Chapter five by Goodchild provides a good overview to geolibraries, their importance and the components that goes into constructing them. He highlights the difference between geolibraries and traditional physical libraries. Namely, that geolibraries would be more compatible to deal with multimedia content, hold more local information and avoid the issue of duplication. I think today the separation between the digital and traditional library have become much less distinct. Online catalogues allow users to search many libraries at the same time and thus address the problem of duplication to some degree. As more books and other materials are digitized, a user no longer needs to go to the library to get the material he/she needs. I often download newspapers, articles, and magazines from the McGill library. Also we all frequently download maps and GIS data off the Internet especially since many cities have established open data portals. Thus, I argue, the key feature that will make geolibary special is not how comparable it is to physical libraries but how it allows users to discover various topics about a location of choice.
Further, I wonder why geolibraries have not become very popular since 1998 because this is the first time I have heard about them. Maybe it has to do with the 4th research question Goodchild asks: “What institutional structures would be needed by a geolibrary? What organizations might take a lead in its development?” I would also like to add, what kind of personnel training and organizational shift in the ways things gets done are required by current governmental structures to enable the adoption of geolibraries? There is definitely inertia within public office structures that is often difficult to overcome when introducing new technology. Finally, I would like to consider who should be responsible for the data and the limitations of the kind of data offered. I remember Peter telling me that one of the reasons why governments are hesitant to make data public was if the data contained a mistake about an area, who should be held responsibility for the damages? The one who collected the data? The one who entered the metadata? The geolibrary for providing bad data? Also, what kind of limitations should be set on the kind of data downloadable through a geolibrary. For example, restrictions should exist on data that are highly political such as health data or high-resolution environment data.
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