*Special thanks to Jess Posgate of Our Digital World for providing details about how OurOntario’s geo-location options work within the VITA Toolkit.*
If you are part of OurOntario, your geolocation of material takes place as part of the workflow of the VITA toolkit.
Assigning geo-location to a record happens within the toolkit. For every record there is a Geographical Location metadata screen. The contributor describing their object searches for the location associated with the object using the embedded international gazetteer, scoped to most usable region or country according to their agency preferences, and assigns that generic lat/long location. The user can then manipulate the map to hone the location and zoom level to affect the public view of the map. All geo-location information is KML data that can then be exported and used in other third party applications like Google Earth or Mapquest.
Other records with the same location are aggregated in results sets and can be navigated to using a Google Map search in the results set.
For specific addresses, the individual inputting the data has to select a general location and then manipulate the map and ‘pin’ the object at the exact location.
The public view reveals a close-view map and indicates that a KML data export is available. The public view can also use any available “street view” to see the exact location in the Google Map and compare the historic and contemporary landscapes.
For more information, contact Our Digital World.