1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Scope of CEIR

5. 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.

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

7. 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.

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

9. 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

10. Additional Information
MLIS portfolio
Includes public version of CEIR report
A geographic analysis
Environmental remediation in Kitsap County
CEIR prototype page
Outdated