Online Atlas chief wins AFFIRM award
Online Atlas chief wins AFFIRM award
By Thomas R. Temin
GCN Staff
DEC. 5—Jay Donnelly, a supervisory geographer at the Geological Survey, has received the November award for leadership from the Association for Federal IRM. AFFIRM recognized Donnelly for his work as managing editor of the National Atlas of the United States. Details of the interagency effort can be found at
www.nationalatlas.gov.
The National Atlas was originally published on paper in 1970 and is now out of print. The current effort, started in 1997 under Donnelly's direction, is a massive effort to update the atlas and deliver it in several formats via the Internet.
By going digital, Donnelly and his team incorporate more data sets than can be shown in paper maps. For example, the new National Atlas contains health and crime data over time, such as the spread of the West Nile virus. More than 20 federal agencies'a who's who of spatial data generators' are participating in the development of the new atlas.