Royal Tropical InstituteInformation & Library Services
Map room
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps and making them accessible by internet
Peter Levi, map curator
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
The map collection
-Beginning in 1864-Until 1950 only the Dutch colonies-After 1950 the other tropical and
subtropical countries
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
Number of available maps and atlases
-Ca. 27,000 map sheets-Ca. 1000 atlases
Belonging to the cultural heritage collection
-12,000 map sheets-250 atlases
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Part of project ‘KIT Cultural Heritage Extra’
-Project with support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to conserve and manage colonial cultural heritage, comprising museum objects and documentary materials.
Conservation of colonial cultural heritage
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Made to measure
-Determining functions-Sets of maps and sheets linking within a
series-Accessible from Library database-Searching by geographical location
Digitizing Software: off the peg or made to measure?
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Determining the number of maps to digitize and the format-Copyright?-Digital number
Activities
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-00071-A for the front and 00071-B for the back
-04150-01, 04150-02 etc for sheets from a map series
-04150-01-A, 04150-01-B etc when there are different editions of sheets in a map series
Example numbers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Determining the number of maps to digitize and the format-Copyright?-Digital number-Transport list
Activities
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Example of a transport list
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Determining the number of maps to digitize and the format-Copyright?-Digital number-Transport list-Progress list
Activities
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Progress list
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Verifying digital data
-All sheets returned?-Correct digital number?-Colour deviation-Position of the picture-Other imperfections
Verifying digital data
- Other imperfections
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Activities
-Making missing index maps-Linking map sheets with index maps
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Linking with index map
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Provide co-ordinates
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Framing map picture
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-All map leaves supplied with co-ordinates-Map series supplied with co-ordinates-Framing map picture-Converting prime meridian
Searching on geographical location
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Java-Batavia-Tjermai
Sumatra-Middle meridian of South-Sumatra-Padang
Borneo-Singkawang
Celebes-Middle meridian of Celebes
Prime meridians in Indonesia
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-All map leaves supplied with co-ordinates-Map series supplied with co-ordinates-Framing map picture-Converting prime meridian-Downloading dataset of geographical
names
Searching by geographical location
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Times NGAReal
Malang E 112°46’ E 112°37’44” E 112°37’47”
S 007°56’ S 007°58’40” S 007°58’54”
Difference 1798 mtr 434 mtr
Magelang E 110°12’ E 110°13’04” E 110°12’56”
S007°27’ S 007°28’13” S 007°28’28”
Difference 2728 mtr 465 mtr
Differences in co-ordinates
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Tool to find maps of a certain location
-Old maps have not always been correctly surveyed
-Maps not findable
Results
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Example map not findable
North South
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Correcting co-ordinates-Adding new or alternative names-Adding new maps
Online management options
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Adding missing maps
-Linking photos and museum objects
-Adding extra historical information to locations
-Adding new locations
Future ambitions
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-Fewer visitors for the colonial collection
-More questions via e-mail
-More requests for permission to publish maps
-More maintenance of the digital datasets
Changes
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
-The project started at the end of 2003
-December 2005 online
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
WWW.KIT.NL/MAPS
WWW.KIT.NL/KAARTEN
WWW.KIT.NL - Resources – Dutch colonial maps
-http://maps.kit.nl/apps/s7#
Accessible via:
Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl
The process of digitizing 12,000 maps
Thank you so much for your attention