imported>VulcanSphere: Adding local short description: "American archive of cartographic information", overriding Wikidata description "archive of cartographic information"

2024-12-23T07:29:34Z

Adding local short description: "American archive of cartographic information", overriding Wikidata description "archive of cartographic information"

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{{Short description|American archive of cartographic information}}
The '''National Geospatial Digital Archive''' ('''NGDA''') is an archive of [[cartographic]] information funded by the [[Library of Congress]] through the [[National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program]] (NDIIPP) in collaboration with the [[University of California Santa Barbara]], and [[Stanford University]]. The purpose of the archive is to collect and preserve geospatial data and images on a national scale, and develop mechanisms for making data available for future generations.

== History ==
The NGDA is one of eight initial projects funded by the Library of Congress's National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. It is a partnership between University of California Santa Barbara's Map & Imagery Laboratory at [[Davidson Library]] and Stanford University's [[Branner Earth Sciences Library]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ngda.org/docs/Pub_Janee_Arch09_09.pdf|title=Preserving Geospatial Data: The National Geospatial Digital Archive's Approach|last=Janée|first=Greg|date=|website=www.ngda.org|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=August 18, 2017}}</ref>

== Objectives ==
Cartographic information is used by researchers, students, and other to study many subjects including [[disaster relief]], [[population growth]], and changes in agriculture. The NDIIPP established the National Geospatial Digital Library to several overlapping objectives.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ngda.org|title=NGDA - The National Geospatial Digital Archive|website=www.ngda.org|access-date=2017-08-18}}</ref> The primary objective is to establish an archive of, sometimes, at-risk digital data. The distributed nature of the archive is important in case of a natural or man-made disaster.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.directionsmag.com/article/1683|title=Setting Storage Standards for Digital Media: An Interview with Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Assistant Director of Geospatial, Cartographic and Scientific Data and Services, Stanford University|website=www.directionsmag.com|access-date=2017-08-18}}</ref> The project is also developing mechanisms, like a [[wiki]], to make the information available to users. An important goal of the project is building in flexibility so that changes in technology in the future will not damage the archive; this flexibility includes using [[metadata]] for all archived data.<ref name=":0" /> Other long-term objectives involve agreements between participating institutions about what information will be preserved and how the preservation will be carried out, how [[copyright]]ed material will be handled, and how universities can be assured that their faculty and students have access to their archived data.<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
*[[Digital curation]]
*[[Digital library]]
*[[Digital preservation]]
*[[National Digital Library Program]] (NDLP)
*[[Web archiving]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html The Library of Congress, Digital Collections and Programs]
* [http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ The Library of Congress, Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program]

[[Category:Library of Congress|Digital Library project]]
[[Category:Maps of the United States]]
[[Category:Web archiving initiatives]]

National Geospatial Digital Archive - Revision history

imported>VulcanSphere: Adding local short description: "American archive of cartographic information", overriding Wikidata description "archive of cartographic information"