Creating a geospatial guide to the Northwest Collection at Western Washington University
- Conference Year
- Online Northwest 2026
- Session
- 2
- Type
- Breakout Session
- Presenters
- Sid Devarenne, Western Washington University
- Neah Ingram-Monteiro, Western Washington University
- Natalie Furness, Western Washington University
- Abstract
WWU’s Northwest Collection, a circulating collection focused on the Pacific Northwest, has the potential to be a valuable resource for place-based learning and research. However, it is currently underutilized by students and instructors. We are exploring the relationship between usage of this collection and the discovery methods available to our users. We created an alternative discovery interface that foregrounds geography to test whether a geospatial interface could better meet place-based information needs. This presentation will describe the creation of a prototype geospatial guide to the Northwest Collection, including extracting geographic terms from MARC records and geocoding each title in the collection, and designing and building an ArcGIS dashboard for the user interface.
- Learning Outcomes
- Attendees will learn how to extract geographic terms from MARC records in Alma and use those terms to create geocoded bibliographic datasets.
- Attendees will see a demonstration of an ArcGIS dashboard built using geocoded bibliographic data.
- Attendees will understand why a geospatial guide supports information needs of students and other researchers seeking information about places in the Northwest