Applications of GIS technology in the research library

1
Applications of GIS technology in the research
library

• David Seaman
• Executive Director, Digital Library Federation
• FUTURE FOUNDATIONS MAPPING THE PAST Building
  the Philadelphia GeoHistory Network
• Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia
• Sponsored by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of
  Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL)

2
What is the Digital Library Federation?http//www
.diglib.org/

• 34 members major academic and national
  libraries, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
  and the British Library 5 allies (CNI RLG
  OCLC LANL JISC)
• Created in 1995 by directors of US research
  libraries fills a need not simply met by larger
  library organizations focuses exclusively on DL
  needs and strategies for large libraries
• Nimble, agile, collaborative practical and
  strategic areas of activity

3
What are geographic information systems?

• GIS relies on one simple and classical notion
  most things, phenomena, and events can be
  identified through coordinates, and can be
  located somewhere on an electronically produced
  map, which can be of a real or a virtual place.
• Once we have a map we can superimpose other
  layers onto it rivers and roads, data referring
  to population density and divorce rates, and
  images that turn a point on the map into a
  full-fledged reproduction of what we would see
  around us if we were there.
• Daniela Gobetti. Envisioning Space
  Geoinformatics Information Science Sheds Light on
  Humanities
• www.umich.edu/iinet/journal/vol8no2/gobetti.htm

4
Why is it important to us as humanists, beyond
simple real-world navigation?

• GIS thus enables us to see plotted on a map (and
  a screen) data that are presented simultaneously
  (whereas they would be presented sequentially
  with other methods, as happens with different
  tables printed on different pages in a book), and
  that are identified spatially (which we can do
  crudely with other techniques).
• We can consider several sets of data at once,
  and we can visualize spatial relations like
  proximity (or distance).
• Gobetti

5
GIS the 1990s

• State and federal government agencies provide
  digital data to depository libraries around the
  country.
• Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and
  Referencing system (TIGER) / Line Files and
  census data from the Bureau of the Census, the
  Digital Line Graph files from the U.S. Geological
  Survey, and economic and agricultural data.
• Challenge for research libraries to match
  ambitions to create new GIS library services to
  drive innovative new scholarship with the need
  for GIS librarianship skills, training, software
  and hardware costs, user support, etc.
• A Critical Study of GIS Services in Research
  Libraries A Case Study of SUNY Albany and New
  York State Libraries. (1998) Tsering Wangyal
  Shawa http//www.princeton.edu/shawatw/gis.html
• The ARL GIS Literacy Project http//www.arl.org/
  transform/gis/

6
The landscape so far

• Growth of library-based GIS/data centers
• Growth of understanding of the difficulties of
  extending data skills and spatial literacy to
  non-specialist audiences and scholarly
  communities
• Ambition to do the above, and some successes
• High user support cost high-value new services
  too
• Earlier systems not well web-integrated prone to
  insider vocabulary and need for domain knowledge
• Current use on the web sometimes slow little
  desktop offline use need large datasets behind
  them

7
The landscape so far

• Early users geographers, urban planners, social
  scientists who rely on statistical data,
  archeologists
• New users art critics to historians and literary
  scholars the general public
• Steady progress landmark new users
• See Resources for Teaching and Learning with
  GIS from NITLE http//gis.nitle.org/resources.ht
  m
• Includes excellent Examples Across the
  Curriculum and other resources
• History http//gis.nitle.org/cgi-bin/links.pl?lin
  k_id7

8
GIS and History in the Academy (a few of many)

• The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive
  http//www.salemwitchtrials.org/ ()
• The Valley of the Shadow Two Communities in the
  American Civil War http//valley.vcdh.virginia.ed
  u/
• Mapping Britain across time http//www.visionofbri
  tain.org.uk/
• Library of Congress map room http//www.loc.gov/rr
  /geogmap/
• Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI)
  http//ecai.org
• David Rumsey Maps http//www.davidrumsey.com

9
Observations on academic use

• GIS can help you see patterns in data hard to
  discern otherwise (surprising geographic distance
  between witch and accuser in Salem)
• GIS can animate over time changes that make less
  sense as a static textual list (civil war troop
  movements)
• Dynamic, interactive nature critical (ECAI Silk
  Roads project)
• Historical depth is remarkably effective (David
  Rumsey)
• GIS can engage, charm, and excite while it
  educates

10
Meanwhile, outside the academy

• Rapid increase in ways that GIS touches our lives
• In-car, handheld navigation devices proliferate
• Rapid rise in municipal, real estate, and tourist
  use
• community mapping for crime stats, house
  ownership, and price Lord of the Rings tour of
  movie locations in New Zealand with GIS
• Spatial literacy and computer games Video Games
  and Education. (De Aguilera and Méndiz). 2003
  survey article. http//learn.it.uts.edu.au/31002/s
  upport/videogamesandeducation.pdf

11
Meanwhile, outside the academy

• Google Print and zip code locator for lending
  library search books and culture
• Google Earth remarkable tool for popularizing
  location knowledge in sophisticated and trivial
  manners
• Deep fascination with our personal geographies
  where we live where we were born over time

12
Whats to come place and privacy

• Geography and books coordinates added in library
  catalogs attached to LC geographical subject
  headings GPS to find books on shelf
• Photo recognition of physical location in real
  time
• http//www.newscientist.com/article.ns?iddn4857
• GIS/GPS and the cell phone person mapping
• GIS/GPS/RFID product mapping animal tracking
  (fish migration patterns cattle tracking for
  mad cow outbreaks)

13
Closing

• GIS is a rapidly rising service potential after a
  long gestation period as a rather specialist tool
• Google Earth focuses our attention on this as a
  capacity of wider applicability
• Need to think strategically and focus on our core
  mission to advance pedagogy and scholarship
• Remarkable examples of use in humanities
• Still weak in personalization and re-use --
  innovative users need malleable content with
  which to innovate.
• Our engagement with it parallels and benefits
  from much wider social and entertainment patterns
  of use
• Privacy issues abound when our physical location
  is online all the time.