Map / GIS Librarian Presentation University of Tennessee Libraries City of Seattle: North of Lake Washington Ship Canal 1 ' c o u n t r s - 4 6 7 9 2 3 8 5 Map / GIS Librarian Presentation University of Tennessee Libraries Jon Jablonski The Information School University of Washington May 10, 2002.

Library School Mapping A sneaking suspicion Geospatial data = Textual Data Confirmed by an independent study RDBMS, text IR and GIS all handle data similarly Geospatial data is a good metaphor for textual data, and might be useful for informing the study of text-based data handling. There are distinct parallels between RDBMS, text IR and GIS, which all co-evolved in 1960s and 70s. The computational methods and paradigms are identical.

Central Eurasian Information Resource (CEIR) An outgrowth of 2 UW doctoral dissertations Turning Russian paper maps into a data repository for thematic mapping My contribution: Give CEIR useful work Provide Systems Design & Analysis Perspective CEIR began with results from 2 national elections and a complete set of 1:250,000 topographic maps. This data is being converted into useful GIS layers. My participation was designed to make a concrete contribution to the project: --document the digitization process (make a manual) --make design recommendations.

Scope of CEIR

My involvement Move through process Document workflow and make design recommendations. Digitize an oblast Join two together Import demographic and election data Essentially: create a digital map from a paper one. CEIR is currently housed in the Russian Language section of the library. Chief workers are a 25% systems librarian, 2 volunteer geographers, and 1 work-study student. Digitizing is performed by the work-study student. Correction, edge-matching, topology creation, and data integration is done by the geographers. Systems librarian is designing the database.

Four Layers Created: Oblast, Rayon, & Lake boundaries Rivers Railroads Oblast = US State Rayon = US County

End goal: short term An online resource to produce the same sorts of thematic maps made in every introductory Cartography course. Us pop by county map here.

End Goal: Long Term Online GIS data repository Demographic Physical Historical Graphic and textual resources as well

My recommendations Workflow System Design Speed up conversion of paper maps Design database concurrently Move tabular election data straight into db System Design Determine Initial Scope To SDE or not to SDE Where will CEIR live? Carefully plan for expansion Workflow recommends: Speed up the conversion of paper maps Design written guidelines Train intermediate staff for error correction and edge matching Design demographic database concurrently SQL server over Arc SDE Move tabular election data straight into database Eliminates intermediate step Deal with anomalies rather than manually handling individual files System Design Decide on scale to determine hardware / software / financial parameters 2+ fte, 1+ year design project Adopt the Arc SDE? Less of an issue now that a year has gone by Who will be responsible for CEIR? Humanities Research Laboratory Library Slavic Studies Carefully plan for other formats Graphics, video, text

Additional Information MLIS portfolio http://www.whatsgrowing.com/jon Includes public version of CEIR report A geographic analysis http://students.washington.edu/jonjab/kitsap/ Environmental remediation in Kitsap County CEIR prototype page http://depts.washington.edu/reecas/atlas/ceir-1.htm Outdated