Enabling Geographic Research Across Disciplines: Building an Institutional Infrastructure for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University

摘要

Founded in 1818, the Harvard Map Collection (HMC) is the oldest map collection in America, holding 400,000 maps, more than 6,000 atlases, and thousands of reference books. HMC has a strong commitment to digital resources, and it manages the Harvard Geospatial Library, a foundation for geospatial data service at Harvard. The Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) at Harvard University was founded in 2006, independent of the library system, to serve the entire university. This article presents the history, organizational structure, and operational model of CGA and HMC, reviews achievements, lessons learned, suggests future improvements, and reviews GIS-related medical research at Harvard.