Spatial Data Infrastructures: Developments, Trends, and Perspectives from Converging Viewpoints

Abstract

Isn't that a Library on your Desktop? What do we call ourselves--geographers, cartographers, GIScientists? it GIS, cartography, or geography? Are we all cartographic information specialists or do we deal in spatial data? What about geomatics? Are we seeing the birth of some hybrid discipline that will, over time, supplant existing structures and organizations? Perhaps it will support and not supplant. One cannot join an e-mail listserv or attend a conference related to maps, geography, GIS or cartography without seeing or hearing, at least once, a discussion about is it that we do or are doing? Within the library community, these debates have centered on the role of libraries and librarians in the context of new technologies and digital libraries. The most basic description of this debate is in the question: Is it a library or a laboratory? (see Perkins 1995). Map librarians (also called curators, archivists, collection managers, and cartographic information specialists) have to cope with the impact and use of computer technologies, telecommunications, and new formats of information just as scientists do. Some map librarians contend that every time a person walks into a map collection he or she is accessing a spatial information infrastructure. Map librarians also believe that those with decades of experience in dealing with spatial information, in all its forms, should be involved with the developments and discussions surrounding digital spatial data infrastructures. Map librarians and, to some extent, data librarians certainly have that experience. What is equally important is that related communities of experts talk with each other about common concerns and the solutions behind them. This journal issue represents a step in that direction. Not all the authors in the issue would call themselves librarians. Yet, their professional perspectives of what the future geospatial library should look like seem to be converging. The papers in this special content issue should be viewed in the context of rapid change in information technology. Their technorealism is not meant to add to the hype surrounding the net. Indeed, one of the more interesting aspects of assessing the impact of technology on society, cultural organizations, ourselves and our working environments is overcoming that hype (see www.technorealism.org). One should remember that cartography, geography and allied views developed over thousands of years. Computers, the Internet, and GIS have been in existence for less than 100 years. The most recent (but not the last) interface to the Internet, the World Wide Web, was born in the last decade; and the speed of change in the last five years has been exponential. It is the impact of these rapid developments on spatial data--and on those who create, use or work with such information--that we are concerned with in this special issue. In GIS and allied fields of study there are similar discussions about the impact on society of specific geographic technologies and concepts (Goodchild 1997). The research projects and papers coming from the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) provide excellent starting points for a more critical discussion leading to convergent activities. However, in order to recognize points of convergence, it is necessary to take apart some of the smaller components and look more closely at their key areas. The authors of the papers in this issue provide such analyses--they have taken the context, broken it into individual scenes, and highlighted particular points for consideration. Growth in GIScience is not just about software and hardware, it is also about the growth in data production, dissemination, and access. The policy questions related to data growth are paramount, and the technology and management issues of the data are central (Hernon and Lopez 1996). Two special issues of the Journal of Academic Librarianship (volume 1, number 4, July 1995; and volume 23, number 6, November 1997) focused on the impact of GIS and geographic information (GI) on libraries, discussing issues similar to those presented here. …