The core places table is then connected in a many-to-many relationship to various attribute tables (in blue) that can store multiple values per place. We wanted to develop a spatial database that could link people and artifacts to places while also being able to store temporal data that could contextualize them within the history of that place.

And, to add further complexity, events are documented by multiple different artifacts, such as photographs and drawings.

Further, each event is often associated with multiple different people and companies such as clients, architects, builders, and other contributors. In architectural data, places are often associated with a number of specific events in time such as dates of construction and renovation. Our data model would need to be flexible and allow many-to-many relationships throughout.

Places represented in AAA collections are complex and involve multitudes of contributing individuals. A single data table would not be sufficient. We explored a variety of database models for representing this diversity of data. Further, if this potential geodatabase will be digital, we could use it to develop map-based digital exhibitions and other kinds of library discovery tools. We also envisioned this database as a kind of spatial finding aid that researchers could use to find all the items about a place such as photographs and drawings that may be held in multiple collections. We saw this concept as akin to pre-digital geographic indices such as atlases and gazetteers. These early brainstorms coalesced around a plan for new kind of geospatial database that could store and display place data from various linked datasets together on a map. Could we include data from outside of the AAA as well? Linked data model Numerous other un-digitized architectural datasets also exist in AAA collections which in the future may be able to be included in this growing linked database, such as the Texas Architectural Survey collection and the historical surveys conducted by architects and historians such as Eugene George and Wayne Bell. With the acquisition of the Buildings of Texas datasets, the intriguing possibility arose of filling in these gaps by linking Buildings of Texas data to existing AAA projects data.įrom this seed of an idea, the project concept expanded: why not connect geodata from other AAA collections as well, such as the recently digitized David Williams photography collection and Atlantic Terra Cotta Company photography collection, both now hosted on the UT Libraries Collections portal. The AAA projects database and finding aids also store a lot of information about the various architectural projects represented in the collections, but many gaps exist in AAA data, especially geographic information such as addresses and coordinates which were not included on donated items such as drawing sets. The Buildings of Texas spreadsheets provide a wealth of data about a wide range of architectural projects throughout the state, including many projects represented in other AAA collections.

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