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WAML News

Registration is open for WAML’s 2018 Conference in San Diego, CA!  Join us September 12-15 at San Diego State University and UC San Diego. /conference/

Join us for our pre-conference workshop, Online Index Maps: Faster, Better Access to Map Sets and Aerial Photographs, 1-5pm on Wednesday, September 12 at UC San Diego.  This hands-on workshop will introduce you to buildings indexes for air photo and map collections using GIS software.

ALA Mary Larsgaard Resolution

From Paige Andrew: A Memorial Resolution honoring our friend and longtime member of the map librarian profession, Mary Lynette Larsgaard, was approved at the ALCTS Council Meeting in New Orleans in June. In addition, Mary’s name was read aloud, along with other ALCTS/ALA members who passed away since the 2017 Annual Conference, and this was witnessed by MAGIRT and WAML member and leader Kathy Rankin. I want to thank Jon Jablonski for working with me to assist Erin Stalberg, ALCTS Division Councilor and Susan Wynne, ALCTS CAMMS Representative in finalizing the draft of a proposed Resolution that Erin presented at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Also, thank you Kathy Rankin for making time to attend the Council meeting in person to witness this significant action on behalf of all MAGIRT members and anyone who knew Mary or benefited in some way from her life’s work.

A MEMORIAL RESOLUTION HONORING

MARY LYNETTE LARSGAARD

Whereas the library community and the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) lost a valued leader on July 18, 2017, with the death of Mary Lynette Larsgaard;

Whereas Mary Larsgaard dedicated her 40-year career to map librarianship, specializing in map cataloging;

Whereas she served as Assistant Head and Head of the Map and Imagery Laboratory at the Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara from 1988-2009;

Whereas she served ALCTS and its Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS) in many capacities, including several years as a member and chair of the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA);

Whereas she co-founded an international research journal that continues to benefit those within and outside the map library community;

Whereas she shaped the development of map librarianship through her many publications, leadership in national and regional professional organizations, mentoring and training others;

Whereas her welcoming, friendly, and outgoing personality greatly enhanced the impact and influence of her scholarship, leadership, and service to the profession;

Whereas her leadership, vision, grace, warmth, and humor are missed by all who knew and worked with her; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that the American Library Association (ALA), on behalf of its members:

  1. honors the life, leadership, and service of our colleague, Mary Lynette Larsgaard, and thanks her for her outstanding contributions to librarianship; and
  2. extends its deepest sympathy to Mary’s family and friends.

Mover: Erin Stalberg, ALCTS Councilor

Seconder: Erica Findley, Councilor-at-Large

Benchmarks: People & Jobs

I only have UC San Diego news (send me your updates!). GIS Librarian Amy Work gave birth on July 11 to Isabella Kathleen Solano Work. Amy is on maternity leave until September. Stephanie Labou started as the Data Science Librarian in June, and will co-manage the library’s Data & GIS Lab with Amy. Stephani is an UCSD grad and comes to us from the Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach at Washington State University.

Other News

Recent conferences wrap up:

  • You can view the plenary sessions from the 38th Esri User Conference at:

https://tinyurl.com/EsriPlenary18

  • Get inspired by the Map Gallery award results:

https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/events/uc/get-involved/map-gallery-results

One of the big winners was the Ecological Atlas of the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas from Audubon Alaska. The complete atlas can be viewed here:

http://ak.audubon.org/conservation/ecological-atlas-bering-chukchi-and-beaufort-seas

  • Presentation slides are available for the ALA MAGIRT program at ALA Annual in New Orleans for the program, “Understanding and Using Spatial Humanities: Digital Mapping at the Forefront of Scholarly Research.”

https://connect.ala.org/magirt/viewdocument/speaker-slides-from-the-program-un

Panel experts focused on an overview of spatial humanities in digital scholarship, the skills and innovations available to librarians to successfully guide researchers in spatial humanities, and challenges that may emerge in spatial humanity practices for various research projects. Panelists include Katherine Hart Weimer (Rice University), Nicole Kong (Purdue University) and Chelcie Rowell (Boston College).

  • NASA was at ALA, and if you missed them like me check out of the great resources at their Wavelength blog:

http://nasawavelength.org/blog/nasa-ala-2018

Conferences, Classes & Exhibitions

  • September 21-23, 2018 – San FranciscoThe San Francisco Map Fair will take place in “the Lodge” at the Regency Center, 1290 Sutter St. The lecture series portion of the Map Fair will be sponsored by the California Map Society. It will consist of three 40 minute lectures followed by a 10 minute Q & A period. See: https://sanfranciscomapfair.com/lecture-series/
  • October 17–20, 2018NACIS 38th Annual Meeting

Norfolk, Virginia

Love maps, data, visual storytelling, and cartographic design? Make your plans now to participate in the annual meeting of the North American Cartographic Information Society in Norfolk, Virginia. Join professionals and enthusiasts from government, commercial, and not-for-profit groups along with academics, scholars, map/GIS librarians, artists, technologists, and students in our 38th Annual Meeting. Registration opens in late July.

 http://nacis.org/annual-meeting/current-meeting/

  • March 1, 2018 – December 2018 – Reno, Nevada
    On May 9, 2018, Reno will turn 150, and this momentous occasion has prompted the Special Collections and University Archives Departmentof the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries to launch a major exhibit in honor of the city’s sesquicentennial. Spanning all five floors of the building, Reno at the Crossroads: A Sesquicentennial Exhibit, 1868-2018 explores Reno’s colorful evolution from its founding in 1868 to the present through photographs, maps, documents, and objects. The scale of this exhibit provides us with the exciting opportunity to expose people at the University and throughout the community to many sides of Reno they might not have known, and encourage them to learn more. Most of it can be viewed during the open hours of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center.
  • February 14-15, 2019 – David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University

Mapping and the Global Imaginary, 1500-1900

Maps have long been used to bring imaginary places to life, from Thomas More’s Utopia to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. But the role of the imagination in mapping extends well beyond the depiction of fantasy realms. This conference—co-organized by the Global History and Culture Centre at the University of Warwick and the History Department of Stanford University—is designed to showcase research and facilitate conversation about the role of the imagination in the cartographic enterprise writ large. In a partnership with Stanford Libraries, the David Rumsey Map Center will host the event and an exhibit that will be curated by the speakers.

For other events, see: Cartography – Calendar of Meetings and Events http://www.docktor.com/meeting.htm Exhibitions http://www.docktor.com/exhibit.htm

New Maps & Web Sites of Interest

  • World Imagery Wayback was recently added to the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. Freely available, it contains 81 different dates of historical imagery for the past 5 years. This imagery can be accessed in ArcGIS Online, ArcMap, and ArcGIS Pro.

https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback/

For more info, see: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/imagery/wayback-81-flavors-of-world-imagery/

Also check out the Firefly Basemap Imagery:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/imagery/firefly-basemap-imagery-launched/

When creating a map with all this new imagery, you can now use the George Washington font and textures.

  • More imagery is available in EarthTime from Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE Lab. Track landscape changes from 1984-2016 worldwide. Background: https://earthtime.org/

Publications about Mapping

  • Forthcoming in August: A Research Guide to Cartographic Resources: Print and Electronic Sources by Eva H. Dodsworth. The interdisciplinary uses of traditional cartographic resources and modern GIS tools allow for the analysis and discovery of information across a wide spectrum of fields. A Research Guide to Cartographic Resources navigates the numerous American and Canadian cartographic resources available in print, and online, offering researchers, academics and students with information on how to locate and access the large variety of resources, new and old. Dozens of different cartographic materials are highlighted and summarized, along with lists of map libraries and geospatial centers, and related professional associations.

Full description and book details: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538100837#

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