DESIGNING A SPATIAL MAP INDEX FOR GEOLOGIC MAP COLLECTIONS

The Department of Geology and Geological Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) hosts an extensive collection of approximately 5,000 maps of geologic interest covering South Dakota and surrounding states, as well as other parts of the world. Some of these maps are publicly available, but others are unpublished or out of print. Currently the collection exists with only a card catalog indexed by author, theme, and location. The entire collection will soon be transferred to the new building housing the Paleontology Research Center. Students at SDSM&T are designing a spatial index for this map collection, implemented as a geodatabase within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The card index information will be entered in a spreadsheet and then into the GIS. The spatial extent of each map will be plotted as polygons to show its location and area of coverage. Additional background map data such as roads, states, counties, and geology will also be compiled for display with the map extents, enabling a user to search for maps spatially as well as by author or keyword. Eventually, each map will be scanned and georeferenced to give the user immediate digital access to the information that can be implemented within a GIS. The students are designing the format and structure of the geodatabases, and will implement it for a few dozen maps, providing a framework for eventual completion of the entire collection. Maps acquired in the future, or generated by student theses, will also be added to the collection.