BTAA Geospatial Information Network News & Highlights

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Interface Sprints: When We Go Looking For Oddities

Image Source: US Department of Defense We just finished our 3 rd Interface Sprint, where we do different challenges to see if we can test recent changes to the interface, find problems, or even to see if we can "break" something. This doesn't always result in interface issues. For example, at our most recent sprint, we put forward the challenge of finding maps of countries in their native language. This was used to test the new language facet. But it's revealed that we don't seem to have maps of several countries in their native language. China in Chinese being very prominently absent. The Geoportal does have over 1700 Russia maps in Russian. One issue found during this sprint has already been fixed! We had a task to explore the site for potential accessibility concerns. An automated checker found some of the colors used to have concerns with contrast. So the color scheme was updated to give better contrast! So what do we do with

Redlining in Lincoln, Nebraska

By Meg Mering Featured Item: 1930s map which divided Lincoln, Nebraska into sections, rating the levels of risk for bank lenders What is the item? This map rated the level of risk for lenders by color. The green or aqua sections were the best areas. The blue sections were still desirable. The yellow sections were definitely declining. The sections marked in red (thus the term "redlining") were hazardous. Interesting tidbits The map was largely based on poverty and racial makeup. The areas marked as "hazardous" were the parts of the city where African American families lived. In 1916, Sheridan Boulevard became the first neighborhood in Lincoln to stipulate that only "those of the Caucasian race" could buy homes. Many African Americans who lived in almost every section of downtown Lincoln were displaced as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln grew and took over properties. Where can I find out more? Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America https://dsl

Featured Collection: Illinois Height Modernization (ILHMP): LiDAR Data

By Wenjie Wang, GIS Specialist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Height Modernization (ILHMP) LiDAR Data [Illinois]) https://geo.btaa.org/catalog/0f26df9b-15b9-4877-b235-55ed19e20d66 What is the item? ILHMP has established data sharing agreements to archive and distribute elevation data for select Illinois counties. Data have been acquired using Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) technology, in compliance with different contract specifications. Data are offered as originally deliver LAS tile or as the derivative product of DEM/DTM or DSM. What BTAA Library submitted the item? Illinois Geospatial Data Clearinghouse Interesting tidbits Historically, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data for Illinois have been mainly based on 5- to 10-foot contour data. Large-scale, digital topographic maps are most common; many data resources contain elevation information acquired in the 1920s and 1930s. DEM data collections are now being developed

Data-Driven ArcGIS StoryMaps

Data-Driven ArcGIS StoryMaps How to Create a Story Map by Batch Attaching Media to Points Using ArcGIS StoryMaps By Jay Bowen, University of Iowa Libraries Tags: ArcGIS StoryMaps, data-driven, map tour, batch attachment, images, spreadsheet, csv Overview There are a lot of questions on the GIS Q&A sites about how to create a story map from a spreadsheet of point data with images using the newer version of ArcGIS StoryMaps , but very few answers. If you are like me, you liked how Esri's Classic Story Maps allowed you to upload an entire csv of points with image urls to create a data-driven story map in one quick step without having to do this point-by-point. You may have agonized over this process in the newer version and you might be unaware that, by implementing a few extra steps using ArcGIS Desktop, you can also do this with the newer version. In the post that follows, I will walk you through the steps involved so that you can create a data-driven tour in ArcGIS StoryMaps u

The BTAA Geoportal and OSU Extension

By Daniel Dotson The Ohio State University has a valuable OSU Extension that offers services and knowledge on a wide range of issues. Like many extension networks in other states, major topics include agriculture and environment. Water Water, Water everywhere… but WHERE exactly? The BTAA Geoportal has some answers. With over records for over 150 items related to water in Ohio , users could find information related to: Watersheds Wetlands Aquifers Groundwater Floodplains Bodies of water And More! Information is available often by county, but sometimes specific to cities. Most of these are more recent items and data sets, but there is some historic information as well as some scanned maps available. Maumee River Trees & Forests Over 100 items are available related to trees or forests. With trees as a major concern for environmental issues, but also with implications for the agriculture community, such resources would also be valuable to Extension. Topics related to t

Rural Broadband Datasets

By Kathleen Weessies Simple quiet country life sounds idyllic and peaceful for anyone fed up with the complications of modern society. But folks in the country see the limits to that charm: They want to stream shows, shop, and work online from home just like anyone else. People in rural areas want broadband internet yesterday. Connectivity is surging forward not quite to meet that need, but pretty fast by bureaucratic standards. Since 2009 the U.S. federal and many state governments are collectively allocating an unprecedented amount of funding to rural broadband initiatives. The dramatic transformation underway and to be seen in the near future is a delightfully fertile area of study and inquiry for researchers across many disciplines. Geospatial data relating to broadband initiatives is both plentiful and absent depending on what you need. The state of Iowa, however, has a lovely array of datasets freely available for download. The state of Maryland a

Featured Collection: Purdue University Campus Maps

By Shirley Li Featured Collection: Purdue University Campus Map Collection What is the item? With historical imageries from 1890 to 2014, Purdue University Campus Map Collection is preserved from a digital scholarship initiative to educate the Purdue community and the public about the historic grounds and structures of the campus. Located in the Archives and Special Collections, the physical campus maps were scanned and georeferenced by the libraries. Individual GeoTIFFs can be downloaded from this collection on the BTAA geoportal. What BTAA Library submitted the item? Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies Interesting tidbits All the historical maps are georeferenced and mosaicked into one mosaic dataset , which was published to ArcGIS server as one image service. University Hall is the oldest remaining building on campus. Completed in 1877, it is the only building remaining of the original six-building. Purdue Campus Maps: West Lafayette, Indiana, 1890-2

Featured Item: National Farmers Market Directory

By Karen Majewicz Featured Item: National Farmers Market Directory Spring has arrived and local farmers markets will soon be opening up in many parts of the country. Image caption: Midtown Farmers Market handpainted sign. Looking for a local selection of produce? Planning a road trip and don’t want to deal with grocery stores? Check out the National Farmers Market Directory , which is available as a spatial dataset, a downloadable CSV, or a queryable web service. The attribute data includes the name, location, seasonal dates, and hours of operation. It also notes what kind of food is available, including the following categories: Organic Baked goods Cheese Crafts Flowers Eggs Seafood Herbs Vegetables Honey Jams Maple Meat Nursery Nuts Plants Poultry Prepared Soap Trees Wine Coffee Beans Fruits Grains Juices Mushrooms Pet Food Tofu Wild Harvested Interesting tidbits: Several states in the Big Ten region have the most farmers markets in the country. The populous states of California (75

The Ripple Effect of an Interface Change

By Danny Dotson Source: EPA One of the features the Interface Committee has heard that would be useful for the Geoportal to have is the ability to either search for or filter by language. So fine, let's make that happen. But, this is going to cause work in other areas to make language searching/filtering actually work well. Why is this the case? Metadata: Does Each Item Have a Language listed? Short answer: no. So this means for language to be a valuable search/filter option, items need to have a language included in their metadata. Many currently don't. Most of these are very likely in English as they are geospatial data sources from various government entities in the US. But until we make sure and the change is made, the language for these items is essentially non-existent. So the people working with metadata would need to examine the language-less items to add the appropriate language to the item's metadata. This can be time consuming just b

Ukraine: Maps and Data

By BTAA GIN Project Team Members Feature: Ukraine Maps and Data This post lists geospatial resources related to Ukraine from many sources around the world. While the Geoportal does contain some maps of Ukraine , they are from non-Ukrainian agencies and primarily date back to WWII (or older); these maps may not provide the information our users are currently seeking. Librarians from the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geospatial Information Network (BTAA GIN) Project Team have compiled some additional, more current resources for Geoportal visitors. Caption: Map view of the Geoportal's resources on Ukraine. Click here or on the map to view search results in the Geoportal. Maps and Data from News Agencies These sources are provided by national-level news agencies. We believe that most of the content is freely available, though some portions may require a subscription. Al Jazeera Infographic News: Russia-Ukraine war by the numbers: Live Tracker BBC: Ukraine maps: At-a-glance guide to the R