The BTAA-GIN FAST for Subject Terms Workgroup explored using FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) to improve search and discovery in the BTAA Geoportal. FAST, adapted from Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), offers a more streamlined and accessible way to tag metadata.
The BTAA-GIN Geodata Pilot Workgroup has successfully completed its current phase, establishing the technical and metadata infrastructure for a scalable geospatial repository. Over the past year (Q1 2024–Q1 2025), the workgroup focused on building a framework for data curation, refining metadata standards, and improving workflow automation.
📍SAVE THE DATE: The virtual Big Ten GIS Conference takes place April 11, 2025
We are excited to announce the Big Ten GIS Conference, a free virtual conference happening on April 11, 2025! This annual event brings together researchers, educators, students, and GIS professionals to present their work, exchange ideas, and explore the latest advancements in geospatial research and tools.
Call for Proposals is Open!
Are you working on an exciting geospatial project? Have insights to share about GIS applications, research, or tools? We invite presentations, lightning talks, and map gallery submissions from any discipline using geospatial information. You do not need to be affiliated with a Big Ten university to present—submissions from all institutions and industries are welcome!
We are thrilled to welcome the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geospatial Information Network (BTAA-GIN). Their addition marks an exciting step forward in our mission to enhance the resources and expertise available to our members and the broader geospatial research community.
The BTAA-GIN Geoportal has reached an impressive milestone: over 100,000 geospatial resources, with a large percentage of this growth happening in the past year alone!
Whether you're researching urban planning, environmental change, or historical maps, the Geoportal connects you to data from state and local governments, universities, and beyond. With one powerful interface, you can uncover a vast range of datasets to power your research.
We are happy to announce that Colleen Wilson has joined the Big Ten Academic Alliance's Geospatial Information Network as our new Associate Director of Program Management and Outreach Coordination. In this newly created role, Colleen will play a vital part in stakeholder engagement and work to strengthen connections within our diverse geospatial data community. Her leadership will be instrumental in driving outreach initiatives, coordinating program goals, and managing team activities.
A new article titled "Ephemeral Geodata: An Impending Digital Dark Age," co-authored by four BTAA-GIN Team Members, was recently published in the Journal of Map & Geography Libraries. The authors explore a long-standing challenge for our program, framing the lack of public geodata archives as a "looming digital dark age." This analysis is based on our experiences managing the BTAA Geoportal and GeoData@Wisconsin, as well as our roles as map librarians. This article not only highlights a widespread issue but also provides a compelling rationale for our new initiative, the BTAA-GIN Geodata Collection, which aims to address gaps in the availability and accessibility of geospatial resources.
This year, the BTAA-GIN has adopted a new Priority Projects model to streamline our work and focus on the most impactful goals. We began by collecting 17 project suggestions, which we prioritized using a matrix that considered factors such as project ownership, volunteer availability, DEIA relevance, time commitment, and difficulty. This matrix, inspired by the Minnesota Geospatial Advisory Council's workflows, helped us assess each project's likelihood of success. We then had team members vote on the importance of each project, creating a value score. By multiplying the likelihood of success by the value score, we categorized the projects into five high priority, six medium, and six low priority. Each committee has been assigned multiple projects, with some tasks designated for dedicated workgroups and others for individuals, including the Product Manager and a new hire.
The Journal of Map & Geography Libraries published an article about the BTAA-GIN, "Sustaining a Spatial Collaboration: Leveraging Social Infrastructure to Support Technological Advancement in Geospatial Data Discovery." This article, authored by four Team Members, describes the BTAA-GIN, reviews our history to date, and lays out our future plans.
This month, we completed our 2023-24 program roadmap, "Revamping the BTAA GIN".
The purpose of this roadmap was to guide our transition from a “Project” to an ongoing “Program,” with an increased focus on the social infrastructure of our organization. We made strides in four key areas: Governance, Content Management, Asset Management, and Community Support.