Features: Summer 2023
Features Editor: Georgia Brown
Hello WAML,
Maybe you are reading this on the way to the conference – if so, see you there! As always, feel free to send me news or events that are happening in your library.
-Georgia Brown (browngl@uwm.edu)
News
Paige Andrews announced his pending retirement. Congrats to him and his years of hard work! (check out his retirement announcement in this issue of the WAML IB.)
Janet Reyes completed Conducting a Map Collection Review: A Workbook to Help You on the Journey, a free, digital publication:
“If you are facing a review, downsizing, and/or relocation of your map collection, the workbook will help you surface important considerations and organize your thoughts as you approach efficiently conducting the project while respecting the materials and stakeholders involved.
This workbook covers the review process from beginning to end, from getting started to potential partners through developing criteria, establishing processes, and how to make crucial dispersal and disposal decisions. It also includes a list of terms and easy-to-print worksheets. The focus is on sheet maps, although shelved and miscellaneous items are also considered.
The workbook is compiled from the standpoint of an academic library, but can be adapted to other types of institutions. Some content may be spot-on for your circumstances; in other sections, you may need to modify the approach, or you can disregard what’s offered altogether.
Whether you know and love your map collection or haven’t yet become well acquainted, Conducting a Map Collection Review can walk anyone—regardless of their level of familiarity with printed maps, librarianship, or project management—from the initial daunting steps of a review through to the final paces.
I’m grateful for the support of WAML members through the various stages of creating the workbook, and am hoping that you will find it helpful in some way. Your feedback is welcome!”
Exhibits
Mapping Cross-Cultural Encounters in Early Texas: Exploring Pierre Marie François de Pagès’ Journey:https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/362bfa21f5c44528974c3f93e4eb81dd
Drs. Reinder Storm on maps and the Maps Unfolded exhibition: https://www.tomtom.com/newsroom/behind-the-map/the-netherlands-role-in-mapmaking/
Race-based property covenants in Jefferson County, Colorado:https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ac9e44dad1be4e04ac94fdb182f0c5d3
Events
August 23, 2023 (Online) Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (EDT) Register to attend the live training webinar, “Paper Maps & Rogue TIGERs: Using Government Documents to Digitize 1980 Census Blocks for IPUMS NHGIS.”
September 7, 2023 – Minneapolis (Online) The Society for the History of Discoveries will have another online lecture at 3:30 pm (Central): Daniella McCahey (Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University) will discuss Gender and Antarctic Science and Exploration. Dr. McCahey won the SHD Student Prize in 2018. Her first book (co-authored with Jean de Pomereu) was published just last year: “Antarctica: A History in 100 Objects” (Conway, 2022). Additional details to be announced.
September 12, 2023 – Washington (Online) Hosted by the Washington Map Society, this Zoom meeting is presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies. Anyone interested in participating in the meeting must RSVP to John Docktor at washmap(at)gmail.com in order to receive the meeting ID and passcode. This meeting was arranged with assistance of the Rocky Mountain and Texas Map Societies. Meeting will start at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Richard Francaviglia (Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Arlington; currently Associated Scholar, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon) will discuss The Role of Maps in Films about Exploration and Discovery: Some Latin American Examples.
September 20, 2023 – Rochester, Massachusetts Charlie Rowley will present a program Mapping Rochester at the monthly meeting of the Rochester Historical Society. Meeting is at 7:00 PM at the East Rochester Church at 355 County Road.
October 26, 2023 – Washington (Hybrid) The Philip Lee Phillips Society (PLPS) will have two meetings at the Library of Congress (meeting room to be announced).
- The first meeting 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET will be given by PLPS Fellow Ernesto Capello (Professor, History Department, Macalester College). He will speak about Mapping Mountains. This talk surveys the broad history of relief representation in cartography with an emphasis on the allegorical, commercial and political uses of mapping mountains. Developed with the support of a 2019 PLPS Fellowship, it presents a brief historical account of techniques of relief representation before delving into four clusters of mountain mapping metaphors. These include visions of mountains as paradise, the mountain as site of colonial and postcolonial encounter, the development of elevation profiles and panoramas, and mountains as mass-marketed touristed itineraries.
- Geography and Map Reading Room will have an open house from 4:00-6:00 PM ET. A second meeting starting at 7:00 pm ET will feature Edward Brent Lane (Fellow of Global Heritage Economics, Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), who will talk about John White’s 1585 Map of the North Carolina Outer Banks. As a native North Carolinian, Brent was surprised to learn that behind the romanticism of the story of Sir Walter Raleigh’s “Lost Colony” lay a 16th-century tale of scientific entrepreneurship addressing challenges still faced by today’s new tech businesses in places like Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle Park. Raleigh faced rightly skeptical investors as he sought startup capital for his 1584-1590 Roanoke Colony venture. Cartography played a key role in his “campaign of persuasion,” at the center of which was John White’s 1585 Map of the North Carolina Outer Banks.
November 9, 2023 – Washington (Online) Hosted by the Washington Map Society, this Zoom meeting is presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies. Anyone interested in participating in the meeting must RSVP to John Docktor at washmap(at)gmail.com no later than November 8 in order to receive the meeting ID and passcode. Meeting will start at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, 6:00 PM Central Time, 5:00 PM Mountain Time, and 4:00 PM Pacific Time. This meeting was arranged with the assistance of the Rocky Mountain Map Society. Dale Loberger (Certified GIS Professional (GISP) and Esri Certified ArcGIS Desktop Professional) will discuss Using GIS to Tease Information from Historic Maps in the Search for Old Roads.
Conferences
August 9-12, 2023 – Vancouver, British Columbia (in person and online) This year’s Western Association of Map Libraries (WAML) conference will be held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, from Wednesday, August 9th through Saturday, August 12th, 2023.
September 21-24, 2023 – Minneapolis The “Annual Conference 2023” of the Society for the History of Discoveries is titled Worlds of Exploration. The conference will be hosted by the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota. There will be a Thursday evening reception and a post-conference excursion in Minneapolis.
October 18-20, 2023 – Stanford The David Rumsey Map Center, along with sponsor Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc., is excited to announce dates for the Fourth Biennial Barry Lawrence Ruderman Maps Conference on Cartography to be held on Data Visualization. Additional details to be announced.
February 9-13, 2024 – Denver ALA Midwinter Meeting, Denver, CO