Mapping Colonial America

This week, I have chosen to review the "Mapping Colonial America" project. It was based upon the book "Degrees of Latitude: Mapping Colonial America" by Margaret Beck Pritchard and Henry G. Taliaferro. The project was produced by Colonial Williamsburg.

Selection Decisions:

The digital objects seem to come from the holdings of the Colonial Williamsburg collection. There is never an explicit statement of where the materials are held; the introduction references both the book by Pritchard and Taliaferro and Colonial Williamsburg, but there is no specific statement of the location of the maps. One of the authors - Pritchard - is the curator of maps at Colonial Williamsburg, so I'm 99% sure that they're located in Williamsburg, but there was no link on the "Mapping Colonial America" site that said specifically.

The project seems to have been built around the book - presumably, based upon images of maps found in the book. A link up at the top says "map information from the book Degrees of Latitude.' There is also a link that allows a viewer to purchase the book. Rights issues are never clearly stated, but since the book is available for purchase, I think it's safe to assume that reproduction by third parties is either not allowed, or severely restricted.

Metadata:

This is a very slick exhibit, visually, but the metadata is a little confusing. Maps are grouped by headings and time periods - for example, "Revolutionary War" or "A New Nation." There are historical essays that put the maps into context, and there is a rather confusing timeline at the bottom. Once the viewer realizes that the blue blocks represent maps, it's possible to use the timeline to precisely date the map and to switch from map-to-map within the time period. Cartographer information and background information can be found to the right of the maps. There is also a mysterious number at the bottom of the historical information - it looks like an accession number, perhaps to the physical object in the collection. There is also information on how the map was acquired (for example, 'anonymous gift'). However, as there is no metadata on where to find the original objects, an accession number doesn't really help anyone who might want to view the objects in person.

It's also difficult to tell how the objects are named, as the entire site is done in Flash and it's impossible to right-click and "view image." It's also difficult to see the underlying code, so I don't know if they've used Dublin Core or any other metadata scheme on the website.

Object Characteristics:

It's difficult to know how the objects were named and saved, as it's impossible to view the image separate from the Flash. It is possible to zoom in on the map by clicking, however, and the viewer can actually get a good close-up. The image did not appear grainy or pixelated on my computer, and the lettering on the maps was legible.

Intended Audience:

It's a little hard to tell why this exhibit was created. It's slick and beautiful, but it seems rather like an advertisement for the book. It would be hard to use the metadata on the site to locate the original object - I'm sure it's possible, but ten minutes of digging on my part did not turn up a contact phone number or email address for the repository. I also couldn't find any indication of why the online exhibit had been created. It's clearly several years old, as some of the links have dates of 2003-2004 attached. So, apparently Colonial Williamsburg is invested in keeping it up, since it's now at least 4-5 years old.