2023
OIM + HistoryForge
On May 23rd we held our first ever georeference-a-thon! Partnering with Southeast Lousiana HistoryForge via the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, we got about eight people together at Second Line Brewing to work the Sanborn Map of New Orleans, 1896, vol. 1 for a couple of hours. This map (and other mosaics created in subsequent georeference-a-thons) are now integrated directly into the HistoryForge interface.
One month later on June 27th we did the same thing again. Just a few people came out (shout-out to Eliot, Nicole, Rick, and Hoon!) but we completed the map we had started working at the previous event.
The Ohio State University Libraries + CURA
The OSU Libraries and Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA) collaborated to put together a georeference-a-thon for GIS Day, Nov. 15th. You can read a detailed recap of how they prepared for the event, and how it went, here: "Piloting a Sanborn Map Georef-a-thon for GIS Day 2023"
2024
The Ohio State University Libraries + CURA
For Love Data Week in mid February, the OSU Libraries and CURA held another georef-a-thon, a reprise of their GIS Day event. This event had a much lower attendance, it was a good indicator that adding a georef-a-thon to an existing schedule of events, as opposed to a stand-alone event, can be a good way to increase awareness and participation.
University of Richmond, Digital Scholarship Lab
On November 13th the DSL held a competitive georeference-a-thon (the first of its kind!). Riley set up a point system for georeferenced content, complete with the option to challenge the quality of another team’s work to reduce their score.
In addition to points for georeferencing, teams also had to do some scavenger-hunting across the 1905 Richmond map to answer questions like “Across N. 11th St. from City Hall is where you can find the __ HOTEL” , or “Just _east of Shockoe Slip is where you can find _ COFFEE CO.”
Congrats to the big winners (and some familiar names from the platform!!): ibrahimalkaser, samyoga, bakeunsu, and willguy.
The Ohio State University Libraries + CURA
At the Ohio State University on GIS Day November 20th, Josh Sadvari and the team at the library put on another GIS Day Georef-a-thon just like they did the year before. The event preceded a full day of GIS talks, full schedule here.
Healthy Regions & Policies Lab, UIUC
The HeRoP Lab facilitated a georeference-a-thon for GIS Day November 20th, hosting over 20 people in the Natural History Building. For more info (and photos), see the Eventbrite link and the blog post we published,