University Library Digital Spatial Data Catalog: Background

The Digital Spatial Data Catalog and associated Spatial Data Server exist to facilitate the use of digital spatial data by the University of Michigan community, by enhancing access to data and by providing searchable documentation, or metadata, of data. The Catalog was launched in June 2002 and continues to expand in content. It serves as the only University-wide spatial data repository and serves as the University's online access point for data packaged with licensed ESRI software, from the Washtenaw County Metropolitan Planning Commission, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, and other sources. It also includes metadata for selected data sets from the Michigan Geographic Data Library, for the City of Ann Arbor, and for the U.S. National Atlas.

The resource features the ability to search for data through an easy-to-use interface and the ability to download data from the server. The resource also features the ability to browse for data from a particular data set on the server. Detailed instructions on the use of these features can be found in the Catalog's Help page.

Catalog content is managed by Numeric and Spatial Data Services. Technical support for the catalog is provided by the Digital Library Production Service.

A note to guests from beyond the University of Michigan: The catalog is searchable by everyone. Data on the Spatial Data Server may be restricted for use by the University of Michigan, depending on the data set. In some cases data that are restricted to use by the University of Michigan when online can be used at the Library, by walk-in patrons regardless of affiliaton with the University of Michigan. If you find something of interest, we welcome you to contact us.

Current efforts
-Provide content for NIMA's VMAP Level 0 data for Asia by country (data currently available in the NSDS lab but not online)

Recently completed efforts
-Provide land use data for the year 2000 for SEMCOG's seven southeast Michigan counties. To learn more about these data, open the Spatial Data Catalog and search the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments Datasets. Or go directly to the Catalog's collection of SEMCOG data, authenticate, and select files for downloading. Files are available by county, e.g., select 'wasuse00' to retrieve the Washtenaw County land use shapefile for 2000 (November, December 2004)
-Provide content for geographic data (roads, census tract boundaries etc) from the 1990 US. Census (November 2004)
-Document and provide content for data employed in "Hierarchical investigation of socioeconomic drivers of decadal scale land-cover changes in the Upper Midwest (Principal Investigator: Daniel Brown, University of Michigan; Co-PIs Daniel C. Pijanowski, Michigan State University and J. Michael Vasievich, USDA Forest Service.)" Available through the collection of "Datasets Submitted by UM Faculty, Staff, and Students" (October 2004)
-Improve usability of catalog home page by changing layout so that collections are organized into groups and by providing information about the geographic extent of each collection (October 2004)
-Review, process, and provide content for ESRI 9.0 (2004 publication date) data sets (October 2004)
-Review and request update of collection entries in Mirlyn (September-October 2004)
-Update metadata for E.S. George Reserve data (a University of Michigan research facility), and add final map graphic files, amls to downloadable E.S. George Reserve data (available via the 'UM faculty, students, staff' data collection) (August 2004)
-Process content, create documentation for U.S. Census Bureau's data for population center of gravity by state and by census tract (June 2004)
-Provide new collection: ArcCanada data (April 2004)
-Provide content for Michigan Geographic Data Library unprojected data/metadata (April 2004)
-Provide documentation for the set of City of Ann Arbor data (data available in the NSDS lab, for use by UM faculty, students, staff) through catalog (April 2004)
-Provide content for NIMA's VMAP Level 0 data for Europe by country (March 2004)


For more information or help finding and using spatial data, contact nsds@umich.edu.