Monday, June 29, 2009

NE Learns 2.0 Thing 25

Google Maps

I have used this only briefly before but used it when I was traveling to Philadelphia for a conference -- I was able to see what the hotel looked like so I would feel more comfortable when I got there. Didn't help much with my terrible sense of direction though!

1445 K st, 68509 -- this is the Nebraska State Capital (I did not know it had a street address). There are appropriately, mainly red and white cars around the grounds --perhaps they just show up best in such views. I got directions from OPL's W. Dale Clark library to the State Capitol -- I prefer the map version for what I print out but I appreciate being able to look at and get some visual clues, particularly if I am going some where unfamiliar

I love the street view. I was able to see my parent's house, where I grew up, in Melbourne. I find it extremely difficult to navigate in this view however. I want to see how old the street view photo is and can't navigate down the side street. Okay, I got a little bit down the street but not too far, now all I can do is zoom in -- I am getting the impression that the main streets can be seen but the lesser ones not so much.

My high school does not have a street view but I can find some of the local libraries -- yup, they look like I remember them (from last year). At our local shopping center -- I could waste too much time here!

Back to Nebraska -- Carhenge, a favorite place. No street view. No fun. Oh, got to do some work -- Omaha Public Library, hmmm, quite a few listed. Downtown is accurate except for the main phone number. Edited now. I also fixed a few things with our Elkhorn and South branches. I am choosing not to Claim Business with these.

Seems like it would be a good idea to do a Google Maps -- My Map version of the Omaha Public Library locations but I feel like I don't have time to devote to this right now. Something to put on the to-do list and talk to others about doing so it could be put on our webpage. I liked the Nebraska Regional Library Systems map that Allana did -- it is great example as it shows people easily where things are located.

As I cataloger I wonder if there are ways you could incorporate Google Maps into catalog records? Particularly government documents. Hmm. We have done more to catalog website but are there other ways we can incorporate web features into the catalog? Can we go beyond the -- hey, this is cool (which is still my gut reaction to Google Maps and the street view) and find ways to make this a useful tool in other ways? One difficulty is that most bibliographic records are pretty divorced from their geographic information so I need to think about how to use these in a complete different way. This bears more consideration and further development.