Creating the virtual map drawer: Bridging the gap between spatial data infrastructures and map libraries

The paper aims to report on a project that was a unique collaboration between a map librarian and a geography faculty member which resulted in the successful creation of set of standard procedures developed for the collection of metadata from paper maps in a library collection for inclusion in the national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI).

Metadata were collected using a set of tools from the USGS and provided to the public for free, and collection was performed by graduate students in geography. The rest of the paper is a qualitative description about the project and applications for future use.

The end result was the creation of a manner in which map collections can become more visible to users and ultimately to the world at large. More than 1,000 maps have been cataloged using these procedures. The procedures created from this project can also be used by any library with a map collection interested in increasing access to map collections by means of geospatial data clearinghouses and the NSDI.

In general, map libraries and map librarians should start to look at how they are providing access to not only their digital collections, but also their paper collections and to begin experimenting with non‐traditional means of cataloging their collections and providing access. This paper is an example of such means.

Prior efforts in this realm only examined the inclusion of digital geospatial data for inclusion in an NSDI.