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Client

Bob Kibbee, Map & GIS Librarian, Olin Library, rk14@cornell.edu.

Map & GIS Library

The project is to develop an interactive web-based mapping application to search for the complete range of georeferenced materials in the Cornell University Library. For this project the results of the search would be a resource guide for the particular area. The resource guide itself would be generated from an inventory of materials produced by map collection staff. An important part of the software development project would be designing an appropriate form for entering the inventories, a database design for storing the information and for reporting the area resources via a web page (the resource guide), and designing that page for maximum effectiveness.

Library patrons would use the mapping application to locate paper maps and atlases, digital maps scanned from the collection, and GIS resources. See below for a more complete description.

Paper Maps. While many of Cornell's paper cartographic resources are discoverable through the online catalog, very few patrons are able to complete a successful catalog search for these materials. The terminology and classification schemes are obscure and patrons are largely unaware of the categories of cartographic material and media available. Most patrons are also unaware that maps are cataloged in the first place.

Digital Maps. Although Cornell's collection of scanned maps is small, the library is planning to use scanning as a preservation method for many of the rare and brittle maps. As this collection increases, the library will need a discovery tool for locating these images. Again, while the Voyager Catalog and Find Images are available, it will make more sense to the patron to find maps by using maps, so the resource page should include a way of locating these images.

GIS Data. Cornell has an online GIS repository and many additional GIS resource on CD-ROMs. These are very difficult to discover, so resource page access would boost accessibility to these resources significantly.

There are a number of web-mapping tools available. The project could use web-mapping tools such as Chameleon http://chameleon.maptools.org/index.phtml, or could explore other resources such as GoogleMaps.

Notes by the client

This is the process I'm envisioning. A researcher is looking for georeferenced materials on Vietnam. Presented with a world map she would locate Vietnam on a map of the world. She would then get a web page of organized information and links, where appropriate, of georeferenced materials on Vietnam. Examples of groupings would be administrative maps, topographic maps, road maps, city maps, links to scanned images of maps, lists of GIS resources, etc, She would also be referred to other geographic constructs that might be helpful (topographic series for Southeast Asia for example). This page would be generated from an inventory of material for the geographic area completed by Map Collection staff, from the catalog and from other web pages. We would need a form to enter the information and an important part of the project would be database design to ensure the proper output on the page using CSS or whatever the students chose. A copy or our current paper inventory sheet is attached.