Purpose This paper aims to present the authors’ attempts to evaluate the access to archival maps available in digital libraries. Its aim was to pinpoint the factors determining the effectiveness of access to old maps and to evaluate which Polish libraries provide resources in such a way as to give the users the best chance of finding the materials necessary for their research. Design/methodology/approach The presented research focussed on archival documents from academic libraries accessible from the Polish Digital Libraries Federation and available from Europeana Collections. The evaluation criteria were established along with features that determine the level of difficulty of access to data describing archival documents. The research took into account the way of recording the data about archival documents in metadata. The authors have also analysed the quantity of available resources and the consistency of metadata record. Findings The results of the research have demonstrated that one-third of the analysed libraries deserve a positive evaluation. The digital library of the Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian Digital Library received the best scores in terms of the description of archival documents. Considering the number of resources, the Jagiellonian Digital Library and the Digital Library of the University of Wrocław are positively distinguished. Originality/value The method of evaluating the access to archival maps has been developed. The criteria and features necessary for this evaluation and the way of their interpretation have also been defined. The future goals leading to the improvement of the access to the archival maps have been also presented.

Purposes This paper aims to present an objective summary of the current state of research concerning the evaluation criteria of map metadata. The undertaken research identifies which authors and to what extent the discussed issues related to the metadata of objects collected in digital libraries, with particular emphasis on cartographic materials. Design/methodology/approach Independent reviewers analysed the basic articles data. Selected papers were subject to quality assessment, based on the full text and 12 questions. Finally, iterative backward reference search was conducted. Findings The results demonstrate that there are no universal criteria for metadata evaluation. There are no works that would assess the metadata of cartographic studies, although numerous publications point to the need for this type of work. Practical implications Metadata evaluation allows users to obtain knowledge whether objects found in the library are relevant for their needs. Originality/value The criteria and methods most often used for assessing metadata quality which can be adopted to map metadata evaluation have been identified. The authors identified the existing research gaps and proved that there is a need for research contributions in the field of evaluating map metadata.

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The paper presents methods of area calculation, which may be applied for big geodesic polygons on the ellipsoid. Proposal developed by the authors of this paper is discussed. The proposed methods are compared with other, alternative methods of area calculation of such polygons. Test calculations are performed for administrative units in Poland. The obtained results are also compared with areas of those units registered in statistical annals. Utilisation of the equal-area map projections of the ellipsoid onto a plane seems to be the best solution for the discussed task. In the case of small distances between points we may expect accurate results of calculations, since the area size is influenced by the projection reductions only, which are small in such cases. In some cases their influence on results of calculations may be neglected. Then, only re-calculation of co-ordinates from the GRS80 ellipsoid to the cartographic, equal-area projection is required.

As a result of changes in boundaries, the political affiliation of locations also changes. Data on such locations are now collected in datasets with reference to the present or to the past space. Therefore, they can refer to localities that either no longer exist, have a different name now, or lay outside of the current borders of the country. Moreover, thematic data describing the past are related to events, customs, items that are always "somewhere". Storytelling about the past is incomplete without knowledge about the places in which the given story has happened. Therefore, the objective of the article is to discuss the concept of spatio-temporal database for border areas as an "engine" for visualization of thematic data in time-oriented geographical space. The paper focuses on studying the place names on the Polish-Ukrainian border, analyzing the changes that have occurred in this area over the past 80 years (where there were three different countries during this period), and defining the changeability rules. As a result of the research, the architecture of spatio-temporal databases is defined, as well as the rules for using them for data geovisualisation in historical context.