Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mapping Historical Photographs – Old S.F.

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Old S.F. is an application which displays historical photographs in the San Francisco Bay area over a Google Maps basemap. The developers (who can be followed on Twitter: @danvdk and @ravejk) geocoded thousands of images based on the subject of respective photographs in addition to cross streets in the images. According to the site, the developers have geocoded 13,000 out of 20,000 photographs, found in the San Francsico Historical Photograph Collection, that have information regarding location. 



U.S. Census Economic Indicators Discussion on C-SPAN – October 21, 2011 at 9am

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On Friday, Oct. 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., Bill Bostic, U.S. Census Associate Director for Economic Programs, will appear live on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to discuss key economic indicators and how they measure our economy. His presentation will include a rich mix of statistical visualizations and discussion, including a public call-in segment.

You can view this event and watch the program either on C-SPAN  from 9-10am on Friday October 21 or live through the Internet at:
http://www.c-span.org/Series/Washington-Journal/ (Not viewable until tomorrow, October 21, 2011)

For more information and to view the presentation graphs, please visit the following link, which will be live Friday morning (Oct. 21): http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/miscellaneous/econ_ind.html

A recording of the presentation will be available afterward from the Ethernet TV Media Library.

Be sure to follow the U.S. Census Bureau on Facebook and Twitter for an ongoing discussion of economic indicators and for other information from the Census Bureau.

Map of National Homicide Rates

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Yesterday, The Guardian’s DataBlog posted the above map of homicide rates, per 100,000 people, of countries around the world. The data is gathered from national sources by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and can be found here. A handful of countries in South America and Africa show the highest rates while most of Europe, China, Australia, and Canada, among others, show the lowest rates. The United States falls in between.

Connecticut Forum on Digital Initiatives – October 28, 2011 at Connecticut State Library

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Connecticut State Library presents the Connecticut Forum on Digital Initiatives

The Connecticut Forum on Digital Initiatives will bring together academic and research libraries, museums and cultural institutions from around the state to talk about the digital projects happening in our historic state. It’s a chance for institutions to bring their projects and ideas to the table and learn from each other about how to improve and enhance them. The theme of this forum is collaboration, and how in the face of ever tightening budgets, Connecticut institutions and organizations can work together to create better digital projects for the people of Connecticut.
Speakers from institutions including Yale University and the Hartford History Center will cover issues just as diverse. Topics will cover the digital lifecycle of a project, from digitization to preservation as well as platforms, like Omeka and Historypin. Several successful collaborative projects underway in Connecticut will be highlighted.
The forum will broaden participant’s skills and perspectives on digital initiatives, and encourage participants to form new collaborative partnerships. This may be a simple collaborative collection, or a complex grant partnership. In order to facilitate this, we hope to create a project repository where institutions can list their digital projects. Take this opportunity to meet people institutions next door and help create a community that will move Connecticut forward.

Date: October 28, 2011

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Location: Connecticut State Library, Memorial Hall, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut
Who Should Attend: This is not an introduction to digitization. It is strongly recommended that attendees currently be involved in some form of digital project or initiative. Attendees must be from Connecticut based institutions.
Cost: There is no fee for registration.
Register: To register access the Connecticut Continuing Education Calendar of Events @ http://evanced.info/cslib/evanced/eventcalendar.asp
Presenters:
  • Paul Baran, Assistant State Archivist, Connecticut State Archives
  • Michael Bennett, Digital Projects Librarian & Institutional Repository Coordinator, University of Connecticut
  • Jack Dougherty, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, Trinity University
  • Chris Edwards, Digital Studio Production Manager, Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
  • John French, Director, Visual Resources Department, Yale Art Gallery
  • Kathleen Foulke, Project Director, Connecticut History Online
  • Michael Howser, Undergraduate Education and GIS Librarian, Homer Babbidge Library, University of Connecticut
  • Gail Hurley, Statewide Library Catalog Coordinator, Connecticut State Library
  • Brenda Miller, Curator, Hartford History Center
  • Leah Prescott, Digital Projects Coordinator, Getty Research Institute
  • Tom Scheinfeldt, Managing Director, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
  • Nick Stanhope, CEO, We Are What We Do/Historypin
  • Kendall Wiggin, State Librarian, Connecticut State Library

A special thank you to the Connecticut Humanities Council for sponsoring Nick Stanhope, CEO, We Are What We Do/Historypin.
For more information please contact:
Christine Pittsley
Digital Collections Technician
Connecticut State Library
231 Capitol Ave.
Hartford Ct. 06106
860-757-6517

A Sense of Place: Exploring Newport and Narragansett Bay Through Historic Maps Exhibit

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“A Sense of Place: Exploring Newport and Narragansett Bay Through Historic Maps” exhibit includes several maps from the Redwood Library, Newport County Preservation Society and maps on loan from private collections. This exhibit includes Des Barres charts, Ezra Stiles’ map of Newport, Blaskowitz charts and some very rare maps of Rhode Island. 

Time: Now until December 30, 2011

Location: Redwood Library and Athenaeum, 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI

Cost: Free (although donations are welcome). On until December 30th.

For more information on the Redwood Library & Athenaeum map exhibition and symposium click here.

Envisioning the World: The First Printed Maps, 1472-1700 Exhibit

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This exhibit includes the first known printed map of the world (T and 0), the first two-color printed world map, the oldest printed road map (the Peutinger Table), Mercator and Ptolemy maps and so much more. It’s a private collection from California and will be at the museum until December 31, 2011. 

Location: Naval War College Museum, Newport, RI


Time: Now through December 31, 2011


Cost: Free!


Reservations: The Naval War College Museum is open to the public and visitors must obtain a Visitor Pass to access the naval base and the Naval War College Museum. To obtain a visitors pass call (401) 841-4052 at least one day prior to your visit to obtain authorization to access the naval base to visit this museum. 

For more information on the “Envisioning the World: First Printed Maps, 1472-1700” exhibition at the Naval War College Museum click here.

Nationwide Protests Continue

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This map, from Mother Jones, shows protests across the country.

For over two weeks protesters have gathered on Wall Street in New York City. This movement, catalyzed by a sluggish economy, income inequality, and corporate greed has spread nationally and internationally. The protests have included mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge, questionable use of force by police, as well as people sharing personal stories of  why they are upset. The map above, created by Mother Jones, uses Google Maps to show protests across the United States.

For more check out:

Twitter Hashtags – #ows #occupywallst
The Guardian’s Live Blog
We are the 99% Tumblr

The Times Atlas of the World Controversy

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Last week I wrote a post regarding the publication of the Times Atlas of the World. Since then, controversy has erupted over the amount of ice loss conveyed in Greenland. Glaciologists and climatologist around the world are are disputing the publisher’s claim that 15% of Greenland’s permanent ice cover has been lost since 1999. One hypothesis for the error is a misinterpretation of a contour lines on a 1999 map. Click here for more.

History of Cartography Fellowship at U of Wisconsin-Madison

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The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Institute for Research in the Humanities and the History of Cartography Project are now accepting applications for the David Woodward Memorial Fellowship in the History of Cartography. The annual fellowship, generously sponsored by Art and Jan Holzheimer, gives scholars an opportunity to further their research in the history of cartography in a stimulating academic environment and with access to all campus libraries and facilities. A stipend of $7,000 supports travel and a two-month residency at the university.
For the 2012-2013 fellowship, we are especially interested in receiving proposals to support a visiting curator who will plan and design a map exhibition of about forty items to be installed at the UW’s Chazen Museum of Art. This will provide an excellent opportunity for a scholar in the arts or museum studies to engage with maps as works of art or for a map historian to learn the process of exhibition design. Proposals for general research on subjects related to the history of cartography are also welcome.

Complete information and application instructions are available at http://www.geography.wisc.edu/histcart/#fellow

GPS…One Billion Seconds Old!

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On September 14, the atomic clocks that enable the Global Positioning System (GPS) struck 1,000,000,000 seconds. GPS was pioneered by the Department of Defense who set the beginning of GPS time on January 6, 1980. It wasn’t until the early 2000’s that GPS became widely available commercially. Before this, the DoD guarded this technology closely and did not allow the system to give civilians precise and accurate readings. This changed when, in 1996, then-President Bill Clinton signed an executive order to turn off Selective Availability (which became effective in 2000). GPS is now used for a wide variety of purposes including military, car navigation, recreation (see: Geocaching) as well as scientific research.