GeoPortal Blog
Expanding discovery and access to Canada’s topographic maps at Scholars GeoPortal: Using AI workflows for metadata enhancement
Canada’s National Topographic System (NTS) maps depict government-surveyed topographic features, covering the time period of approximately 1905-2012. Reflecting on library metadata workflows to support discovery, access, and reuse of the maps, this recent initiative introduces AI and machine learning with large language models (LLMs) and OCR image-to-text extraction workflows to support metadata enhancement and access in the future Scholars GeoPortal.
Digitized NTS maps and data collections are available in the current Scholars GeoPortal repository for the 1:25,000 series (Ontario), 1:63,360 series (Ontario), 1:50,000 series (Canada-wide). You can learn more with our guide to accessing historical maps on the GeoPortal and the website for OCUL’s 2014-2017 Historical Map Digitization Project which covers early-NTS maps. More historical map collections, including over 22,000 digitized maps from the McGill Library’s NTS 1:50k series, are available via Canadiana.
Learn more about the Scholars GeoPortal Redevelopment Project and AI metadata enhancement workflows at the upcoming Scholars Portal Fall Updates Webinar on November 27 at 1 p.m. ET.
Stay tuned for more updates and news about the Scholars GeoPortal Redevelopment Project and the NTS series maps, or contact us at datagis@scholarsportal.info or topomaps@scholarsportal.info with any questions.
Mar 31 2025
Welcome to the Scholars GeoPortal Blog!
Welcome to the Scholars GeoPortal Blog!
Similar to the Odesi and Borealis blogs, this space will be used to share updates and important information about the Scholars GeoPortal service, including the ongoing Scholars GeoPortal Redevelopment Project. Information shared on this blog will be distributed by email to the relevant Scholars Portal and OCUL mailing lists and will include links to these blog posts for further reference.
We’re happy to share that a new page about the Scholars GeoPortal Redevelopment Project has been set up in the GeoPortal wiki space on SPOTDocs. This new page includes an overview of the project, information about the working group, links to existing Scholars Portal resources discussing the GeoPortal Redevelopment Project - such as webinars and newsletters - and contact information for any questions.
We look forward to sharing more updates with you soon!