Kevin Dyke is one of the newest members of the OSU Library faculty. Originally a history major with geography and English minors, Mr. Dyke moved to the University of Minnesota to earn a graduate degree in geography. While there, his knowledge of computer programming led him to a job in UM’s map library. Now, as head of Maps and Spatial Data Services, Mr. Dyke is our go-to guy for learning all about what goes on down in the Edmon Low basement.
We recently spoke with him to find out a little more about MSDS and how it can be integrated into our library of the future.
What are your duties?
It has been an interesting transition coming from my last job because I basically took on the duties of my previous boss and coworker in a lot of ways. I’m the subject liaison for the geography department, and I manage our paper map collection, which is something that is very new to me. I’m learning more about the job part and also learning more about the collection. I have always known that map collections are quite different from a book collection, but now, I’m actually learning the details of just how unusual they are. I had an appreciation for them, but my work was entirely digital.
What can you tell us about the maps collection?
The main strengths of our collection are Oklahoma and Indian Territory, going back to the earliest days of when they came to be. We even have several maps from before the land became known as such. That is what comprises the digital maps collection, which is roughly 9,000 maps. I’ll go ahead and claim that we have the strongest collection of Oklahoma maps in the state. That is the biggest focus, but being a depository library, there is also the Federal Depository Library Program. FDLP is how people used to access governmental materials before the internet came around, so thousands of maps in our collection are a result of that program. It includes maps from the United States Geological Survey, the CIA and a number of other federal agencies. The Bureau of Land Management has also produced many maps that we’ve received over the years. So the lion share of our collection is maps produced by the federal government.
What exactly is spatial data?
I take a very broad view of what constitutes spatial data, and I like to include paper maps in that definition. Spatial data is anything that you could construe as a source of information that has a spatial component; basically, it refers to somewhere on the earth. So, if you have a spreadsheet of addresses of elementary schools in Payne County Oklahoma, that is something you could map, and those addresses are something you could consider spatial data.
What is the most common question you get from visitors?
I would say, the most common request we get is for historical aerial photographs, and those are exactly what they sound like. It is when the state or federal government would pay a company to fly across a county with a camera on the bottom of the plane snapping pictures. Then they take those pictures and distort them, so it seems like you’re starting straight down at the ground, and that can be used as a map. Otherwise, you have angles, and you won’t be able to measure distances. It’s not just like snapping a photo of the ground and saying “that’s an aerial photograph.” There is a whole wild world to it.
The requests are mainly for the contrast of an area. They know what it looks like now, but they are wanting to see what it looked like back in the ‘60s or whenever. It’s a lot of businesses and a lot of people dealing with the landscape of an area.
Right now, the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma is in the middle of a project where they are collecting all the aerial photographs from the OSU Library, the University of Oklahoma, the Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. The idea is that they will all be available at one spot. The main interest of the Corporation Commission is to monitor historical hazards. For example, they will be able to see an oil well north of Oklahoma City in 1935 and if there was a spill, so it could help make a link to the past. That is the driver of their interest in the project; ideally, the rest of us would also benefit from it.
How can classic paper maps stay relevant?
Broadly speaking, there is a lot of people who go hiking or work in areas that don’t have cell reception or GPS signal. Just in the western part of the country, there are big stretches of land where you are probably not going to get great signal. Those people still rely on paper maps, so there is still a strong market for those practical, weatherproof, foldable maps.
The other aspect is that they are a source of historical information, like any archive where researchers go and examine the firsthand writings of someone who lived in another time. Hand-in-hand with that is the map the people drew during their lifetime and how the map depicts the land. That level of use is not going to go away, and it is only going to become greater in decades to come because access to and creation of paper maps is dying. There is no question that it is not at the level it once was. At one time, a library like this would be receiving materials from the federal government on a weekly basis; that is just not the case anymore.
Is there anything that OSU Library can be doing better to stay with the digital times?
My job is going to be not only to take care of the collection but also to bring it into the 21st century and to emphasize the services aspect of our new name. I’m offering a workshop on how to make maps on the internet. In the future, I’m hoping to create a suite of workshops that would lead people through the different aspects of working with spatial data, paper maps and data visualization. Mapping is one form of data visualization, but there are many other ways to integrate it into our offerings. We can interact with our collection but also teach what people can do away from our collection and how to include our collection into an interactive map. That is what I’m really hoping to make happen here.
Do you think there is an opportunity to collaborate with our McCasland Foundation Data Visualization Studio?
A big problem with having digital map collections is that you only have a screen so big, and most of our maps are the size of tables. When you’re trying to look at the whole thing on a computer screen, the experience is just not the same. Having the full size makes things easier, and that is where having those huge tables and giant screens come in. You can actually display all of our maps in full size on that equipment and swipe through them. Those sorts of possibilities will certainly help the integration of spatial data into the new vision for the library.
As Mr. Dykes has explained, Maps and Spatial Data Services can be an incredible resource for visitors and a useful tool in creating a library of the future. Our collection has the potential to have easier, widespread access through the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma. There are also opportunities for collaboration with data visualization that could revolutionize the way students and faculty are able to interact with our maps collection, spatial data and visual software.
What kind of workshop would you like to see from Maps and Spatial Data Services? Comment below.
