Projects to increase the discoverability and accessibility of collections
A collaborative project across Big Ten Academic Alliance schools to assemble digitized map and geospatial metadata in one place with geographic and keyword searching
Penn State Libraries Inventory of Geospatial Data Holdings
A project to inventory, preserve and make more accessible geospatial datasets housed in Penn State University Libraries
Maps and Geospatial Electronic Resources Inventory
A project to inventory what types of maps and geospatial content are present in Penn State Libraries electronic resources, with special focus on resources that are subscribed to by the Penn State Libraries.
Pennsylvania Historic Base Map Layers
A project to identify historic maps and geospatial datasets to provide comprehensive thematic and temporal coverage from the period 1800 to the present day.
Projects to demonstrate the use of maps, geospatial information and tools
Pennsylvania Novel Coronavirus Dashboard
A collaborative project initiated in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to show detailed spatially-explicit information about testing, positive cases, and other pertinent information to the spread and detection of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania.
American Archives and Climate Change: risks and adaptation
A national-scale effort to quantify the climate risks to libraries and archives in support of planning and adaptation efforts
Mid State Trail Guide 13th Edition Elevation Profiles
A collaborative project to use the latest geospatial and data visualization tools to efficiently update the elevation profiles for the newest edition release of the Pennsylvania Mid State Trail Guide
What Happened to High Schools during Philadelphia’s education Crisis
A statistical and geographic analysis on how dropout rates, graduation rates, and college-bound rates were affected during the Philadelphia education crisis.
Maps and Geospatial projects by Maps and GIS Assistants
These projects created by departmental Maps and GIS Assistants highlight different uses of ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro software to illustrate connections to library resources, discipline-specific content, and helpful web resources.
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Maps Project, Fall 2019
This project highlights the use of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) maps created during the World War II timeframe, which capture multiple themes, such as political, cultural, and economic, from a selection of international locations. This project aims to showcase different types of layers that can be created from these maps, along with how content can be collectively presented through and ArcGIS Online application.
Historic Altoona, Pennsylvania Landmarks, Spring 2020
This project highlights a selection of landmarks from 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps using the ArcGIS StoryMap application. This application features functionality of the new ArcGIS StoryMaps to provide examples of the integration of media, text, and geospatial content into the project.
Historic Erie, Pennsylvania Landmarks, Spring 2021
This project focuses on buildings from the 1900 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps as a way to identify different land use categories. Maps and GIS Assistants focused on buildings from different industries to highlight. Through this project, Maps and GIS Assistants gained experience working with the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, interpretation of map symbology from historic maps, and classification of buildings based on different land use classes. In addition, the ArcGIS Online incorporates new features of the ArcGIS StoryMap application to combine a mix of map, media, and text content.
Maps and GIS Diversity Resources
This project focuses on the location and collection of maps and GIS resources, data, and sample projects related to diversity themes. The compilation of these resources and content occurred during the remove work period in late Spring 2020 by Maps and GIS Assistants.
Projects to create geospatial datasets of broad interest and high value
Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information ArcGIS Hub site
This Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information ArcGIS Hub site provides a searchable interface for the user to locate Penn State Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information content. The ArcGIS Hub site enables users to download created datasets in multiple formats, such as kml, csv, shapefile, and GeoJSON for use in multiple types of application. Content can be downloaded for use outside of ArcGIS Online and in your own projects. More information coming soon.
Accuracy Assessment of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
A project to quantify the geometric accuracy of historic Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps relative to the horizontal positional accuracy of contemporary geospatial data base layers used to georeferenced them
Historic Aerial Photography of PA
A project to inventory local government aerial photography resources and develop and implement semi-automated methods to georeference and perform distortion correction of digitized historic aerial photographs of Pennsylvania suitable for change analysis in combination with contemporary orthophotography
This project enhanced Penn Pilot historical aerial photography photocorners within information on date of images and corresponding filenames for greater ease in identification of images of interest.
State College Land Use Change Through Time with Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
A project to georeferenced and vectorize building footprints and land use information from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of State College, PA
Mapping Historical People and Places
A project to map the demographic information contained on U.S. Census and Penn State student directories using Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Pennsylvania Structures (Enhanced with County Information)
This project investigated a publicly accessible dataset to determine what added content, information, or restructuring could enable greater use and discovery of the dataset as a valuable resource. This project focused on the USGS National Structures Dataset.
Projects to Develop Map and Geospatial Services
A page describing ongoing efforts to develop and offer geospatial consultation services in support of research, teaching, and learning at Penn State
Using Maps and Geospatial Information in Classroom Assignments
This page provides examples of learning objectives, exercises, and examples for integrating the use of maps and geospatial content and application use into classroom assignments.