For the Love of Maps

Not many people can truly say that their childhood interest in video games led them to their future career. Yet for Kevin Dyke, the head of the Maps and Spatial Data department in the library, that’s exactly what happened.

This week, I sat down with Kevin, and we discussed how he got started in mapping, some of his work at the Edmon Low Library and his ideas for the future of Maps and Spatial Data.

“When I was a kid playing video games, I fell in love with the interactive maps that you would use playing different games,” Kevin said. “That was my first real foray into loving maps.”

 From there, his passion only continued to grow. After studying history at Truman State University, he got his master’s in geography with an emphasis in geographic information science at the University of Minnesota. Eventually, Kevin and his wife both found jobs at OSU and moved to Stillwater.

Shortly after he began working at OSU in August 2016, he hosted his first Mapping 101 workshop. Mapping 101 has become widely popular since the first workshop. The students dive into the basics of geographic information systems (GIS) and different types of maps. In the future, Kevin hopes to expand his workshop offerings to other topics, like data visualization and coding languages, such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

“I want things that people will enjoy,” Kevin said. “I think these topics would be well received. For anyone in academia, there’s always uses for those sorts of skills.”

We also discussed the advancements he’s made in Maps and Spatial Data thanks to the generous donations of the McCasland Foundation. The gifts of the foundation have allowed Kevin and his team to digitize almost 2,000 maps. The McCasland Digital Maps Collection alone boasts nearly 40,000 page views.

“It’s been a long, fruitful relationship with the McCasland Foundation,” Kevin said.

And the digital maps aren’t just for OSU faculty, staff and students. The public can access the maps too. In fact, Kevin recalls chatting with people from as far as California who want to use the maps in their publications. The maps are part of the Congressional Serial Set, so they are public domain.

“When we get requests for a map, we provide people an archival quality digital copy at no cost,” Kevin said. “As a land grant institution, we’re here to serve the public.”

He is also in the process of perfecting a software he developed that allows users to select an area of land and find historic maps of that area. For example, if you wanted to see maps of the OSU campus from 1950, you could select the current campus area and the software would pull the maps from the digital collection that most closely resemble that space – “all within 150 milliseconds,” Kevin said.

If you ever need a copy of a map or simply have questions about something you’ve seen online in the digital collections, do not hesitate to reach out to Kevin! After speaking with him, it was very clear to me that he is extremely passionate about maps and helping other people love and understand them too. He’s knowledgeable, excited and more than willing to help anyone with their research.

The basement, where Maps and Spatial Data is located, is currently under construction. But you can reach Kevin through email or by setting up an appointment with him.

405-744-9731
Lib-map@okstate.edu

Posted by Jenny Berry, electronic communications intern