Project of the week/2011/Jun 22

We wrap up education month with some book related objects for the map.

Libraries and book stores

The Russian State Library in Moscow

A library as rendered in the mapnik layer

Libraries are repositories of information, places of learning and of research. One of the ancient libraries, the Library of Alexandria is credited with comparing different versions of books with empirical standards which became the beginnings of the scientific method. Libraries are filled with adventures of discovery wrapped in layers of shush. Book stores are another source for book-learning, though the brick and mortar versions are dwindling in some places.

The Project of the Week is to add local libraries and book stores to the map.

Tagging suggestions

Either can be mapped as a node or an area. As with other objects in OpenStreetMap, best practice is to only map an object once. That is, as a node or as an area, but not both for the same object.

Required tags

The only required tag for a library is

• amenity=library # for a library
• shop=books # for a book store

Recommended tags

It is recommended to also include additional tags to provide more detail.

• name=*
• operator=*

Be sure to include the address as well.

• addr:street=*
• addr:housenumber=*

• building=yes # add the building tag if you are mapping the outline of the building.
• access=* # many libraries have restricted access (e.g., university libraries, libraries of learned institutions, private libraries, …)

Optional tags

• opening_hours=* # add opening hours

Found typos?