Interesting!

As a search interface, it would be useful to add the UTM grid, which is
used in most countries, though not all: Switzerland is a significant 
exception, as of course  GB and Ireland; and it still doesn't appear 
on civil issues of the French IGN mapping. The recent issues by Cassini
have demonstrated the value of adding a modern grid to older mapping to
facilitate cross-reference, and a search interface can help here.

Is it intended to add any more historical mapping of UK, or to move 
further afield? The New Popular would not be my first choice for a 
'modern' map of Britain, given that much of the more satisfactory 
successor Seventh Series is now out of copyright, and there are plenty 
of flat copies around, suitable for scanning. Is it worth adding GSGS 
4136, the 1:63,360 (gridded) mapping of Ireland, prepared by the War 
Office in 1940-2? If a list of 'desirables' can be formulated, (say all
of western Europe at around 1:50,000-100,000 in the 1930s?), it might 
be worth a lis-maps posting!


At the same time, there may be a risk of duplication of effort. I hope
no-one would scan in the earlier 1:63,360 mapping of Scotland, now that
this is available on the NLS website, but the position with England, 
Wales and Ireland is much less clear. Perhaps we need a gathering to 
address the issue!

Back to the map-chests...

Richard Oliver

On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 18:30:16 +0100 "Fleet, Christopher" <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

> Hi Humphrey,
> 
> This is just a quick and partial answer to your first question, having
> just seen a few map websites demonstrated last week at the LIBER
> Conference in Amsterdam that are along the lines you describe:
> 
> 1. The Royal Tropical Institute has 12,000 maps accessible through a
> text-based, geo-referenced search engine:
> http://testbiblio.kit.nl/biblio_smartsite/maps_search.htm 
> 
> 2. The DIGMAP Project has several tools and prototypes for textual and
> visual searching of geo-referenced maps: http://www.digmap.eu/doku.php 
> 
> 3. The Carto-Mundi Mediterranean Map Library website also allows
> zoomable map-based searching of geo-referenced graphic indexes:
> http://cartomed.mmsh.univ-aix.fr/index_EN.html
> 
> Abstracts and some of the Powerpoints relating to these sites are on the
> LIBER Conference website: http://liber.gdc.2008.googlepages.com/ 
> 
> Chris
> 
> Chris Fleet
> Deputy Map Curator
> National Library of Scotland
> 33 Salisbury Place
> EDINBURGH
> EH9 1SL
> United Kingdom.
> 
> Tel. 0131 623 3973
> Fax. 0131 623 3971
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> 
> View maps website: http://www.nls.uk/maps
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Humphrey Southall
> Sent: 09 July 2008 14:59
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Search interfaces for on-line map libraries -- examples of good
> practice
> 
> Many members of this list are familiar with the Vision of Britain web
> site, and some of you have helped build it by loaning us maps.  It
> contains images of many historical maps, but it is not really a map
> library:  the historical maps are linked together into a small number of
> continuous mosaics, and treated as GIS content.
> 
> We are now working on a major new version of the system, with JISC
> funding, and we want it to work as an on-line map library while
> retaining the current functionality:
> 
> <> We have worked out how to hold all the metadata about the maps, as
> used by our MapServer software, in a single database table so that it
> can be conventionally searched.
> 
> <> Where maps have been cropped and, sometimes, re-projected to be parts
> of mosaics, we will also hold an uncropped and un-re-projected image of
> the map.  These images will be viewable using IIPimage software.
> 
> <> Some of the maps, such as the maps of towns in the 1831/2 Boundary
> Commission report, are too topographically inaccurate to re-project,
> etc, but EVERY map in the collection will be basically geo-referenced
> via a bounding box.
> 
> <> At present, going to our "Historical Mapping" option takes you
> straight into a viewer.  In the new site it will take you to a
> specialised home page, like those for census reports and travel writing.
>  This will tell you about the collection, and include a way into the
> viewer, but it will also allow you to search for maps.
> 
> Where we need help is on that search mechanism.  The idea is that users
> should be able to do searches on the purely textual information held in
> our "map catalogue" database table, just like the searches they could do
> on a traditional card catalogue, but they should also be able to narrow
> searches making use of the fact that every map will be geo-referenced. 
> For example, we could include a zoomable map on that page, and use the
> area it currently shows as a bounding box to limit the current search.
> 
> CAN LIST MEMBERS SUGGEST EXISTING MAP LIBRARY SITES WITH THIS KIND OF
> FEATURE?
> 
> We are also thinking about including a simple classification of our map;
>  what we currently hold can be divided roughly into:
> 
> -- General topographic maps
> -- Maps of political and administrative boundaries
> -- Land use mapping
> 
> Are there any standards we should be following here?
> 
> The current contents of the system is basically:
> 
> -- OS New Popular 1" maps of GB
> -- OS First Series 1" maps of GB
> -- Stamp Land Utilisation Survey 1" maps of GB
> 
> ... in all cases together with less detailed maps of the same date and
> topic.  The new system will add, primarily:
> 
> -- GSGS mapping of the whole of Europe at 1:500,000 scale
> -- A fairly complete set of British administrative area maps, excluding
> those still within OS copyright and including all the maps in the
> Parliamentary Boundary Commission reports
> 
> The extension of our infrastructure to cover the whole of Europe means
> we could add a great deal more, given further funding.  Our general aim
> is not to include the unique gems in our existing paper map collection
> (because we do not have one), but rather to provide a really useful
> reference collection, integrated with other geographical information --
> although we are STILL looking for a good descriptive gazetteer of
> Europe.
> 
> With thanks for whatever suggestions you can make,
> 
> Humphrey Southall
> 
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-------------------
Richard Oliver, B.A., D.Phil., F.B.Cart.S.,
Research Fellow in the History of Cartography
School of Geography, Archaeology & Earth Resources
University of Exeter
Exeter, EX4 4RJ