for users of the library’s digital collection with links to examples from a number of university libraries. It also links to building digital dataset and image collections, storage issues and processing paper collections for digitization.

Metadata

This section provides an overview to metadata in general A link to the typology of metadata for cartographic and spatial data, including explanations of Band One through Four metadata and a useful chart identifying the purpose and formats for each level of metadata. For example, linking Band One to unstructured data, Band Two to Dublin Core/DTD, Band Three to ISBD/MARC/UNIMARC and Band Four to FGDC, CEN, ISO/Base DTD.

Evaluation

The currency of the information on this website is not optimal. There is no specific ”updated on” date information listed on the site. Clues to the age of the site include the home page, which links to “Past Workshops” dated 1996 and 1997, and section citations which are primarily dated 1997. This suggests that the site is not maintained regularly, if at all, and accounts for the vast number of broken links. In some cases, such as the link to ArcExplorer, the target page provided a link to the updated page, but most of the library references returned an error page or resolved to the library home page. Oddens Bookmarks has been closed for a number of years. I looked at the IFLA website and found that the Section of Geography and Map Libraries no longer exists and there are no other divisions, sections, special interest groups or special programs on mapping or geography, so it is unlikely that this resource will be further updated.

Overall, this website has value as a historical document and perhaps practical value as a starting point for basic digital mapping concepts and for developing a map collection and reference materials for public use. However, there is surely more up to date information available through organizations, such as the ALA’s Map & Geospatial Information Round Table (http://www.ala.org/magirt/) or the Special Libraries Association’s Geography and Map Section (http://units.sla.org/division/dgm/).

 

Harmon, Katharine (ed.). You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. New York, N.Y.: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.

You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, edited by Katherine Harmon is a selection of essays and full color map images created by writers, visual artists, poets, historians and map enthusiasts. I was interested in this book after having taken a unit on counter mapping in Professor Chris Sula’s Digital Humanities Course. The maps included in this volume are not maps in the sense that they represent a physical reality, but instead use the pictorial imagery of map making as a metaphor for concepts they are meant to depict.

Harmon discusses in the introduction the power that maps hold over our imaginations. She uses phrases like “terrain of imagination” and “contour lines of experience” to highlight how the coded, visual language of maps is an accessible metaphor for human expression. In pointing out the work of creative cartographers infusing maps with humor and the map maker’s particular point of view, she also underlines how even in maps that are intended to represent a physical reality are themselves skewed by the cartographer’s political, religious, or personal objectives.

This volume includes six essays and a number of poems and excerpts from literature, such as passages Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Shark and Roald Dahl’s The BFG, which serve as bookends to the work. I particularly liked Lewis Carroll’s chart of the ocean from The Hunting of the Shark that pictures nothing, but is described as a map “we all could understand.”

The essays include Stephen S. Hall’s memoir of his own introduction to and love of maps and Brigdet Booher’s account of a lifetime of bodily injury, represented as a kind of walking tour of her life. Roger Sheffer’s “The Mental Geography of Appalachian Trail Hikers” includes doodles and helpful instructions left by hikers in guest books at trail shelters along the route. Hugh Brogan discusses the lure of maps in illustrating imaginary places in children’s literature.

Katie Davis’ “Memory Map” describes the old trope about people giving directions to strangers based on where things used to be, such as “…turn left where the big tree used to be before the earthquake,” and explains the urge people have to describe places in personal terms. I connected with this story through the research I am doing on the history of places and what used to be there.

Harmon writes that our attraction to maps is instinctive, that even if a map is of a place we’ve never been or that doesn’t even exist, we understand the image and know what to do with it. The images in this volume are particularly compelling, almost making the essays secondary. These include memory maps, maps from fictional locations, maps of the human body, and maps that chart behaviors that lead one to heaven or hell or help one find love. Some of the maps are completely imaginary or use familiar shapes, such as hearts or country outlines to walk the viewer through a representation of an idea. Others use existing and familiar maps, such as the London Underground, as a framework for making an explicit statement about data layered on it.

Evaluation

You Are Here is an engaging look at how people use maps creatively to express ideas, opinions or to illustrate imaginary places and themes. It reveals the psychology of maps and spatial representation as a form of expression. As a map library resource, this book would be useful in exploring the choices made in iconography and representation of space. It would be particularly helpful to historians studying antiquarian maps, as some of these, while attempting to document a spatial reality, contain exaggerated or imagined boundaries, fanciful imagery and iconography of political expression. It would also find a place in arts and visual design libraries, literature libraries, as well as social and political science libraries.

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Findings Report: Web Map Resources

The following is a Findings Report on web map resources that I completed as part of a study of NYC Community Gardens for Pratt’s Map Institute at the New York Public Library Map Division taught by Matt Knutzen. I reviewed the Library of Congress Geography and Map Reading Room website, GeoCommons and OASISNYC as potential resources for completing this project.

Library of Congress Geography and Map Reading Room
http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/

The Library of Congress Geography and Map Reading Room website contains information about visiting and using the institution’s physical and digital library resources. Major sections of the website include information about the history and background of the Map Division, reference services, digital collections, acquisitions and the Philip Lee Phillips Society friends of the library group.

The center of the page offers links to a featured Map of the Peninsula of Florida by Joan Vinkeboons labeled with the date [1639?]. Clicking the map opens it in the Division’s map viewer. There are two additional links that open the “new map interface” and an older “American Memory format” which appears to be from a 1999 project. The information in the right column contains library hours, Ask a Librarian online request form and a current, featured map project, “Places in History: 150th Anniversary of the U.S. Civil War (2011-2115).” ([sic] 2115 appears to be a typo).

The links were a bit confusing at first since I had expected the label “Geography & Map Division Map Collections using a new interface” would lead to a press release or a guide to the new interface. Instead it leads directly to the main page of a catalog tool for digital holdings. The American Memory format link leads to the American Memory project which appears to have been created in 1999. The interface retains the look and feel of that era of web development, and contains a useful, browsable subject and title index as well as search. The Places in History links also link to the older American Memory interface if you click the map itself. If you click the “more” pr “learn more” links you can retrieve more detailed information in a modern interface, including links to the catalog records for cited maps, the KML file in some cases, and a link for ordering reproductions.

The American Memory interface allows you to zoom into smaller portions of a map via JPEG2000 images at various resolutions and zoom levels. The modern interface is the Library of Congress’ general catalog search filtered to the map collection. This includes a search bar with Maps selected and search results showing a summary of listings, including catalog information. Facets allow you to filter by original format, online format, date, collection, contributor, subject, location and language. This integrates the Map collection with the larger LOC catalog, providing access and discovery. An addition to this search page that is unique to the Map Division is tabs labeled “Search Maps” and “Map Collection” which offer the ability to search or browse the collection. Detailed information about the Map Viewers is another useful page included in the Digital Collections section.

From the standpoint of a researcher seeking to utilize the collection, the links on the left column of the home page describing reference policies, guides to the collection, finding aids and a link to the Online Map Collection are most useful. Reference policies describe how one can gain access to the collection and services available including how to obtain a Reader Identification Card, how to make inquiries from a distance and the kinds of copying services available, including reminders about appropriate citation and copyright permissions.

Finding aids and collection guides appear to be similar concepts, though the finding aids, of which there are only three, are EAD encoded resources while the collection guides are web pages with brief descriptions and essays. A few, such as the American Women project, are multipage, curated websites. The collection guides are not uniform in layout. Some point to materials in the old American Memory format, while others are displayed in the new format that is browsable by Title, Subject, Audio, Photograph, Drawing, Video, and Written Narrative.

While I expected the NYPL will have more materials that are relevant to my research in community gardens, I wanted to look at the Library of Congress site particularly as a complement to the NYPL resources. I did find an interesting aerial mosaic of the neighborhood where my garden is located from 1929, showing some buildings that are still there and others that have since been demolished or replaced. It is interesting to see that certain surrounding features in nearby Central Park and the relative widths of major versus minor streets are still the same today as they were at the time the photographs were taken. Unfortunately, some of the detail is difficult to discern.

GeoCommons
http://geocommons.com

GeoCommons is a public community website of ESRI GeoIQ users, who according to the website, “are building an open repository of data and maps for the world.” The GeoIQ platform includes a features for uploading, accessing, visualizing and analyzing data. Some of these features include the ability to create and share custom maps with layered data and animations through time and space. The platform allows you to upload your own data, and it will create statistics that you can analyze and download in many formats, including CSV, KML, ESRI Shapefile, JSON and Atom. Additionally, site viewers can search for and access your map, filter the data, copy it to their own accounts so they can add or modify the data and share the results.

GeoCommons serves as an introduction to ESRI’s GeoIQ enterprise edition which contains more powerful predictive analytics tools, integration with social media and the ability to keep data private and to manage access and workflow. Data can be stored in the cloud or hosted on a virtual machine. GeoIQ Connect can integrate with Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, ESRI, MongoDB, and other datastores and APIs. Also, a free developers kit allows you to create custom applications that integrate with GeoIQ.

Reviewing GeoCommons from the perspective of a community garden organizer, it seems that the free version would be sufficient for most uses. Gardens could be plotted on a map and compared to surrounding land uses and current and proposed planning and construction projects. Individual gardens might like to use GeoCommons to create plot maps of members beds. My local community garden recently installed a beehive, so it would be an interesting project to plot areas where bees are found in the garden.

Most community gardens are not large enough or rich enough to purchase an enterprise edition; however, if it were purchased by the City Parks Department, it could conceivably be used to host and manage users who are affiliated with the department’s Operation Green Thumb gardening program. Advocacy groups might like to use it to promote development of gardens in areas of greatest need. For example, the NYC Parks Department website indicates that many community gardens have historically been created in areas where access to open public spaces is limited. An existing NYC community garden map on the GeoCommons site shows a concentration of gardens in the Lower East Side and East Harlem in Manhattan and Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York in Brooklyn.

As a research and reference tool GeoCommons is limited to the datasets that have been uploaded by site users. ESRI offers a search tool for discovery and showcases featured maps, but there is no formal index and the community of maps run the gamut from formal studies to test runs, such as the one I created to play with a community garden map that I found. As a tool for teaching basic GIS skills, the site is quite useful. It is very easy to upload data and play with the basemap and icons, and the download formats offer a way to work easily with spreadsheet views or Google Earth.

OASIS
http://www.oasisnyc.net/map.aspx

OASIS map focuses in open space in New York City. It is maintained by the Center for Urban Research at CUNY Graduate Center. It was one of the first maps created specifically to address the low ratio of open space per citizen. It is an excellent research tool for highlighting open space and comparing to surrounding land uses.

OASIS is a collaborative project between CUNY and a number of data providers including the US. Army Corps of Engineers, the Wildlife Conservation Foundation, the Stewardship Mapping Project, the USDA Forest Service, the Manahatta Project and the Council on the Environment of NYC’s community gardens program. The diversity of partners, most of whom contributed data to analyze specific problems, is a testament to the various use cases and array of visualizations possible with this tool. The platform that OASIS runs on is ESRI ArcGIS Server with OpenLayers open source map viewing library and Javascript web framework, JS Ext.

In addition to open space and land use data, OASIS includes data layers showing transit lines, such as roads, subways, bus lines and bike routes; environmental data such as coastal storm impact zones, Forever Wild sites, and public access waterfronts; environmental impact zones, such as brownfields, hazardous waste treatment centers and volunteer cleanup sites; social services such as schools, libraries, and NYCHA and subsidized housing properties; as well as zoning, population characteristics, water and wetland areas, political boundaries and historical datasets.

It is possible to overlay data onto historical aerial photography from 1996 to 2008 via a slider interface. Also, because the map is linked to the Manhatta project, you can display recreated aerial landscapes from 1609 and overlay it with data from that period, including wildlife habitats, Lenape Indian trails, eco-community data and shorelines. Additional historic overlays include Montresor map from 1775, the Poppleton map from 1817, the Viele map from 1874, and the Bromley Atlas from 1911 (all maps from New York Public Library).

It is a powerful discovery tool. If you select a property on the map, the Location Report tab offers detailed information about the property, including tax block and lot information, owner, property dimensions, like building area, number of units and whether commercial space is included, political and community district information and other relevant information. It also has direct links to the property’s Zoning Map, NYC Dept. of Buildings and transaction records, tax assessment the Digital Tax Map, NYC zoning guide and NYC Watershed Resources.

OASIS is a good website for garden organizers. In fact, community gardens was one of the earliest projects that ran on OASIS. It lists community garden search as one of the main features on the homepage, along with special searches for stewardship organizations, such as block associations and historical societies. It functions well as a directory for these kinds of community organizations since the metadata may include contact information, website address, hours, membership and other pertinent information about the entity in addition to property information such as ownership, block and lot number and political jurisdiction.