A New Method for Locating and Accessing Library Map Collections
Google Map Mashups Kristi Jensen, Map Librarian University of
Minnesota Twin Cities
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Searching for maps is hard. Why not? How do users find maps?
Can we improve it? Browsing is inconvenient..
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a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than
one source into a single integrated tool. -Wikipediaweb application
Example: Some Map MARC records have coordinates. Embedded map
applications, like Google Maps, allow you to map them. Librarians
(testing their programming skills) can combine them into a single
integrated tool that we call: M AP H APPY. M AP H APPY : Why
not
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Step 1: Get the data M AP H APPY : How we did it Step 2: Build
the database Step 3: Map to interface
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Step 1: Get the data M AP H APPY : Phase 1 Library Map Count
Main1196 Science201 Agriculture125 Duluth 1119 Duluth 297
Forestry45 Archives22 Fisheries6 Crookston2 Veterinary1 Health1
Total1815 A focus on Minnesota Maps.
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Step 1: Get the data M AP H APPY : Phase 1 The pilot showed
about 66% of the records had some coordinate info. Records that
cant be displayed on the map can still be displayed as search
results.so results are similar to those from an OPAC search.
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Step 1: Get the data M AP H APPY : Phase 1 Many records
contained faulty data and required clean-up. Outliers were easier
to identify during the pilot phase. Minnesota maps in
Missouri?
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Step 2: Build the database M AP H APPY : Phase 2 The corrected
records were downloaded into a separate database with the MARC
fields we found valuable.
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Step 2: Build the database ACCESS DENIED M AP H APPY : Phase 2
Gaining access to a university server to run a SQL database was not
easy.
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Step 3: Map to interface M AP H APPY : Phase 3 The Google Map
API is open source code, but some assembly required.
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Map Happy Google Map API Key Gmap.js search.php or data.xml
mySQL database home.phtml style.css M AP H APPY : How it Works
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Step 3: Map to interface M AP H APPY : Phase 3 The map
interface displays maps based on their center point, then links
back to the catalog record.
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Step 1: Get the data Step 2: Build the database Step 3: Map to
interface M AP H APPY : How we did it
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Step 1: Get the data Step 2: Build the database Step 3: Map to
interface ACCESS DENIED Roadmap to Success!
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M AP H APPY : Intuitive Interface
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M AP H APPY : Search functions
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M AP H APPY : Discovery Tools
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Scalability to records with no coordinates? Solutions: create
coords programmatically based on subject-headers Clean-up records
manually using physical map coordinates. Incorporation into formal
library catalog? User testing suggested that users expect each
record in Map- happy to link to a digital map How to incorporate
digital maps/air photos User-interface (source code bare-bonesneed
php and mysql queries for searching and linking back to
resultsprogrammer!) Many, many more. M AP H APPY : Issues
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http://www-dev.lib.umn.edu/scieng M AP H APPY : Try it
out!