Summary of Geo4LibCamp 2025 Meeting Notes

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The group notes Geo4LibCamp are dozens of pages long. Below is an AI generated summary.

Monday, May 20, 2024

Attendees introduced themselves despite a power outage. The power was restored enabling the display of slides and links.

Open-Source Georeferencing and Curating with Allmaps: Presented by Stephen Appel. Allmaps is an open-source, browser-based tool for georeferencing maps, developed in collaboration with Boston Public Library and Leventhal Map and Education Center. Future plans include the Allmaps Curator project for managing georeferenced maps.
Blacklight::Allmaps Plugin: Presented by Eric Larson. A new Ruby on Rails gem for integrating Allmaps with Blacklight/GeoBlacklight, allowing display of georeferenced maps with a tabbed viewer.
GeoServer and Security Challenges: Presented by Maura Carbone. Discussed addressing issues of serving restricted and public content in GeoServer and plans for future upgrades.
Ephemeral Geospatial Data: Presented by Karen Majewicz. Highlighted the issue of data ephemerality and the importance of libraries transitioning from storing print maps to digital data to avoid data loss.

Discussed the role of data and scale in health research and the importance of computational approaches in handling large datasets. Emphasized the benefits of using raster data over vector data for timeliness and repeatability, particularly in health geography.
Explored challenges in spatial demography and defining the geographic scale of neighborhoods for assessing risks.

PM Tiles & COGS / GeoTIFF / Image Compression: Discussed the use of PM Tiles and Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs) for efficient data handling without needing a separate web server.
Strategies for Collecting & Archiving Historical Geodata: Discussed methods for handling complex historical geodata and the potential of AI or API enhanced metadata.
OpenGeoMetadata / Metadata Discussion: Focused on improving metadata practices, including the use of the aardvark field for collection strings.
Georeferencing Historical Aerial Imagery: Discussed challenges and methods and the benefits of using advanced technologies like AI.

Best Practices for Authoritative Data Providers: Emphasized the importance of creating a profile for authoritative data collections and explored tools like GeoMonitor for ensuring the availability and quality of geospatial data services.
OpenGeometadata API Registry: Proposed creating a centralized registry for enhancing and serving geospatial metadata, incorporating tools like Who’s on First for place names and hierarchical data.

Closing Discussions: Reflected on the sessions and discussed plans for future improvements, including more diverse workshop options and pre-conference preparation.