One SLIS faculty member and two SLIS students created domain maps for display in an exhibition that demonstrates the power and wonder of cartography.
SLIS professor of Information Science Katy Brner, along with PhD student Ketan Mane and MIS student Weimo Ke, produced several domain maps of abstract semantic spaces currently on display in the travelling exhibition, Cartography of the Physical and the Abstract. The domain maps aim to serve today's explorers navigating the world of science.
"An initial theme of the exhibit," according to promotional literature, "is to compare and contrast first maps of our entire planet with the first maps of all of science as we know it."
"[Viewers can see with their] own eyes the extent to which maps can be employed to help make sense of the flood of information they are confronted with and how domain maps can be used to locate complex and beautiful information."
Brner was primary author on the collaborative project, LVis - Digital Library Visualizer. Mane was primary author on Mapping Topic Bursts, with collabortion by Brner. Ke was primary author on Mapping the Evolution of Co-Authorship Networks and Co-PI Map of Current IDM Awardees, with collabortion by Brner.
Brner collaborated with primary author Kevin Boyack on Indicator-assisted Evaluation and Funding of Research: Visualizing the Influence of Grants on the Number and Citation Counts of Research Papers.
Brner and Mane also collaborated with primary author Boyack on Mapping Medline Papers, Genes and Proteins Related to Melanoma.
The exhibit is meant to inspire cross-disciplinary discussion on how to best track and communicate human activity and scientific progress on a global scale. The online part of the exhibit provides links to a selected series of maps and their makers along with detailed explanations of why these maps work. The physical counterpart supports the close inspection of high quality reproductions for display at conferences and education centers.
Supported in part by a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, the display was created in April 2005 for "Mapping Humanity's Knowledge and Expertise in the Digital Domain" as part of the 101st Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Denver, Colorado. It is scheduled to travel for showing at selected locations through July.
Posted April 27, 2005