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== Building a geoportal ==
Scholars GeoPortal ([http://geo.scholarsportal.info]) was created as a platform for online delivery of geospatial data resources to the Ontario Council of University Libraries community. Prior to the start of this project, each institution was storing data locally, and had its own practice for distributing datasets to users. This ranged from home grown online data delivery systems to burning data on to DVDs for each individual request. Most institutions had limited resources and expertise to create and maintain a sophisticated delivery system on their own. Led by OCUL Map, GIS librarians, staff at Scholars Portal in partnership with the Government of Ontario, the GeoPortal project began in 2009.
Our talk will focus on the design and architecture of Scholars Portal's solution to support maps and geospatial data, and how we distribute these data collections to our users.
The system consists of 4 main components: metadata management system, map server, spatial database, and the web application.
For other code4libbers who are interested in a similar system, we will also discuss the open source alternatives for each component (GeoNetwork, MapServer, etc.), and challenges and limitations we faced trying to use some of these tools. We'd also like to pick your brains on how we can make this application better. What can we do differently?