Tuesday, October 09, 2007

SPIE Digital Library just added to the UMass Amherst collection

SPIE, for those who may not know, is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. The name originated from the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, but like many groups these days, the society changed its name and it's focus has evolved and grown, but the acronym remains.

Their Digital Library is now available to UMass Amherst patrons through the library's website - through the catalog or the databases.

From SPIE's website:

The SPIE Digital Library is the most extensive resource available on optics and photonics, providing unprecedented access to more than 230,000 technical papers from SPIE Journals and Conference Proceedings from 1990 to the present. More than 17,000 new research papers are added annually.

Contents of the SPIE Digital Library

Proceedings of SPIE: Starting at Volume 1200 (1990)*

Optical Engineering: Starting at Volume 29 (1990)

Journal of Electronic Imaging: Starting at Volume 1 (1992)

Journal of Biomedical Optics: Starting at Volume 1 (1996)

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS: Starting at Volume 1 (2002)

Journal of Applied Remote Sensing: Starting at Volume 1 (2007)

Journal of Nanophotonics: Starting at Volume 1 (2007)

* Some Proceedings volumes are not available in the SPIE Digital Library as SPIE does not have electronic rights to this material. Click here for a listing of those volumes.

Aerial photos in the Library's Map Collection

The Library has acquired an extensive collection of aerial photographs-- approximately 24,000 in all-- of the Massachusetts landscape, used for almost 50 years to map land use and land use change in the Commonwealth. Initiated by Forestry Professor Emeritus William P. "Mac" MacConnell ’43, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to be completely mapped in this fashion. The project became the foundation for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory. The collection can be used in the Library's Map Collection on the 2nd floor of Du Bois.
For a couple of years while I was in grad school at UMass, I worked with the MacConnell maps, digitizing land use change. I was fascinated with the process and the photos. My supervisors then, Kate Jones (now at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments GIS) and David Goodwin (now at the Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation's Forestry Management Program), told me about their long histories analyzing the photos with stereoscopes (also on display in the Map Collection). They related the history of The Raccoon Wars, which began with a prank that involved painting the black eyepieces of the stereoscopes with black ink, so that the user would finish her or his work with dark rings around the eyes. Ever since, I've been waiting to use that tactic.