Search results

Purpose — To provide a theoretical background to understand current local search engines as an aspect of specialized search, and understand the data sources and used technologies.

Design/methodology/approach — Selected local search engines are examined and compared toward their use of geographic information retrieval (GIR) technologies, data sources, available entity information, processing, and interfaces. An introduction to the field of GIR is given and its use in the selected systems is discussed.

Findings — All selected commercial local search engines utilize GIR technology in varying degrees for information preparation and presentation. It is also starting to be used in regular Web search. However, major differences can be found between the different search engines.

Research limitations/implications — This study is not exhaustive and only uses informal comparisons without definitive ranking. Due to the unavailability of hard data, informed guesses were made based on available public interfaces and literature.

Practical implications — A source of background information for understanding the results of local search engines, their provenance, and their potential.

Originality/value — An overview of GIR technology in the context of commercial search engines integrates research efforts and commercial systems and helps to understand both sides better.

The paper aims to report on a project that was a unique collaboration between a map librarian and a geography faculty member which resulted in the successful creation of set of standard procedures developed for the collection of metadata from paper maps in a library collection for inclusion in the national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI).

Metadata were collected using a set of tools from the USGS and provided to the public for free, and collection was performed by graduate students in geography. The rest of the paper is a qualitative description about the project and applications for future use.

The end result was the creation of a manner in which map collections can become more visible to users and ultimately to the world at large. More than 1,000 maps have been cataloged using these procedures. The procedures created from this project can also be used by any library with a map collection interested in increasing access to map collections by means of geospatial data clearinghouses and the NSDI.

In general, map libraries and map librarians should start to look at how they are providing access to not only their digital collections, but also their paper collections and to begin experimenting with non‐traditional means of cataloging their collections and providing access. This paper is an example of such means.

Prior efforts in this realm only examined the inclusion of digital geospatial data for inclusion in an NSDI.

Each of the agencies participating in GCDIS will play a role appropriate to its agency mission and consistent with the funds available to it. Descriptions of each agency's resources follow. Each agency will implement the GCDIS at its own pace.

This paper aims to present an objective summary of the current state of research concerning the evaluation criteria of map metadata. The undertaken research identifies which authors and to what extent the discussed issues related to the metadata of objects collected in digital libraries, with particular emphasis on cartographic materials.

Independent reviewers analysed the basic articles data. Selected papers were subject to quality assessment, based on the full text and 12 questions. Finally, iterative backward reference search was conducted.

The results demonstrate that there are no universal criteria for metadata evaluation. There are no works that would assess the metadata of cartographic studies, although numerous publications point to the need for this type of work.

Metadata evaluation allows users to obtain knowledge whether objects found in the library are relevant for their needs.

The criteria and methods most often used for assessing metadata quality which can be adopted to map metadata evaluation have been identified. The authors identified the existing research gaps and proved that there is a need for research contributions in the field of evaluating map metadata.

Users of geographic information systems (GIS) often need immediate access to current data and information for proper analysis of GIS data. In the past, datasets were captured by an organisation to serve specific purposes and were mainly used by specialists within that organisation. The capturing of datasets represents substantial investments for each organisation to maintain specialised GIS databases, and results in exorbitant levels of duplication. The high cost involved in data capturing and the lack of efficient access to existing digital data stress the importance of finding alternatives to enhance GIS data sharing on a national scale. Although this need for data sharing exists, some issues limit the ability to share. However, the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) provides a breakthrough alternative to data sharing. This paper outlines the limitations of traditional data sharing techniques and proposes a solution to data sharing via the web.

To provide coverage and insights about the annual meeting of the AAAS where this year's theme was “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well‐Being.”

Environmental scan of annual national meeting. Of particular interest due to the range of backgrounds different attendees from all avenues of the scientific community.

Sustainable well being has wide applications in different arenas but the informatics component was not as strong as at past conferences.

Much of the conference focused on intersections of theory and application and new ways of responding to sustainability. Particularly strong in the physical sciences.

Provides information of value to information professionals.

Endeavor Information Systems, now wholly owned subsidiaries of Elsevier Science Inc, are relative newcomers to the Library Management System market with Voyager targeted at academic and research libraries. An impressive customer list (of over 750) includes the Library of Congress, the libraries of Finland, and in the UK the University of Hertfordshire, much of the University of Wales, National Library of Scotland and new customer Cambridge University. A fully functional integrated library system, Voyager can be extended to integrate MARC catalogued bibliographic databases (citation server) and to manage digitisation projects and integrate images with the OPAC (image server). Their latest, standalone product ENCompass seeks to integrate digital material catalogued to any metadata standard. This article is based on an interview with Cindy Edgington Miller, Endeavor’s Director of the Digital Library Division.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that Electronic Theses and Dissertation (ETD) metadata can be used as data for institutional assessment and to map an extended research landscape when connected to other data sets through linked data models.

This paper presents conceptual consideration of ideas behind linked data architecture to leverage ETD and attendant metadata to build a case for institutional assessment. Analysis of graph data support the considerations.

The study reveals first and foremost that ETD metadata is in itself data. Concerns with creating URIs for data elements and general applicability of linked data model formation result. The analysis positively points up a rich environment of institutional relationships not readily found in traditional flat metadata records.

This paper provides a new perspective in examining research landscape through ETDs produced by graduate students in higher education sector.