What are we proposing?

To incorporate metadata records for licensed data resources into the BTAA Geoportal.

What do we mean by Licensed Data?

Geospatial data purchased or obtained by participating institutions that requires authentication or authorization for patron access.

How would we implement it?

• When a user lands on an item page for a licensed data resource, they would be presented with a drop-down listing the institutions that subscribe to that resource

  • Selecting their institution would take them to the library catalog record to login and authenticate
  • Item page would also include explanatory information as to why access is restricted to subscribing institutions

• Adopt a GeoBlacklight feature that presents public versus private availability, create a Solr document schema and metadata pattern to collect institutional holdings and proxy links

  • Development changes to the application logic and views will be moderate to minimal.

• Staff time

  • Development time: ~40 hours
  • Metadata Coordinator time: ~40 hours
  • Task Force member time: ~20 hours per institution

Why do we want this?

• Licensed Data was identified as a particular issue in our Fall 2018 Continuation Proposal:

  • “Many participating institutions hold licensed geospatial data that they wish to submit to the geoportal. Incorporating these types of resources would present challenges in terms of enabling multiple institutional authentication protocols that will require specialized technical research.”

• Participating institutions expend collections funds on Licensed Data regularly and, other than the library catalog and libguides, do not have a good way to highlight and promote discovery of these (often expensive) resources.

BTAA Geoportal Member Institutions - Licensed Data Inventory (September 2019)

• Inventory of Licensed Data resources

  • 14 subscription databases and 15 data set resources were identified by Task Force members

  • Subscription databases

    • Five databases are subscribed to by at least nine of the 12 institutions:

      • Social Explorer, PolicyMap, and SimplyAnalytics are databases of geospatial data; data available to the subscribing institution is the same in all cases

      • East View LandScan is a database of geospatial data; data available to the subscribing institution varies based on the subscription

      • Digital Sanborn Maps is a database of scanned maps; maps available to the subscribing institution varies ‒ some have access to maps from all states, some to just their own state

  • Recommendation would be to pilot the addition of Licensed Data using one of the three databases in the first bullet above; next steps would be to move to a database where the data available varies by institution

• Adding a Licensed Data would allow for a more streamlined discovery experience for (often expensive) geospatial data.

What are some things to consider?/ Discussion topics

• Some users will not have access to the licensed data ‒ we will have explanatory text, but this may cause some confusion.

• Different databases / licensed data sources will require different approaches ‒ how to prioritize?