OCUL Map Group

The OCUL Map Group, whose members meet twice a year, is a forum for the exchange of information and ideas pertaining to maps, geospatial data, and other cartographically related resources, both print and digital. Members of the OCUL Map Group enthusiastically support collaborative initiatives and projects which serve to make geographic information more accessible, more comprehensible, and more relevant to members of the academic community in Ontario. Many of the objectives of the Map Group are met by the sharing, whenever possible, of resources and expertise.

Minutes and Agenda-Related Documents

To access the Map Group's password-protected minutes of meetings please ask Eva Dodsworth for username and password.   The same ID and password also provide access to documents which are relevant to meeting agenda items and/or Map Group projects. These documents may be Powerpoint slides, text documents in Word or PDF, or Excel spreadsheets.

Other Map Group organizational business, including information about meetings, membership, and the group listserv, is also available online.

Consortial and Collaborative Projects

Interlibrary Lending
The OCUL Map Group has developed policies and procedures for the lending of maps, aerial photographs, and atlases among members. Each member provides up-to-date information on his/her institution's ILL policies for cartographic materials. This information is documented in the Map Group's Interlibrary Loan Handbook. Members should send changes to their ILL policies to Nancy Lemay.

Map Library Assistants' Workshops and Listserv
In June 2011 the University of Ottawa and Carleton University co-hosted the 2011 Map Library Assistants' workshop in Ottawa from June 22 to 24.  

For more information about this workshop, as details become available, please consider subscribing to the OCUL map library assistants' listserv by contacting Gerald Romme. This listserv, which is open only to map library assistants working for OCUL institutions, provides a forum for members to share information and discuss issues relevant to their interests.

Previous Map Library Assistants' workshops were held at McMaster University in June 2003, at the Education Centre Library, Nipissing University in June 2005, at Queen's University Library in June 2007, with this agenda and at York University in 2009. 

Consortial Data Agreements
City of London vector and raster data
Negotiated by Cheryl Woods.
Single and double line streets, 1:2,000 topographic mapping, assessment parcels, digital orthoimagery.
Available for years 2002 and for each year from 2004 to 2010.  Recent years available for ftp; earlier years are offline (please send requests to Marcel Fortin)

Hamilton vector and raster data
Negotiated by Cathy Moulder.
1999 orthoimages: 12.5 cm resolution, colour
2002 orthoimages: 20 cm resolution, colour, mosaic'd tiles in MrSID format
2005 (Spring) orthoimages: 20 cm colour, mosaic'd tiles in MrSID format; 1 m colour, mosaic in MrSID format
2006 (Oct) vector data

Provincial Statistical Data
Various ministries and agencies within the Ontario provincial government publish statistical data in tabular or spreadsheet formats.  These data may be available on the Internet or they may be published in print format in, for example, annual reports or information releases.   Ministries of particular interest to Map Group members include: Education, Colleges & Universities, Health, Labour, and Attorney General but many other ministries provide statistical data, some of which may be mappable.   Members who find useful sources of provincial statistical data have agreed to contact (TBA); contributions will be shared on this website.

Publications

Foreign Topographic Maps in Ontario University Map Collections, compiled by Barbara Farrell
This work, published in 1995, is a graphic inventory, in paper format, of the holdings of foreign topographic maps series in Ontario university map collections. This inventory, distributed in a loose-leaf binder, is intended to be used as a tool for interlibrary loan and collection development. The electronic files, copied recently to CD-ROM, are holdings within the Map Group archives.

Canadian Fire Insurance Plans in Ontario Collections, 1876 - 1973, by Marcel Fortin, Lorraine Dubreuil, and Cheryl Woods
This union list of fire insurance plans held in Ontario map collections was compiled in the early 1990's and published in 1995 as an Occasional Paper of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives (ACMLA).

Index to Map Group archives, compiled by Cathy Moulder
The latest version of the index to minutes and correspondence is available online.

Special Interest Committees

Geospatial Data Portal Project: Search, Discovery, and Delivery
A subcommittee of the OCUL Map Group is currently drafting a proposal to request funding for a centralized portal that is intended for searching and access to geospatial datasets common to participating OCUL institutions.  This Portal proposal will be submitted to the OCUL Directors for consideration before their Spring 2009 meeting. The Phase III Task Group will develop a supplement to the Geospatial Data Portal proposal which articulates how this project will meet the needs of researchers at Ontario universities who may wish to access and use geospatial data and georeferenced information in the future, for both traditional GIS uses and for emerging educational trends. This supplementary text will be incorporated into the existing Geospatial Data Portal proposal.   More information about the work of this Task Group is available on the Phase III Task Group wiki.

Geospatial Data Access Committee (inactive)
The mandate of the Geospatial Data Access Committee is to support initiatives which broaden the Map Group's access to geospatial data with particular emphasis on data which is or might be provided through Land Information Ontario's OGDE program.  Because of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources lead role within LIO, the committee is mandated to foster a strong working relationship with OGDE/LIO members of this Ministry.   The committee was recently further mandated (in June 2006) to investigate and make recommendations on a centralized, web-based data access and delivery system for geospatial data to OCUL institutions; such a system will support discovery and browse tools based on metadata that is collaboratively created and shared.   Committee members are: Colleen Beard, Marcel Fortin, Suzette Giles, Nancy Lemay, Cathy Moulder, Richard Pinnell, and Barbara Znamirowski.  For further information please contact the committee chair, Nancy Lemay.

For specific information about any of the member institutions, please contact personnel from that institution.

29 July 2011
http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/ocul/oculmap.html