Special Libraries, May-June 1977

Volume 68, Issue 5-6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1977/1004/thumbnail.jp

Planning a Central Cartographic Web Portal for the Revolutionary War Era, 1750-1800

The Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library is developing a Central Cartographic Web Portal, focusing on the American Revolutionary War Era. This curated database will provide broad access to primary source documents that will include a judicious selection of the best and most informative printed and manuscript maps from approximately ten collections in the U.S. and Europe. The materials will focus on military mapping; 18th century American maritime charts; and urban mapping. The theme of the American Revolutionary War Era will serve as a pilot and model for additional themes in future years. Two advisory teams, one composed of curators and humanities experts, the other of technical expertise for cataloging and data management, will advise and create protocols for all aspects of the project. The site will improve access to vastly expanded resources through technology; advancing the scholarly, educational and cultural enrichment missions of all participating institutions

Special Libraries, May-June 1953

Volume 44, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1953/1004/thumbnail.jp

Special Libraries, November 1972

Volume 63, Issue 11https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1972/1008/thumbnail.jp

Projecting the Map Collection: Academic Map Libraries and Communicating the Value of Services on the World Wide Web

Map librarians face communication challenges in promoting their collections to an academic community. The interdisciplinary nature of map collections, combined with the lack of experience many patrons have with spatial data, make it difficult for map collections to claim a well-defined user group. Map librarians must communicate to a broad group in order to alleviate patrons' intimidation and to encourage exploration of map collections. The World Wide Web is a communication medium that is effective for reaching a wide audience. This paper analyzes the contents twenty-six academic map collection websites. Special attention is devoted to accessibility, elementary and advanced description of spatial data tools and resources, the provision of online map resources, and the presence of instructional documents and services

A Key to Dutch History

Many people know the stories behind the tulip mania in the 17th century and the legacy of the Dutch East India Company, but what basic knowledge of Dutch history and culture should be passed on to future generations? A Key to Dutch History and its resulting overview of historical highlights, assembled by a number of specialists in consultation with the Dutch general public, provides a thought-provoking and timely answer. The democratic process behind the volume is reminiscent of the way in which the Netherlands has succeeded for centuries at collective craftsmanship, and says as much about the Netherlands as does the outcome of the opinions voiced. The Cultural Canon of the Netherlands consists of a list of fifty topics from Dutch culture and history, varying from the megalithic tombs in the province of Drenthe and Willem of Orange to the Dutch constitution and the vast natural gas field in the province of Groningen. These fifty topics act as a framework for understanding and even studying Dutch culture and history. The canon should lead to further understanding and deepening of our knowledge of our past and act as an inspirational source for pupils, students and the public at large

Indigenous Resistance: Settler-Colonialism, Nation Building, and Colonial Patriarchy

“Indigenous Resistance: Settler-Colonialism, Nation Building, and Colonial Patriarchy,” interrogates the Western Hemisphere’s spatial construction by settler-states, Indigenous nations, and activists groups. In this project, I assert that Indigenous/Settler contact zones are significantly more convoluted than current scholarship’s use of contact zones in that the distinctions between Indigenous actors and settler-colonial ones are often blurred. These hybrid contact zones sometimes contain negative outcomes for all participants and often include undercurrents of insidious power dynamics within and across settler-states and Indigenous peoples alike. Using critical cartographic theory and deconstruction methods, this project first illustrates how empires ascribed a racialized patriarchy onto the Western Hemisphere through sixteenth century decorative maps and atlases. From there, I trace continued patriarchal manipulations of the hemisphere’s racial hierarchy into the nineteenth century as newly independent settler-states used intermarriage and assimilation to regulate their Indigenous populations. Finally, this project turns to Indigenous activist groups, especially as related to Indigenous women. In doing so, this project positions colonial patriarchy as integral to the global capital system and the types of Indigenous knowledge production that draw attention to related institutional failings. By working within a hemispheric dialogue across Indigenous America, this project draws out types of multivalent Indigenous resistance to settler-states, identifies the lasting effects of colonial patriarchies, and demonstrates how much settler-state power rests on the erasure of Indigenous women

Making Geographies : The Circulation of British Geographical Knowledge of Australia, 1829-1863

This study is concerned with the challenging question of how British geographies of Australia were made in the mid-nineteenth century. It examines the processes and practices that constituted the analysis, movement and use of the enormous amount of information produced by British explorations and surveys of the Australian continent. The study focuses on the period between 1829-1863, when the interior of the continent was explored and settlements expanded at a rapid rate. The study focuses on the roles of the following actors in Great Britain and the Australian colonies: The Colonial Office, official establishments overseen by governors in the colonies, the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the cartographer John Arrowsmith (1790–1873). The material examined consists of the official correspondence between the Colonial Office and the governors of the colonies, and other correspondence, printed material, and manuscript and printed maps that were prepared in the Australian colonies and in Great Britain by different actors. The research is conducted by investigating the processes of knowledge-making with methodological tools used in the history of knowledge and processual map history. These include the analytical tool of ‘circulation’ and examining the processes that constituted the production, movement and use of maps. In practice, the study is conducted by (1) examining the manuscript material (maps, texts) alongside the printed and published material and (2) by examining the material relating to their circulation and use, such as minutes, annotations and marginalia. In sum, the research findings demonstrate how the snippets of information produced by different individuals gained the power to define the continent by being circulated. These developments, which took place in the mid-nineteenth century, were rooted in the social processes that occurred in different, interconnected locations. The main findings and implications of this study include: (1) The production of British geographies of Australia was a spatio-temporal process, as the location of knowledge-work and the pace at which material became available in different locations influenced the type of knowledge formed by the actors; (2) Geographical knowledge of Australia was achieved through chains of knowledge brokers in different locations. Pieces of information were mediated and transformed in the hands of numerous different actors into geographical knowledge; (3) Intertextuality and multi-modality contributed to the production of geographical knowledge, whereby maps and text had co-constitutive roles in the process; (4) John Arrowsmith was a key individual in the process of mapping Australia. This was due to his strong relationship with the Colonial Office, the RGS and Australian explorers; (5) The processual approach is productive when studying the history of knowledge and this work encourages the use of archival material in order to examine the processes of knowledge-making. This study encourages the further application of this method, especially in relation to studies aiming to understand how knowledge was formed and how structures of knowledge were established in different locations.Väitöskirjassani tutkin Australiaa koskevan maantieteellisen tiedon muodostamista 1800-luvun keskimmäisinä vuosikymmeninä eli ajankohtana, jolloin britit enenevässä määrin asuttivat mannerta. Tutkin käytäntöjä ja prosesseja, joiden tuloksena tutkimusmatkojan ja kartoittamisen tuloksena tuotettua Australian mannerta koskevaa informaatiota analysoitiin, välitettiin eri paikkoihin ja käytettiin. Tutkimukseni keskittyy vuosien 1829–1863 väliseen ajanjaksoon, jolloin mantereen sisäosia tutkittiin intensiivisesti ja eri puolille mannerta perustetut siirtokunnat laajenivat kiihtyvällä vauhdilla. Tarkastelen erityisesti seuraavia toimijoita Australian siirtokunnissa ja Britanniassa: Britannian siirtomaaministeriö, siirtokuntien kuvernöörit, Lontoossa toiminut Royal Geographical Society ja kartografi John Arrowsmith (1790–1873). Tutkimuksessa käytetyt aineistot koostuvat kirjeenvaihdosta, painetuista materiaaleista, käsikirjoituskartoista ja painetuista kartoista, joita eri toimijat tuottivat Britanniassa ja Australian siirtokunnissa. Toteutan tutkimukseni rekonstruoimalla tiedon liikkumisen ja tuottamiseen prosesseja.Tutkimukseni menetelmät yhdistävät työkaluja tiedon historiasta ja kartografian historiasta. Käytän analyysin välineenä tiedon liikkuvuttaa kuvaavaa käsitettä sirkulaatiota ja tutkin karttoja niiden tuottamisen, liikkumisen ja käyttämisen prosessien osana. Käytännössä toteutan tutkimukseni 1) lukemalla ristiin käsikirjoitusaineistoja (kartat, tekstit) painettujen ja julkaistujen materiaalien kanssa ja 2) tutkimalla aineistoja, jotka kertovat eri tekstien ja karttojen liikkumisesta ja käytöstä, kuten muistiinpanoja ja marginaalimerkintöjä. Tutkimukseni tulokset osoittavat kuinka tiedon osat saivat merkityksensä osana laajempia tietorakenteita liikkumalla paikasta ja toimijalta toiselle. Tiedon liike perustui sosiaalisille käytännöille, jotka sitoivat yhteen eri puolilla maailmaa sijaitsevat paikat. Tutkimuksen päätuloksia ovat: 1) Maantieteellisen tiedon tuottaminen oli spatio-temporaalinen prosessi ja nopeus, jolla eri toimijat saivat eri materiaalit käyttöönsä, vaikutti muodostetun tiedon sisältöön; 2) Maantieteellistä tietoa tuotettiin toisiinsa yhteydessä olevien tiedon välittäjien ja työstäjien työn tuloksena. Eri toimijat välittivät tietoa eteenpäin ja muokkasivat tietoa näin tehdessään; 3) Intertekstuaalisuudella ja monimodaalisuudella oli keskeinen merkitys tiedon muodostamisen prosesseissa. Kartoilla ja teksteillä oli toisiaan täydentävä rooli; 4) John Arrowsmith oli avainhenkilö Australian kartoittamisessa. Tämä johtui hänen verkostoistaan siirtomaaministeriön ja RGS:n kanssa; 5) Prosessuaalinen näkökulma on hedelmällinen lähtökohta tiedon muodostumisen prosessien tutkimiseen ja tutkimus alleviivaa arkistomateriaalin käytön merkitystä tiedon muodostumisen tutkimuksessa. Tutkimuksen tulokset rohkaisevat sirkulaation ja prosessuaalisten näkökulmien käyttöön tutkimuksissa, joissa pyritään tutkimaan, kuinka eri toimijat ovat historiallisesti tuottaneet tietoa ja näin osallistuneet erilaisten tietorakenteiden vakiinnuttamiseen