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I attended an Open Street Map mapping party over the weekend. (http://openstreetmap.org) If you aren't familiar with it, it's the social creation of an open source map of the world, rivaling G Maps and Y Maps. It's actually amazing how much of the world has been mapped. I think it could be a great tool for libraries, but my first quest is to see if we can get as many public libraries listed as possible. I have a file from N Carolina that lists all of the public libraries in the state plus coordinates. I don't know if other states do that as well (they almost all have names and street addresses, but we need the coordinates for OSM). There is a batch import, although a bit rough. Next, it seems that one could develop a template that uses OSM that could help library reference departments print out maps of their local area with particular items noted (e.g. parks, homeless shelters, medical facilities, government offices). I think it has a lot of potential, and I'm talking to them about doing a mapping party in Chicago around ALA so we can introduce more folks to the technology. kc -- ----------------------------------- Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant [log in to unmask] http://www.kcoyle.net ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet fx.: 510-848-3913 mo.: 510-435-8234 ------------------------------------