ABOUT SCANNING &
METADATA STANDARDS
William (Bill) Miller & Michael Howser
University of Connecticut Libraries
Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC

OUTLINE
• Introduction
• Scanning: A Holistic View
• Project Planning
• Metadata: A Three-fold approach
• Providing Access

WHAT IS MAGIC?
• University of Connecticut Libraries Map and Geographic
Information Center - MAGIC
• 200,000+ maps, aerial photos, and atlases
• Focus on providing public access to maps and geographic
information for Connecticut and surrounding region

2009
magic.lib.uconn.edu

MAGIC STAFF
• William (Bill) Miller – Map Library Manager
• Michael Howser – Undergraduate Education & GIS Librarian
• George Bentley – Map Digitization
• Curtis Denton – Map Digitization
• Jeffrey Dunn – Aerial Imagery & Education
• Cary Lynch – NEH Digital Project Manager
• Joshua Strunk – Metadata Specialist

SCANNING
A Holistic Approach

COPYRIGHT & SCANNING
• Key things to consider:
• Government Agency vs Private Company
• Pre-1924 materials
• Copy or original
• Cartographer and Publisher
• Year of material

RESEARCH... THIS COULD TAKE AWHILE
• May need to contact libraries, publishers...
• Look for atlases, books and supporting materials
• Verify
if an item has been scanned - Google Books, Internet
Archive, OAIster, Google, David Rumsey, Flickr, Local Libraries
• Explore the drawers - could be part of a series

OAISTER
oaister.worldcat.org

GOOGLE BOOKS

DAVID RUMSEY?
davidrumsey.com

WHAT DOES RUMSEY OFFER?
• High quality historical maps
• Includes Metadata
• International Collection
• Downloadable images - in SID format

INTERNET ARCHIVE
archive.org

WHY INTERNET ARCHIVE?
• Atlases!
• Books which relate to maps
• Free, downloadable content
• Higher quality than Google Books - especially for maps!

READY TO SCAN?

WORKSPACE
• Create workspace with:
• space to spread out maps (may need to flatten)
• dim lighting (for flatbed scanning)
• some humidity - will help avoid damage to materials
• good ventilation - some maps may have an “aroma”

SCANNING EQUIPMENT
• Select the right equipment for the task
• Flatbed
• Large format continuous feed
• Overhead photography

FLATBED SCANNER

LARGE FORMAT SCANNER

OVERHEAD SCANNING

SOFTWARE

VUESCAN
http://www.hamrick.com/

WHY VUESCAN?
• Multiple scanners with one interface!
• Low-cost $79.95 (professional)
• Multiple export options - TIFF, RAW, PDF, JPEG....
• Mac & PC compatiable

EDITING SOFTWARE
• Gimp - Open Source image editing software
• Adobe Fireworks - basic editing & batch processing
• Adobe Photoshop - for advanced editing & batch processing

HARDWARE

WORKSTATION SETUP
• 4GB RAM or more
• 512MB video card (dedicated) minimum
• Consider dual screens (2 - 19” monitors)
• Hard drive space - minimum 320GB

STORAGE
• Short Term
• 1-3 days - local computer hard drive
• Long Term
• Networked, backed up storage solution
• Able to grow with your digitization storage needs
• Backup to remote location (tape or mirrored)

STORAGE CONCERNS
• Bit rot!
• DVDs, CDs, digital files all potential victims
• Important to have back-ups
• Migrate data to verify
• Think you don’t have this? Chances are you do or will soon!

LET’S DISCUSS YOUR
DIGITIZATION SETUP

IMAGE FORMATS

FORMATS - TIFF
• Lossless (uncompressed)
• Readable in Photoshop and most image editing programs
• Enables Exif data storage
• Gold standard for archival master copies
• GeoTIFF includes geo-location data

FORMATS - JPEG2000
• Lossy and Lossless file format (depending on settings)
• New standard for JPEG images - preserves color varations
• Reduced file size
• Requires Adobe Photoshop and other image software to view
• Exif data supported

FORMATS - PNG
• Improves upon and replaces GIF format
• Supports transparency
• Lossless image format
• Does not support Exif data
• Good for derivatives, not for archival masters

FORMATS - PDF
• Lossy or lossless format (depending on settings)
• Includes GeoPDF option - includes coordinate data
• Can include multiple layers
• Optimized for vector data (text)
• Good for deliverables depending on setting

LET’S DISCUSS YOUR
DIGITIZATION SETTINGS

PROJECT PLANNING

PLANNING THE PROJECT
• Material Selection • Equipment & Costs
• What area(s) are the • Student labor?
focus?
• Scanning equipment
• High Use Items?
• Storage?
• Potential High Use Items?
• Timeline?
• Digitize to Preserve?
• Funding Options?

USAGE
• UseGoogle Analytics to determine frequently searched for
items
• What are users asking for most frequently?
• Are there unique items you want to showcase?
• Digitization can lead to increased usage and help preserve the
original

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

USER INPUT
• Survey to find out what users want to see
• Provide a series of options - help prioritize
• Colorful maps will likely generate more interest initially
• Think about themes... transportation, census, topographic...

COLLABORATIVE DIGITIZATION
• Share scanners
• Divide and conquer faster!
• Avoid gaps in the collection
• Share archival maters

LET’S DISCUSS PROJECT IDEAS

METADATA

WHY?
• Data about data to help others understand the map, dataset
or resource
• Creates a “digital history” for the dataset
• Enables Web 3.0?

THOUGHTS?

METADATA - OPTIONS
• MARC Records - traditional option for maps, integral part of
library catalogs
• FGDC Metadata - includes details on data attributes, data
creation notes, and in-depth details
• Exif
data - available for some image formats (TIFF, JPEG, JPEG
2000)

MARC RECORDS

MARC - PROS AND CONS
• Essential for library catalog
• Enables bounding box data to be added
• Can be migrated to other formats (XML)
• Flexible
- multiple subjects, coordinates, and other location
related data options.
• Good place to start!

MARC TO XML
http://www.lib.umn.edu/apps/maphappy/

FGDC METADATA
• Federal
Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) guidelines for
metadata creation
• FGDC Quick Guide (9 pages) includes key elements
• Providesflexibility for creating metadata for datasets, aerial
photos, satellite images and more
• Use others examples to guide development

FGDC METADATA TOOLS
• ArcCatalog is the preferred FGDC metadata creator for GIS
professionals
• Becomes part of the “workflow” and establishes good
practices

LIVE DEMO -
ARCCATALOG 9.3

EXIF DATA

WHY EXIF DATA
• Enables you to embed: • Editing options
• Author • Adobe Photoshop
• Usage restrictions • Some open source
solutions
• Notes
• Can be batch processed
• Date
• Add location data

EXIF DATA LIVE DEMO

WHAT ARE YOUR METADATA
NEEDS?

PROVIDING ACCESS

CONTENT DM MODEL

CONTENT DM PROS & CONS
• Are you using Content DM?
• Likes/Dislikes
• Map limitations?

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

DAVID RUMSEY MODEL
http://www.davidrumsey.com/

MAGIC’S HYBRID MODEL
http://magic.lib.uconn.edu

FLICKR FOR MAPS?
• $24.95 / year for unlimited space (20 MB per file or less)
• Includes creative commons licensing options
• Metadata can be added
• Usage Statistics per item & per 28 days
• Excellent “Discovery” tool
• Can enable download of maps

FLICKR

RETHINK COPYRIGHT
http://creativecommons.org/

ACCESS OPTIONS?
• How are you providing access now?
• What are the limitations?
• What would you like to enable your users to do?

LET’S PLAN A PROJECT

QUESTIONS?

THANKS!
• Contact us at: • William (Bill) Miller
• magic@uconn.edu • Michael Howser
Interested in Collaborating on a
Digitization Project? Contact us