January 2025 Program Status Update¶
Big Ten GIS Conference 2025!¶
đź“ŤSAVE 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!
đź’ˇ Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Agriculture & natural resources
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
- Geography, urban planning & infrastructure
- GIS education & methods
- Health sciences, humanities & social sciences
- IDEA and social/environmental justice
- UAVs & GIS in academia
- Applied GIS in campus infrastructure & municipal projects
đź“ť Submission Deadlines & Links
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🔹 Submit a Presentation or Lightning Talk¶
→ Submission Form
⏳ Deadline: March 5, 2025, at 5 PM CST
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🔹 Submit to the Map Gallery¶
→ Submission form (requires a Google account)
→ Guidelines
⏳ Deadline: March 24, 2025, at 5 PM CST
âś‹ Who Should Attend?
This conference is open to anyone interested in geospatial research—students, educators, researchers, and professionals from all institutions and industries. Whether you're presenting a project, showcasing research, or simply eager to learn, the Big Ten GIS Conference is a place to share and engage. While the event highlights work from Big Ten universities, we welcome all attendees and presenters, regardless of affiliation.
📢 Accessibility Note: Closed captions will be provided throughout the event.
Registration Opens Soon!
We can’t wait to welcome you to the Big Ten GIS Conference—start preparing your proposals and stay tuned for updates!
Program Activities¶
Committees¶
- The Technology Committee id not meet in January (holiday)
- Editorial Calendar: The blog post calendar is on track, with reminders set through June 2025. Plans are underway to include introductory posts from west coast schools by summer.
- Geoportal Walkthrough Videos: Work continues on video walkthroughs to introduce the GIN, its mission, and the Geoportal. A sprint for scripting and narration is scheduled for late Feb.
- Geospatial Data Citation Guide: The committee is drafting a charter for a new working group to develop a guide for citing geospatial data, which will be promoted across BTAA institutions. This effort aligns with ongoing discussions about citation best practices and, if ready, will be promoted at the BTAA GIS Conference in April.
- Service Models Collaboration & Geo4LibCamp: The committee is exploring ways to contribute to Geo4LibCamp (May 2025) by sharing service models and gathering insights from attendees to inform a set of recommendations.
- The Coordination Committee did not meet in January.
Workgroups¶
- Issued a final report for initial approval by the Coordination Committee.
- Completed a final draft of a MARC to OGM Aarvark crosswalk
- Remediated scanned map metadata with FAST subject headings, a new field for scale/resolution, and a new dedicated field for admin tags distinct from the Keywords field.
- Drafted a member survey to explore tiered service models and compensation practices among BTAA-GIN members and beyond. The plan is to share a revised draft with the larger program team in March.
BTAA Geoportal¶
Analytics Statistics¶
January 2025 by the numbers
- Visitors: 5,449
- Visits: 5,996
- Downloads: 196
- Visits with download: 3.27%
- Outlinks: 1,269
- Visits with outlink: 21.16%
- Num. searches: 982
- Search keywords: 389
- Pageviews: 13,190
Unique visitors by month
More stats
See full statistics on our Analytics Dashboard
What Users are Looking for
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Top Google searches leading to the Geoportal
- ohio school district map
- south bend city limits
- fire insurance map california
- fire insurance map
- evansville city limits
- california fire insurance map
- nj wetlands map
- btaa geoportal
- school district map ohio
- 1937 aerial photographs wisconsin
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Top internal keyword searches
- Egypt
- Sanborn
- Planimetric
- Georgia
- GEOCODER USA
- ACS 5-year Estimates
- Impervious
- New albany, indiana
- CORONA
- Iowa county wisconsin
Collections¶
Total records as of January 31, 2025: 102,537
January Harvesting Activities¶
Note: ArcGIS Hub harvesting activities were paused in January due to updates in our GBL Admin tool and our metadata processing workflow.
We also performed extensive cleanup on several collections:
- Updated links; added thumbnails for all Michigan General Land Office Plats
- Updated links; added IIIF views and thumbnails for all Indiana Digital Collections
- Ingested metadata improvements for all scanned maps, including a new field for scale and FAST compliant subjects (as directed by the FAST for Subject Terms Workgroup)
Web Development¶
GeoBlacklight Admin Enhancements
- Launched the Data Dictionaries feature
- Streamlined distribution imports with a background queue
Dev Geoportal UX Redesign
- Improved item view pages with breadcrumb navigation, buttonless sidebar, always-visible citations/downloads, and a new “More Like This” feature.
- Created a guide documenting logos, colors, typography, and web components to ensure design consistency.
- UI/UX improvements will continue in February, with further refinements to navigation, metadata display, and code snippets.
More development details
Next Steps¶
- Continue planning Big Ten GIS Conference.
- Charge the Geodata Collection Foundation Working Group.
- Provide a Technology overview training for new Team Members.