The Map Library
Monday, December 5, 2011
Introduction
The Vespucci Map Library at State University of Illinois, located in Collegetown, Illinois, was created when the University's library received a grant to develop and preserve a collection of maps related to the history of Illinois. It is envisioned that the collection will serve students and faculty and the local community, as well as historical researchers from outside the college.
The Map Library focuses on maps that are specific to the state of Illinois, including historical property maps, coal mine maps, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, maps of battle fields, Native American villages, pioneer settlements, township and county boundaries, subdivisions, cemeteries, parks, as well as transportation ways such as city and rural streets, railroads, streetcar and subway routes, highways, roads, physical characteristics of development, and property.
Photo credit: gracegalleries.com
Collection
The Vespucci Map Library is designed to be used by the historical researcher, both amateur and professional. The focus of the collection is on the history and landform features of the local area.
It is the hope of the Map Library that the maps in the collection provide researchers with a robust perspective of the changing social and physical landmarks of the area's past, while serving as a means of preservation of these maps for future generations of researchers.
Approximately 15,000 items--maps, atlases, and other reference materials--are included in the Map Library, and are accessible through the library catalog. The collection is composed of both physical maps and, when available, their digital surrogates.
Due to concerns of fragility and potential damage, paper maps that were published before 1961 are not available to be checked out; if a pre-1961 map has been digitized it will be available for download. Maps are stored flat but will be rolled in tubes for transportation and should never be folded. Hands must be clean and dry before handling paper maps, and food and drink are prohibited in the Map Library.
Many of the maps in the collection are in the public domain; however, when copying public domain maps we do ask that you credit the Map Library at the College of Illinois. Copyrighted maps are protected by the doctrine of fair use as long as they are used for educational purposes; reproduction for commercial use is prohibited without prior written consent from the copyright holder. Maps may be checked out for two weeks and renewed once. Cartographic literature may not leave the library.
References
Library of Congress Collections Care
Map and Geography Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas-Austin
Photo credit: Public Library of Cincinnati
Use and Users
Our collection of maps and atlases includes maps as physical objects as well as digitized versions of same, with corresponding datasets which can be interactively applied to the digital versions to produce specific representations. Bibliographic information is also included. The collection is searchable per criteria such as geographic coordinates and names, time periods, and type of cartographic character traits such as city streets, roads and highways, property boundaries, transportation throughways, and physical geographic features.
The collection will be used as research and reference, by scholars, people studying genealogy, developers, utility companies, geologists, realtors, and more. The collection is available to the public and to professionals and their research establishments, public authorities, private companies, organizations, as well as to scholars and faculty.
The information-seeking needs of the collection's users require the collection to conveniently deliver the information sought. The method of delivery will be comprised of a searchable database which will lead to selectable thumbnail images and bibliographic information of the digitized map renderings. The images will be viewable with a user-driven zoom feature.
Convenience is a foremost priority in usability concerns in delivery of our collection content. The delivery method must encompass different needs and capabilities of users, from novices to experienced researchers. Navigating the collection must be time-saving and the search retrieval information relevant to users. Functionality of searches will be via user-specified criteria in terms from broad to specific, starting either from a choice of user-input field or from pre-determined subject-content starting points provided.
The price list and rights and reproduction information will be accessible on our website for users to reference, explaining the nature of different usages and the ramifications and restrictions of each. Librarians will be available via online chat interface to answer collection-related inquiries regarding use of our electronic resources.
The collection will be a resource for discovering regional historic geologic earthquake zone activity information, or to research locations of coal mines, or for geologists to review earth features and changes over time. Faculty and students will use the collection to learn how to interact with these maps; classes may include urban development planning, land use analysis, property rights (i.e., for tax status), general geographical reference, studying water supplies. Users may consult the collection for reference and research in terms of navigation to determine coordinates, measure distances and angles between points, measure areas, or track positions using a GPS device for either contemporary or historical purposes. Genealogists will make use of the collection resources to virtually visit past landscapes and settlements. Images of certain maps will be available for purchase as decoration, per the relevant rights and reproduction clauses.
References:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/reports/2010/digitalinformationseekerreport.pdf The Digital Information-Seeker
http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000395/article.pdf Servicing Map Users at Aalborg
http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/index.html U.S. Geological Survey
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub120/pub120.pdf Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources
http://www.quake.ca.gov/gmaps/ap/ap_maps.htm Earthquake Fault Zone Maps
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/seismic/catalogs/cat_nm.html Seismic Activity Database
http://www.loc.gov/topics/maps.php Library of Congress Maps and Geography
http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/dis/default.htm User behavior studies
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Subject Access
Organization
Preserving Maps
I. Physical Preservation: Storage, Treatment, Display
This is the most fundamental and traditional role a library carries out with its map collection. Maps are ideally stored in a temperature and humidity controlled room. Older maps are often kept within large sleeves of plastic for as an extra precaution when handling the more acidic paper they are often printed upon. They are never to be rolled, but are instead kept in large sliding drawers allowing them to rest unrolled and flat. This can often take up a great deal of space and can be very difficult for smaller libraries to accommodate. The space limitation has been one of the many reasons our library chooses to digitize much of it’s collection and move many of the maps to an off-site storage facility while keeping access to digital representations open and ready for the public.
Older maps (especially recently donated ones) are often in a state of disrepair. Therefore, the library’s preservation efforts are often employed in treating and restoring damaged materials. Mold and dirt accumulated from decades of improper storage are cleaned away through wet and dry methods. Maps that have crumbled apart but still consist of salvageable pieces can be put together again by being reinforced with muslin cloth and adhesives. Maps that have been rolled for storage and are on the point of breaking apart must be re-humidified before being unrolled and stored. Such preservations have always been a function the library has performed with its map collection and will undoubtedly continue as the collection ages and older materials are added.
Finally, it’s important that the public see the work being done within the map collection. Periodic exhibitions of some of the library’s restored or historically significant maps are displayed within the library. To properly display a map that is being preserved special framing must be employed using glass that protects the exhibited pieces from both light and oxygen damage. By displaying these items, library users are given the chance to publicly view and appreciate what would normally be a very behind the scenes aspect of the library.
II. Digital Preservation: Capturing Images, Online Database, Creation of New Data
Digital technologies have done much to change the relationship our library has with its map collection. Technological advancements in digitization have greatly changed the library’s approach to preservation. It is no longer enough for our library to simply repair and store the map collection. The library is now carrying out a complete digitization of it’s map collection. Because many of our maps are so large and fragile, overhead digital scanners that do not come in contact with the maps are used to create high resolution digital images of each map. We expect this process will be repeated numerous times as imaging technologies improve.
By creating digital copies of each map, we not only ensure that images of the maps are preserved, but we are also able to provide the community with a greater access to the map collection. Patron access to the collection is enhanced through an online database of the maps’ digital images which can be found at the library’s website. Here users can browse through images of the map collection based upon the maps’ genre, location, and age without being limited to making an appointment with the university’s special collections department. The creation of our online collection has greatly increased the potential use of the collection giving it greater searchability and not limiting the collection to purely physical dimensions of the area in which they are housed.
Advances in mapping software have come a long way in this age allowing the information on many of our maps to be used in ways never before imagined. The library is now cooperating with a number of local businesses and organizations in the creation of new maps based upon the data contained on many of the items in our collection. Using applications such as GIS software, researchers have been able to combine the data from multiple sources from within our collection and create entirely new maps. An recent example would be a property assessment project which combined the data from geologic survey maps of the area with property line maps. The result is a map which layers both sets of information on top of each other allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the properties and mineral resources. This is just one example of the exciting projects that have developed because of the exciting changes that are occurring within the realm of digital preservation.
http://www.pitt.edu/~aeb59/ Pittsburgh map preservation project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmddigit.html, LOC map digitization.
https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/apps/arc/maps/copies.php TX maps project
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/v055/55.2sweetkind-singer.html Geospatial Data