Preservation In Digital Cartography

This book “Preservation in Digital Cartography: Archiving Aspects” should give an overview on how to preserve digital cartographic appli- tions and geospatial data in a sustainable way. The intention of this book is to shape the opinion of affected parties and to bring together various d- ciplines. Therefore adjacent chapters will generally deal with information technologies, Service-Oriented Architectures, cybercartography, reprod- tion and historic cartography, which all together can be subsumed in p- spective cartographic heritage. The survival of this digital cartographic heritage will base on long-term preservation strategies that make use of - tensive dissemination on the one hand and sustainable digital archiving methods on the other. This includes a massive development of paradigm that expands from “store-and-save” to “keep-it-online”. The paradigm “store-and-save” is mainly used for analogue masters that consist of st- age media, like vellum, and their visible content. Avoiding the storage - dia from degeneration in climate-controlled areas will help to keep the content accessible. In the digital domain the high interdependency of st- age media, format, device and applications leads to the paradigm “keep-- online” which for example describes the migration to new storage devices. In fact this expansion of paradigm means that the digital domain calls for ongoing actions in order to preserve cartography for a long term.

For generations, the map has been central to how societies function all over the world. Cybercartography is a new paradigm for maps and mapping in the information era. Defined as “the organization, presentation, analysis and communication of spatially referenced information on a wide variety of topics of interest to society, cybercartography is presented in an interactive, dynamic, multisensory format with the use of multimedia and multimodal interfaces. Cybercartography: Theory and Practice examines the major elements of cybercartography and emphasizes the importance of interaction between theory and practice in developing a paradigm which moves beyond the concept of Geographic Information Systems and Geographical Information Science. It argues for the centrality of the map as part of an integrated information, communication, and analytical package. This volume is a result of a multidisciplinary team effort and has benefited from the input of partners from government, industry and other organizations. The international team reports on major original cybercartographic research and practice from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including the humanities, social sciences including human factors psychology, cybernetics, English literature, cultural mediation, cartography, and geography. This new synthesis has intrinsic value for industries, the general public, and the relationships between mapping and the development of user-centered multimedia interfaces. * Discusses the centrality of the map and its importance in the information era * Provides an interdisciplinary approach with contributions from psychology, music, and language and literature * Describes qualitative and quantitative aspects of cybercartography and the importance of societal context in the interaction between theory and practice * Contains an interactive CD-Rom containing color images, links to websites, plus other important information to capture the dynamic and interactive elements of cybercartography

This book begins with an introduction to fundamental issues related to digital preservation metadata before proceeding to in-depth coverage of issues concerning its practical use and implementation. It helps readers to understand which options need to be considered in specifying a digital preservation metadata profile to ensure it matches their individual content types, technical infrastructure, and organizational needs. Further, it provides practical guidance and examples, and raises important questions. It does not provide full-fledged implementation solutions, as such solutions can, by definition, only be specific to a given preservation context. As such, the book effectively bridges the gap between the formal specifications provided in a standard, such as the PREMIS Data Dictionary – a de-facto standard that defines the core metadata required by most preservation repositories – and specific implementations. Anybody who needs to manage digital assets in any form with the intent of preserving them for an indefinite period of time will find this book a valuable resource. The PREMIS Data Dictionary provides a data model consisting of basic entities (objects, agents, events and rights) and basic properties (called “semantic units”) that describe them. The key challenge addressed is that of determining which information one needs to keep, together with one’s digital assets, so that they can be understood and used in the long-term – in other words, exactly which metadata one needs. The book will greatly benefit beginners and current practitioners alike. It is equally targeted at digital preservation repository managers and metadata analysts who are responsible for digital preservation metadata, as it is at students in Library, Information and Archival Science degree programs or related fields. Further, it can be used at the conception stage of a digital preservation system or for self-auditing an existing system.

Published in 1985, Technological Transition in Cartography relates likely future developments in the form and use of maps to historical trends, including the potential of the geographic base file, the evolution of statistical surveys and the statistical tabulation of economic and demographic data, and the expanding role of computer graphics systems in public- and private-sector decision making. Swift technological progress, readers are warned, can also create a new range of potential problems. Such issues as security needs, the preservation of printed and digital maps, and important but heretofore overlooked questions regarding information policy must be confronted in a changing field that has become as much a policy science as a graphic skill and a cognitive science.

This volume is devoted to the broad topic of distributed digital preservation, a still-emerging field of practice for the cultural memory arena. Replication and distribution hold out the promise of indefinite preservation of materials without degradation, but establishing effective organizational and technical processes to enable this form of digital preservation is daunting. Institutions need practical examples of how this task can be accomplished in manageable, low-cost ways. This guide is written with a broad audience in mind that includes librarians, archivists, scholars, curators, technologists, lawyers, and administrators. Readers may use this guide to gain both a philosophical and practical understanding of the emerging field of distributed digital preservation, including how to establish or join a network.