September 2024 Program Status Update¶
Monthly Highlight: Newly published article about ephemeral data¶
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.
Figure caption: Filling the growing gap by collecting annual snapshots. This stepped temporal bar chart shows geospatial resources with the subject “Roads” for BTAA library-held maps, datasets available in data clearinghouses across the BTAA states, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Robinson Map Library collections as of April 2023. (Illustration from the cited article.)
Citation
Majewicz, K., Martindale, J., Kernik, M., & Mattke, R. (2024). Ephemeral Geodata: An Impending Digital Dark Age. Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15420353.2024.2398542.
An open access version can be found at https://hdl.handle.net/11299/265741.
Program Activities¶
Program Management¶
- We welcomed a new Program Team Member from Purdue University, Dr. Innocensia Owuor, GIS Specialist and Clinical Assistant Professor.
- The September Program Team meeting featured a presentation from East View Geospatial about their Global Census Archive.
- We completed interviews for the new Program and Outreach Coordinator position.
Committees¶
- Working on website policies and updating the Geoportal footer links
- Created a local gazeteer for counties, states, and nations
- Updated blog with new posts
- Planning to update the Geoportal help pages next
- Did not meet in September
- Compiling plans for a Map Librarian summit
- Planned Program Team meeting topics
Workgroups¶
- Determining what components to add to a Download Package (dataset, metadata, readme, thumbnails, etc.)
- Added a field for Provenance Statement and Reference System
- Analyzing the map records for current adherence to a thesaurus.
- Reviewing Keywords field with the aim to organize the values into controlled Subjects
- Held kickoff meeting in September
- Determining objectives
BTAA Geoportal¶
Analytics Statistics¶
September 2024 by the numbers
- Visitors: 6,147
- Visits: 6,698
- Downloads: 243
- Visits with download: 3.36%
- Outlinks: 1,229
- Visits with outlink: 18.35%
- Num. searches: 1,962
- Search keywords: 617
- Pageviews: 17,206
Unique visitors by month
More stats
See full statistics on our Analytics Dashboard
Top Internal Searches¶
- salmon
- wildfire
- reef
- climate population
- cougar
- sanborn
- geology
- PLSS
- elevation
- Pennsylvania
- hurricane
- Mountain
Collections¶
Total records as of October 1, 2024: 98,897
August Harvesting Activities¶
| Task | Records added | Records retired |
|---|---|---|
| MN Geospatial Commons 05a-01 September 2024 | 5 | 0 |
| 2024-09-03 Scan ArcGIS Hubs | 378 | 133 |
| 2024-09-10 Scan ArcGIS Hubs | 119 | 192 |
| 2024-09-17 Scan ArcGIS Hubs | 114 | 0 |
| 2024-09-24 Scan ArcGIS Hubs | 101 | 24 |
| Auglaize County, Ohio GIS Open Data Downloads | 21 | 0 |
| New Wisconsin records | 100 | 0 |
Development¶
- Improved test coverage for GeoBlacklight Admin, identiying redundant or erroneous code
- Updated header and footer in development site for the TECH Committee to review
- Cleaned up the font decoration to be clearer while retaining accessibility
More development details
Next Steps¶
Projects and tasks that are up next include:
- Review and publish policies and disclaimers for the Geoportal
- Kickoff the Scalable Approaches workgroup
Refer to our Priority Projects board for more details.