Online Articles by Oklahoma Depository Library Staff
HomeMAP SEARCHING IN WEB VOYAGE
Karen Fite
U.S. Documents Reference Librarian
U.S. Government Information Division
Oklahoma Department of Libraries
Oklahoma City, OK 73105-3298
(405) 325-1832
kfite@oltn.odl.state.ok.us
Come to http://catalog.odl.state.ok.us/webvoy.htm. Click on 'Local Catalog' and then click on 'Map Searching and try out the Endeavor Map search on Web Voyage. The Oklahoma Department of Libraries is testing the usefulness of this search approach and would like feedback on your thoughts. Please send your comments to: kfite@oltn.odl.state.ok.us
Searching for maps in Web Voyage is limited to searching the '034' field of the OCLC cataloging record which contains information on latitude, longitude, and map scale. Records from the Oklahoma Geological Survey don’t contain a '034' field so one must be added if those records are to be made searchable. US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, and CIA maps all have this catalog field included in the records we have purchased from Marcive.
There are 5 different approaches to entering a search. There is a 'help' screen for map searching. One problem is that a search will include all maps that contain the longitude and latitude parameters used so even using a rectangle number from a 034 field with a 'Shoe' of MBR or Minimum Bounding Rectangle will produce a list of hundreds of maps. In order to reduce the number of hits you need to use the 'limits for maps' which are in the lower portion of the limits list. To limit to 7.5 minute for instance you put in a limit of 24000 so this will reduce the search results. The trick is if you don’t impose the limits before you put in your search the search will be removed after the limits are entered and must be typed in again.
Latitude (Horizontal or North-South Lines) are represented by the direction North(n) or South(s) followed by a seven digit number if you are using 'Format Type' Degrees/min/sec. Example: n0385230 (Degrees less than 100 must be given a leading zero)
Longitude (Vertical or East-West Lines) are represented by the direction East(e) or West(w) followed by a seven-digit number if you are using the same Format Type. Example: w0893730
RECTANGLE searching uses a pattern to put in the edges of the rectangle.
Using the letters from the latitude and longitude in the '034' field it follows the pattern : g/d : f/e Assuming the limits have been entered first you may get hits in the 10-20 Range instead of 200-400. A sample search is:
Rectangle Search
Upper Right Lower Left
Longitude n0385230 Latitude n0384500
Latitude w0893000 Longitude w0893730
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