The new front end to the Harvard Geospatial Library (HGL) and the subject browse tab listing the highlights of the collection. Within the HGL interface you can display multiple layers from multiple time periods to visualize change over time.

Following a yearlong process of redesign and testing, HUL’s Office for Information Systems has relaunched the Harvard Geospatial Library (HGL), the University’s catalog and repository of data for Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The new HGL offers an enhanced user experience through new functionality and a highly intuitive interface. To view the new HGL, visit http://hgl.harvard.edu.

Open to the general public, HGL allows users to search the descriptive information of thousands of GIS layers using text as well as geographic coordinates. In addition, many of the layers are available for download, and are in a consistent, open format so they can easily be used by many different software packages without the need for translation. In order to facilitate the search for meaningful and usable data, HGL can also display GIS layers in a web-based mapping environment. For information about GIS in general, visit any of the links listed in the help pages within the HGL web site.

The HGL redesign reflects careful teamwork accomplished by Bonnie Burns, HCL’s interim co-head of the Harvard Map Collection and geographic information systems coordinator; Wendy Gogel, digital projects program librarian in HUL’s Office for Information Systems (OIS); David Siegel, geospatial data and information software engineer (OIS); Randy Stern, manager of systems development (OIS); and Janet Taylor, usability and interface librarian (OIS). Working with consultants from Northern Geomantics, the team set out to adopt universal web conventions, such as map controls and page titles, to simplify access to search and browse functions, to provide easy access to help, and to generalize page layouts, reserving a left-hand column for user actions and a right-hand column for data delivery.

According to Burns, “What we have accomplished with the HGL redesign is twofold. First, we have made the extensive geospatial resources of the library far more accessible to all users by making the web site more intuitive and up to date. Second, we have given ourselves more freedom and flexibility for future improvements by using open-source components and standard protocols. This will allow us not only to continue to improve our own site, but to work more easily with other geospatial data providers and their systems.”

While anyone can use the catalog to discover GIS items held at Harvard, access to the repository is limited on a layer-by-layer basis. Some layers are held in the public domain and can be viewed and downloaded by all users. Other layers are restricted by license agreements and can be viewed by Harvard-affiliated users only. Access to restricted layers requires a Harvard ID and PIN.

The Harvard Map Collection in the Harvard College Library holds the largest collection of GIS-ready data on campus and is the largest contributor of data to the HGL repository. Other contributors of data include the Center for Geographic Analysis, the Harvard–Yenching Library, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. At this time, Harvard College Library staff are solely responsible for contributing the metadata that describes data added to the HGL repository. Metadata describing information held by organizations other than HGL is created by those groups and harvested into the HGL catalog.

One of the over 6,000 layers of data available from HGL, this 1833 map of Harvard Square by Alexander Wadsworth shows the area of Dudley House, the Cambridge Trust building, the Coop, and Wadsworth House.

Modern information is overlaid with the 1833 Wadsworth map showing how the layout of the Square has changed, including the addition of the Out of Town News building and a partial relocation of Wadsworth House. This data can all be downloaded from HGL and used in research and analysis.