The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Abstract

Sometimes the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same as the saying goes. This issue of the Journal of Map & Geography Libraries includes four articles that each highlight the age-old challenges of improving discovery, access, documentation, and use of spatial information, but each does so in contemporary, innovative, and/or important ways. The articles discuss new technologies like spatial data infrastructures, geoportals, accessible coding languages for manipulating spatial data, and documentation techniques—all of which enhance access to and use of spatial information. The articles also discuss the many challenges of organizing cumbersome collections, getting people to share data, learning new professional skills, and combining disparate documentation schemas. Technology is amazing and can help us in our work in many ways, and yet it will never solve all of our problems for us, and so the challenges continue. In the first article of this issue, authors Atumane and Cabral share the results of a survey of institutions in Mozambique that could contribute to a countrywide spatial data infrastructure (SDI). SDIs in Africa are becoming more common as is documented elsewhere in this journal (see Mwange et al. Volume 50, issue 360; https://doi.org/10.1080/00396265. 2016.1259720), but they are nonetheless a major challenge to initiate for both technical as well as social and political reasons. The authors wisely start with a survey of legal frameworks and the willingness and readiness of each potential government agency participant to contribute to an SDI that at its core would contain 15 thematic datasets served openly to Mozambique and the world. The authors conclude that the government agencies surveyed are in a good position to contribute in the near future and that furthermore, there are non-government entities that could also contribute to this important spatial data resource. However, the legal framework and political will to establish an SDI typically comes first from a central governing body. Speaking from personal experience, it can be a