[Google Librarian Central] Maps made easy
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Librarian Central
Apr 6, 2007, 12:53:57 PM4/6/07
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Posted By Aman Govil, Associate Product Marketing Manager
When I heard about how the Berkeley Anthropology Library had created a map showing the areas of focus of student dissertations on a map of the world, I was impressed. The Google Maps API, the platform they used to create it, requires programming skills and a website to host the map. Creating such a detailed map, I imagined, would have taken a good deal of time and skill. And there's just something that is so captivating about a map that is customized to show places that interest you, and then sharing it with others so they can explore. So, in the interest of making the creation of a customizable map a whole lot easier, we've launched a new feature on Google Maps that allows you to make your own custom maps quickly and easily -- really, just by pointing and clicking. Plus, you don't have to host it -- we'll give you a unique URL that you can share, and you can also save it as a Google Earth KML file on your computer. You can create your own maps or explore ones that others have created -- it's all under the new My Maps tab.
One of my favorite examples is America's Highway: Oral Histories of Route 66, a map with embedded photos and videos, which were created as part of a research project through Johns Hopkins University. No matter what kind of library you work in, there are endless ways you can put My Maps to use. For example, if you work in a public library system, why not create a map showing all of your library branches, and share the URL with your patrons? You can even include hours of operation and a photo for each branch. If you work in a school or university library, there are an endless number of educational topics for which you can create maps with students. Oh, and you don't have to worry about how people will find your map and information -- just choose to make your map public and we will show it in our search results, along with all the geo-referenced user-generated content from sites across the web.
If you're ready to create a customized map right now, you can get started with the My Maps user guide. For more details on the My Maps launch and more examples of custom maps, check out our post on the main Google blog.
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Posted By Librarian Central to Google Librarian Central at 4/06/2007 09:48:00 AM
When I heard about how the Berkeley Anthropology Library had created a map showing the areas of focus of student dissertations on a map of the world, I was impressed. The Google Maps API, the platform they used to create it, requires programming skills and a website to host the map. Creating such a detailed map, I imagined, would have taken a good deal of time and skill. And there's just something that is so captivating about a map that is customized to show places that interest you, and then sharing it with others so they can explore. So, in the interest of making the creation of a customizable map a whole lot easier, we've launched a new feature on Google Maps that allows you to make your own custom maps quickly and easily -- really, just by pointing and clicking. Plus, you don't have to host it -- we'll give you a unique URL that you can share, and you can also save it as a Google Earth KML file on your computer. You can create your own maps or explore ones that others have created -- it's all under the new My Maps tab.
One of my favorite examples is America's Highway: Oral Histories of Route 66, a map with embedded photos and videos, which were created as part of a research project through Johns Hopkins University. No matter what kind of library you work in, there are endless ways you can put My Maps to use. For example, if you work in a public library system, why not create a map showing all of your library branches, and share the URL with your patrons? You can even include hours of operation and a photo for each branch. If you work in a school or university library, there are an endless number of educational topics for which you can create maps with students. Oh, and you don't have to worry about how people will find your map and information -- just choose to make your map public and we will show it in our search results, along with all the geo-referenced user-generated content from sites across the web.
If you're ready to create a customized map right now, you can get started with the My Maps user guide. For more details on the My Maps launch and more examples of custom maps, check out our post on the main Google blog.
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Posted By Librarian Central to Google Librarian Central at 4/06/2007 09:48:00 AM
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