Presentation given at the Geospatial in the Cultural Heritage Domain - Past, Present & Future event in London on 7th March 2012. The event was organised as part of the JISC GECO project.

1. The NLS Historical Maps API
 Background and context
 Choice of Maps
 Georeferencing
 Tools
 Standards
 Community usage
 Sustainability
 Top tips
Chris Fleet, National Library of Scotland

2. The NLS Historical Maps API
 Background and context
 Choice of Maps
 Georeferencing
 Tools
 Standards
 Community usage
 Sustainability
 Top tips

3. NLS Maps of Scotland website
http://maps.nls.uk http://geo.nls.uk

4. Georeferenced maps

5. Background: ScotWays Heritage Paths mashup

6. Background: Gazetteer for Scotland mashup

7. The NLS Historical Maps API
 Background and context
 Choice of Maps
 Georeferencing
 Tools
 Standards
 Community usage
 Sustainability
 Top tips

8. Choice of Maps
1:1 million, Great Britain, 1933
Quarter-inch to the mile, Scotland, 1921-1923
Quarter-inch to the mile, England and Wales,
1919-1921
One-inch to the mile, Popular edition, Scotland,
1920-1930
One-inch to the mile, New Popular edition, England
and Wales, 1945-1947

9. The NLS Historical Maps API
 Background and context
 Choice of Maps
 Georeferencing
 Tools
 Standards
 Community usage
 Sustainability
 Top tips

10. Georeferencing
Used ArcGIS - followed workflow described at:
http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/guides_georeferencingarcgis.html

11. Tools: MapTiler and Tileserver
http://www.maptiler.org/ http://www.tileserver.com/

12. Tiling the world...

13. Tile Map Services

14. Standards
The Historical API maps can be displayed in any web browser using a
customizable JavaScript API based on OpenLayers, or the Google Maps API or
Microsoft Bing Maps SDK - http://nls.tileserver.com/api.js
OpenGIS Web Map Tiling Standard (OGC WMTS)
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/54
OSGeo Tile Map Service (OSGEO TMS)
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Tile_Map_Service_Specification
Microsoft Bing Maps QuadKey
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb259689.aspx

15. Launch - May 2010
Project homepage:
http://geo.nls.uk/maps/api/

16. The NLS Historical Maps API
 Background and context
 Choice of Maps
 Georeferencing
 Tools
 Standards
 Community usage
 Sustainability
 Top tips

17. Usage trends

18. User Communities : Outdoor Leisure
Wheres the Path - http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm - 388,000 views

19. User Communities : Outdoor Leisure
Outside Maps Otopia WindowsPhone app

20. User Communities : Outdoor Leisure

21. User Communities: Dartmouth Tors

22. User Communities : Photography

23. User Communities : Archaeology 1

24. User Communities: Archaeology 2

25. User Communities : Local History

26. User Communities: Family History 1

27. User Communities: Family History 2
Borders Family History Society -
www.bordersfhs.org.uk/

28. User Communities : Specialist History

29. User Communities : Road History - SABRE

30. User Communities : Road History - SABRE

31. User Communities : Road History - SABRE

32. User Communities: Historic Buildings

33. User Communities : Education

34. User communities - Open Street Map
http://maps.openstreetmap.ie/oocmaps.html

35. NLS usage – Geoserver / Openlayers

36. NLS usage – GeoReferencer

37. NLS usage – Mosaic Viewer

38. NLS usage – Mosaic Viewer

39. NLS usage – Mosaic Viewer

40. New NLS Georeferenced Layers - 2012
http://geo.nls.uk/search/mosaic/

41. The NLS Historical Maps API
 Background and context
 Choice of Maps
 Georeferencing
 Tools
 Standards
 Community usage
 Sustainability
 Top tips

42. Sustainability
• NLS support for API
• Usage logging for
large/commercial users
• Google Ads?
• New licensed / subscription-
based historic layers?

43. Top tips
Don't underestimate how large and diverse the "geo" community is
Don't overestimate the technical competence of the community
Don't underestimate the time required to administer and sustain the
application properly

44. The NLS Historical Maps API
Thank you!
Chris Fleet, National Library of Scotland