[Genealib] Maps

[Danielle Plumer]

Providing access through the web is excellent, but I'd still suggest using a standard metadata format rather than plain HTML. EAD is great, but you generally need some special tools to convert the XML to a human-readable format, and it's generally more focused on the collection as a whole rather than the individual items. 

Lots of folks I work with have created simple databases (in Access, MySQL, or whatever) with Dublin Core metadata for cataloging digital objects, including maps. If you're attached to MARC, you can come up with a subset of the fields you think will be useful, with the intention of importing the results back in to your catalog at some point.

Conformance to an interoperability protocol such as OAI-PMH can increase the access opportunities for search engines and other institutions. Sarah Shreeve's article in First Monday has a good overview of the subject: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_8/shreeves/index.html

Personally, I don't think simple Dublin Core is rich enough to describe something like maps fully, although qualified Dublin Core offers more options. There are lots of resources available for cataloging maps in MARC -- see http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/maps/cat/map_cat_tools.html for more than you ever wanted to know!


Danielle Cunniff Plumer, Coordinator
Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
512.463.5852 (phone) / 512.936.2306 (fax)
dplumer at tsl.state.tx.us

-----Original Message-----
From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu]On Behalf Of Mary K.
Mannix
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 12:40 PM
To: Librarians Serving Genealogists
Subject: Re: [Genealib] Maps


I have no opinions about MARC either way, but find John's idea very
intriguing.  Like Christine, we have finally been inventorying our map
collection, which I thought would be a couple of hundred and is now
nearly 1,000!, and I would like to increase access to the broader
world [meaning anyone not on the computer with the database :) ]and,
again like Christine, there is no way that my cataloging department
could work on this at all for me.  They simply don't have the staff
and\or the time.  John's idea seems very reasonable and a good
starting point for some. Mary M.


> --
> Mary K. Mannix
> Maryland Room Manager
> C. Burr Artz Public Library
> Frederick County Public Libraries
> Frederick, MD
> and
> Chair, ALA\RUSA\History Section
>


-- 
Mary K. Mannix
Maryland Room Manager
C. Burr Artz Public Library
Frederick County Public Libraries
Frederick, MD
and
Chair, ALA\RUSA\History Section
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