Project Background

The Maine GeoLibrary Strategic Planning & Integrated Land Records Forums Are Coming!

Updating Maine's GIS Strategic Plan and Designing a Statewide Integrated Land Records System

The GeoLibrary Board recently received a matching grant from the US Geological Survey in support of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) Fifty States Initiative. The work to be completed includes 2 tasks. Task 1 will update and enhance the GeoLibrary Strategic Plan and bring it into alignment with the goals of the Fifty States Initiative. Task 2 will recommend a conceptual framework and functional specification for an Integrated Land Records Information System for the State of Maine . Two thirds of the effort of the project will be concentrated on Task 2.

The focus of the Strategic Plan update in Task 1 is to be on the following criteria:

a) coordination of local governments, academia and the private sector

b) developing sustainable funding sources; and

c) cultivating political champions to grow support for future geospatial initiatives.

The main thrust of Task 2 will be to produce a conceptual framework and a functional specification for an Integrated Land Records System based on a sustainable political and technical architecture and user requirements to enable the capture and maintenance of property data to the parcel level statewide.

For nearly two decades Maine counties, municipalities and the Office of GIS have worked piecemeal to standardize and assemble this essential resource. This initiative will seek to codify standards and procedures in such a way that integrates

Deed and plan records at the county level,
Municipal tax assessor parcel geometry at the municipal level, and
Attribute input from a variety of additional stakeholders (See Appendices B and C for an initial list of project participants to be targeted).

On January 16, 2008 the Geolibrary Board voted to accept a proposal from the James W. Sewall Company to provide services in fulfillment of this grant. The Sewall Team includes: Reference Standard, Somers-St. Claire, GIS Management Consultants and Fairview Industries. The kick-off meeting and presentation was made to the Board on February 20. Copies of that presentation will be made available at: ( link will be provided later )

Input Needed

As this project begins, the GeoLibrary Board is anxious to soliciting input from the Maine GIS community, municipal, county, state and the federal government, county registries, the bar association, the real estate, the surveying community, and other impacted and interested stakeholders across the state of Maine. The project will include meetings, presentations, regional forums, surveys and interviews designed capture each of these perspectives. Please register at: http://www.maine.gov/geolib/projects/fiftystates/register to receive information on upcoming events. Please take our survey at: ( link will be provided later ) Feel free to comment on the project blog at http://maineplan.blogspot.com at any time during the project. Your input is vital!

Schedule

The majority of the work on the project will occur between now and June. Data gathering will occur primarily in the beginning followed by analysis and proposed solutions. Presentations will be made to the Board throughout the process. Below is a diagram depicting of the overall workflow for the project. Adjustments will be made to accommodate the Board's needs as required.

Project Workflow

Deliverables

The Sewall Team will submit the following to the Board for review:

A report outline at the start of each task or sub-task,
One or more draft documents at the end of each task or sub-task work as described in Sections 3.1 and 3.2, and
A final version after incorporating Board comments.

Task 1 Deliverable – Addendum to the 2002 Geolibrary Board Strategic Plan

Task 2 Deliverables – Research Findings Document; Conceptual Framework Document; Integrated Land Records Information System Functional Specification; and Promotion strategy Document.

Please Remember

Remember that “ your participation” is vital to the success of this project, but, more importantly, to the growth of GIS and the development of a framework that will improve the lands records system in our State!

GEOLIBRARY INFORMATION