Georeferencing: the Geographic Associations of Information (review)

Do not be intimidated by the title Georeferencing. In simple terms, georeferencing just means relating information to geographic location. If you are still apprehensive, focus on the subtitle. This book is about information and its geographic associations and how we can–and need to–integrate geographic information into our systems, in regard to both content and information retrieval. As information professionals, this book is a must read in order to understand and be prepared for where the world of information is moving. Library administrators should read this so they can plan for the future of information dissemination; technical services staff and catalogers should learn about metadata standards that relate to this type of information; library information technology staff should be interested in new user interfaces that are possible for geographic information; and public service librarians should want to learn about how it is possible to meet changing user needs.

Although the average person does not consciously think about "geographic information," they have always been interested in location. Even though they may not realize it, they have come across georeferencing: "Georeferenced information is everywhere. Georeferencing is so ubiquitous that it seems that it should be an important component of all of our information systems, from library and museum catalogs to online searching services to data centers to scientific data services." (p. 5) Academic librarians, and libraries, have a history of placing geospatial information into separate domains or expertise. Maps and other geospatial object types are thought to belong in a map library. This is changing. Author Linda L. Hill states, "End users will increasingly expect to consult maps and georeferenced images at the same time they are reading about political and cultural histories, art and music, earthquakes, ecology, geography, and so on and enjoying or studying fiction and prose." (p. 219)

Who better than Hill to take the complexity of georeferencing, break it down into basics, and show how information is better served when recognizing its geographic components and taking steps to embed it into current retrieval. A retired specialist from the Department of Geography at the University of California, Hill previously worked with the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Started in 1995, ADL was and is a groundbreaking example of providing online geospatially referenced information. Her background in geographic information science and working with libraries makes her a wonderful interpreter and guide.

That being said, this book is not an easy read; and she acknowledges this challenge in the preface. For librarians, there is a large gap in geographic information science or geography that needs to be filled in. Despite the amount of new knowledge this book introduces, it is organized in a way that makes sense conceptually. It begins with a wonderful background in spatial cognition, or how people "acquire, store, and access geographic knowledge; how we categorize geographic knowledge; and how we communicate about geographic species, especially how we ask questions about geographic features and routes and what sorts of answers are useful to us." (p. 21)

Hill then clearly lays out types of geospatial information objects (maps, digital elevation models, and so on), fundamental concepts of georeferencing, and the representation of geospatial location. These chapters, although containing content not familiar to most librarians, offer a thorough but easy to understand introduction to some of the key concepts of geographic information. The next chapters cover information more clearly understood by librarians such as gazetteers, metadata structures, and information retrieval, but she tailors the discussion to georeferenced information. She finishes up the book with discussion about the future of georeferencing.

Although this book is full of complex information, the meanings are explained clearly within each chapter (with citations) and are included in a glossary. Each chapter, except for the last, contains a list of sources for further information. Not only does Hill introduce concepts and past and present projects working with georeferenced information, she also offers suggestions and models for ways of combining the two main...