Thesauri Design to improve access to Cartographic Heritage in the context of the Spatial Data Infrastructures

Tecnologías de la Información Geográfica, ontologías, Información Geográfica, interoperabilidad. The access of historians and document management specialists to documentary funds and old cartography is at times arduous due to the scattering of maps throughout different map libraries. Thus, it would be of interest to be able to access all available information remotely, following the Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) guidelines. DIGMAP is a cooperative project between six European countries that proposes to develop a solution for indexing, searching and browsing, through a thesaurus, in the European collections of digitized historical maps. It will be possible to match them with the geographic areas covered by each map in the collection and to find it on them, based on standard and open data models. These results will be useful for local digital map libraries, especially if it is of historical – cultural importance, or as interoperable components for wider and distributed systems. This project takes advantage of thesauri technologies to develop three major subsystems: On one hand, the gazetteer for managing and providing access to multilingual information relating to geographic features like geographic coordinates, names of places or areas and historical events related with the geographic points, places or areas (with dates or time intervals); The authority file to maintain and provide easy access to the author’s information and identification and disambiguating from similar and duplicate authors; and on the other hand, the map services for providing access to map information in raster and vector formats. The paper presents an early overview on the DIGMAP project, particularly focusing on the multilingual Thesauri aspects with the aim of providing solutions for the cartographic heritage framework, applying the main Spatial Data Infrastructures guidelines. ISO 19112 (Spatial Reference by Geographic Identifiers) will also be considered and its geographic identifiers issues

Integration of Virtual Map Rooms as a support tool in historical and social research

At the present time almost all map libraries on the Internet are image collections generated by the digitization of early maps. This type of graphics files provides researchers with the possibility of accessing and visualizing historical cartographic information keeping in mind that this information has a degree of quality that depends upon elements such as the accuracy of the digitization process and proprietary constraints (e.g. visualization, resolution downloading options, copyright, use constraints). In most cases, access to these map libraries is useful only as a first approach and it is not possible to use those maps for scientific work due to the sparse tools available to measure, match, analyze and/or combine those resources with different kinds of cartography. This paper presents a method to enrich virtual map rooms and provide historians and other professional with a tool that let them to make the most of libraries in the digital era

First approaches to the usability of Digital Map Libraries

The Internet is a powerful tool providing different online communication options on geographic approaches. In addition to searching, geoportals provide tools to visualize, explore and download information. Cartographic heritage contained in the Digital Map Libraries (DML) stands out as an exceptional case within the generic frame of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). There are useful and basic similarities between the global reality of an SDI as a distributed geoportal and a DML; conformance to standards, agreements and services. However, some technological and policy considerations must be taken into account apart from the characteristics common to all SDI in any thematic field. On a first approach to these peculiarities, it is necessary to search different ways to present old maps preserving the original information needed by researchers, without reducing visual quality and Web potentiality. As a specific geoportal in cartographic heritage, some usability recommendations should be taken into account when designing navigation browsers in the DML, apart from the application functionalities. Usability will play an important role to succeed in the provider- citizen communication process. Some specific experiences have been carried out in this field so far, trying to include the DML services in a local SDI prototype and introducing a first approach to visualization methodology. Conclusions are presented at the end, in order to carry out an in-depth study in the future

Integración de Cartotecas Virtuales como herramienta de apoyo en la investigación histórica y social

En la actualidad, la casi totalidad de las cartotecas que se encuentran en la Web son colecciones de imágenes provenientes de la digitalización de mapas originalmente en soporte papel. Ese tipo de archivos gráficos proporcionan al investigador la posibilidad de acceder a la información cartográfica histórica y visualizarla, con un grado de calidad que depende de la calidad del proceso de digitalización y de las limitaciones impuestas por el propietario de los mismos. En la mayoría de los casos, el acceso a estas cartotecas sólo sirve para una primera aproximación y no es posible utilizar esos mapas para un trabajo científico debido a las escasas herramientas disponibles para medir, comparar, analizar y/o combinar estos recursos con otro tipo de cartografía. Por ello, el establecimiento de las Cartotecas Virtuales como herramienta de apoyo a los proyectos históricos en los que se involucra a un gran número de investigadores nacionales e internacionales, supone un avance hacia la patente necesidad de los historiadores y documentalistas de poder acceder de manera remota a toda la información existente y que pueda ser ubicable a través de un único sitio que facilite su consulta

El Proyecto Cartovirtual: Cartoteca Nacional Histórica Virtual

El Proyecto CartoVIRTUAL propone el desarrollo de soluciones para el acceso vía Internet a los fondos distribuidos de las cartotecas hispano-lusas, con el objetivo de promocionar la publicación del patrimonio cartográfico y facilitar el trabajo de investigadores y documentalistas. Para ello, se utilizan los estándares y servicios de las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales (IDE) y se desea diseminar los contenidos académicos a través de plataformas educativas. Se pretende implementar un prototipo de Cartoteca Histórica Virtual distribuida con las ventajas de las cartotecas reales, que disponga de servicios interoperables, gratuitos y de código abierto para la búsqueda y el acceso al contenido histórico. Más allá del acceso a los recursos y de la simple visualización de los documentos, se están desarrollando nuevas herramientas online para su estudio, favoreciendo la preservación de los fondos y limitando su acceso físico. En este artículo se presentan los avances tecnológicos desarrollados hasta la fecha y los nuevos retos que quedan por resolver

The Challenges of Generating Digital Map Libraries for Historical Research

Internet is and will be the powerful tool which gives way to different online communication options on geographical approaches. Historians and documentary experts need to access remotely to every existing information, that can be compiled in a single place to facilitate the access and comparison. Nevertheless, not many cooperative projects have been set off so far by a group of map libraries to simultaneously and remotely access several historical cartographic funds, also Digital Map Library (DML) supported by the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) guidelines. The DML of the Canary Islands is a Internet portal with access to a Map Server and a Catalogue containing the historical maps and plans of the Canary Islands. DML services in a local SDI prototype. Visualization and query tools were used from standardized OGC Services

Uses and applications of georeferencing and geolocation in old cartographic and photographic document management

 La aplicación contemporánea de tecnologías de georreferenciación y geolocalización ha permitido revisar y revitalizar la forma de mostrar, difundir y hacer accesible a la ciudadanía la documentación cartográfica y fotográfica almacenada en archivos, bibliotecas, cartotecas, museos, institutos geográficos y otras instituciones afines. El presente artículo evalúa el interés y el alcance para la gestión documental del uso de ambas tecnologías, analiza su aplicación contemporánea en la gestión cartográfica y fotográfica antiguas, y ofrece la revisión sistematizada de una serie significativa de casos prácticos de georreferenciaciación y geolocalización implementados recientemente con éxito por parte de instituciones públicas y privadas a su patrimonio documental.AbstractThe contemporary application of georeferencing and geolocation technologies has enabled the review and revitalisation of the method of presenting, disseminating, and making accessible cartographic and photographic documentation stored in archives, libraries, map libraries, museums, geographic institutes, and other key institutions. This article evaluates the interest and scope of document management of both technologies, analyses its contemporary application in cartographic and photographic management, and offers a systematised review of a significant number of practical cases from public and private institutions that have recently implemented their documentary heritage with success

ArCEs A Digital Archive of Italian Colonial Cartography and Scientific Expeditions

ArcCEs is a study for developing a digital archive on Italian scientific expeditions in Northern and Eastern Africa and the former Italian colonies (19th–20th centuries). The aim of the project is to assess, protect and enhance an important corpus of documents (historical cartographies, photographs, scientific papers and archive documents) distributed among public archives and private collections. The database structure is based on the Dublin Core metadata standard. The information system is designed to integrate and make interoperable digital resources, to ensure standardized and complex indexing, and to support advanced retrieval, according to the standards in use. The geolocation of the resources in a GIS environment can display query results in the Google Earth environment

Usos y aplicaciones de georreferenciación y geolocalización en gestión documental cartográfica y fotográfica antiguas

The contemporary application of georeferencing and geolocation technologies has enabled the review and revitalisation of the method of presenting, disseminating, and making accessible cartographic and photographic documentation stored in archives, libraries, map libraries, museums, geographic institutes, and other key institutions. This article evaluates the interest and scope of document management of both technologies, analyses its contemporary application in cartographic and photographic management, and offers a systematised review of a significant number of practical cases from public and private institutions that have recently implemented their documentary heritage with success.La aplicación contemporánea de tecnologías de georreferenciación y geolocalización ha permitido revisar y revitalizar la forma de mostrar, difundir y hacer accesible a la ciudadanía la documentación cartográfica y fotográfica almacenada en archivos, bibliotecas, cartotecas, museos, institutos geográficos y otras instituciones afines. El presente artículo evalúa el interés y el alcance para la gestión documental del uso de ambas tecnologías, analiza su aplicación contemporánea en la gestión cartográfica y fotográfica antiguas, y ofrece la revisión sistematizada de una serie significativa de casos prácticos de georreferenciaciación y geolocalización implementados recientemente con éxito por parte de instituciones públicas y privadas a su patrimonio documental.Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Información y Comunicación.Grupo de Investigación Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Systems (TIC186)

Historical geoportals as media for the dissemination of culture

El presente trabajo analiza la importancia de los geoportales históricos para la apropiada diseminacióndel patrimonio cartográfico. Este incluye los artefactos producidos por la cartografía en el pasado. Muchosde estos son frágiles y su conservación se realiza mediante digitalización. Sin embargo, el patrimonioes cultura y por lo tanto no solo debe almacenarse sino también compartirse. El público debe conocerlos bienes patrimoniales para que estos puedan transmitir cultura. En este contexto, es necesaria lacreación de medios que efectivamente permitan el acceso a los mapas antiguos digitalizados. El objetivode este documento es analizar el valor del patrimonio cartográfico y explorar medios para diseminarloefectivamente. Para ello, se presentan varios proyectos desarrollados en Europa para la diseminacióndel patrimonio documental y en particular cartográfico. Esto último a través de geoportales históricos.Diversas instituciones europeas han creado bibliotecas digitales y geoportales históricos. Mas aún, se hadesarrollado una biblioteca centralizada para acceder a los contenidos de numerosas instituciones delcontinente. Si bien, en Iberoamérica se ha creado un proyecto similar, este es limitado al no presentarlos mapas con las funcionalidades requeridas en un geoportal histórico. Se concluye que la creación degeoportal histórico para los documentos históricos del Ecuador permitiría al público conocer mejor elpatrimonio histórico edificado y fomentar así su gobernanza.This work analyses the importance of the historical geoportals for an appropriate dissemination of thecartographic heritage. This includes the artefacts produced by the cartography in the past. Many of themare fragile and their conservation is achieved through their digitization. However, heritage is culture andtherefore should not be stored but shared. The general public should know the heritage goods so thosecan transmit culture. In this context it is necessary the creation of some media that could effectively grantaccess to the historical digitized maps. The aim of this document is to analyse the value of the cartographicheritage and to explore media for its effective dissemination. For doing so, there will be introducedseveral projects developed in Europe for the dissemination of the documental heritage and in particularthe cartographic heritage, the latter using historical geoportals. Several European institutions have createddigital libraries and historical geoportals. Furthermore, a centralized library has been developed foraccessing the contents of a number of institutions across the continent. Even if in Latin America a similarproject has been implemented it has limitations as maps are not depicted using the functionalities requiredin a historical geoportal. It is concluded that the creation of a historical geoportal for the historicaldocuments of Ecuador could grant to the public a better knowledge of the built historic heritage fosteringtherefore their governance