Features: Winter 2024
Feature Editor: Georgia Brown
Hello WAML, it was great to see some of you in Alburquerque and online! It’s always so nice to connect with everyone, and we had some amazing presentations this year.
For this issue, please enjoy the following interview with Kathy Rankin.
Interview with Kathy Rankin
- What did you do and where did you work?
I was a special formats cataloger at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, from 1989 to 2006. Maps were considered a special format, so I cataloged maps for Special Collections and some maps for Government Publications. There had been a Marcive project to catalog the Government Publications maps, but it didn’t go well. In 2006, the library created a Special Collections Cataloger position, so I transferred to it, but I continued to catalog some maps for Government Publications as well as cataloging the maps for Special Collections. - What changed the most during your time as a map librarian?
The thing that changed the most with cataloging maps was the library received less and less government maps in paper and started to buy digital map files.
- What is your favorite WAML memory?
I enjoyed the three meetings in Hawaii the most.
- Do you have any advice for getting the most out of WAML?
I think to get the most out of WAML, people should serve on committees or as officers and should host meetings.
- When we talked, you mentioned that there is an oral history housed at Stanford of WAMLites. What did you share that you think we all should know?
I’ll have to see if I have a file anywhere of what I said as I don’t remember. I joined WAML because I was worried about coming up for tenure as I worked at the University of Texas at Arlington before coming to Las Vegas as a special collections cataloger and the UT system doesn’t have tenure. I was an AV cataloger before that at Pan American University in South Texas, but I didn’t come up for tenure as the first two years I was there, I was on a temporary contract. Linda Newman from University of Nevada Reno told me that I should join WAML, then I could be president and host a meeting, and that would help me get tenure. I didn’t see at the time that I could ever do that, but I was president, and I did host meetings twice.
Exhibits
Processing Place: How Computers and Cartographers Redrew our World, Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
https://www.leventhalmap.org/digital-exhibitions/processing-place
Conferences
November 25-30, 2024, IIIF Online Training
December 2-5, 2024, IIIF Online Training
June 2, 2025, Leeds, England, IIIF Annual Conference & Showcase 2025
August 16 – 22, 2025, Vancouver, Canada, 32nd International Cartographic Conference | 32e Conférence cartographique internationale, MAPPING THE FUTURE: INNOVATION, INCLUSION, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Meetings
December 4, 2024 – 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. 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. Dr. Neal Asbury (rare map collector, CEO of Legacy Companies, and host of syndicated weekly radio talk show – Neal Asbury’s Made in America) and Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts (historian and professor emeritus, Fielding Graduate University) will speak about Mapping the Holy Land: An Illustrated Discussion. Their book “Mapping the Holy Land: An Illustrated Atlas” is available wherever books are sold.
December 6, 2024 – Hamden, Connecticut The Connecticut Map Society will have our annual Show & Tell, a social event and Map Society favorite, held this year at 7 pm. We’ll provide appetizers and drinks. The location is a home in Hamden with easy street parking. At Show & Tell, 7-10 members will talk for 10 minutes each (we mean business here!) about a map or map topic they’re eager to share. Speakers and audience members alike must RSVP to <connie(at)redstonestudios.com>. Speakers, reserve your spots: they fill up quickly. We’ll provide venue details when you email us.
GeoBlacklight Community Meeting
When: Wed, December 11, 1:05pm – 1:55pm
Where: https://z.umn.edu/gbl-zoom (map)
Description Meeting ID: 914 2597 1917
December 19, 2024 – Chicago (Hybrid) The Chicago Map Society will meet at 5:30 pm CT (Social Time) in The Newberry Library, 60 West Walton St. The Society will have it’s Annual Holiday Gala.
GeoBlacklight Community Meeting
When: Wed, January 8, 2025, 1:05pm – 1:55pm
Where: https://z.umn.edu/gbl-zoom (map)
Description Meeting ID: 914 2597 1917
January 16, 2025 – 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. 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. Ian Spangler, Assistant Curator of Digital and Participatory Geography, and Emily Bowe, Assistant Director, both with the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center, Boston Public Library will discuss Processing Place: How Computers and Cartographers Redrew Our World.
GeoBlacklight Community Meeting
When: Wed, February 12, 2025, 1:05pm – 1:55pm
Where: https://z.umn.edu/gbl-zoom (map)
Description Meeting ID: 914 2597 1917
GeoBlacklight Community Meeting
When: Wed, March 12, 2025, 1:05pm – 1:55pm
Where: https://z.umn.edu/gbl-zoom (map)
Description Meeting ID: 914 2597 1917