Meet your MDL: Cole White

Cole White is the Map and Data Library’s GIS Analyst. A graduate of the Centre for Geographic Sciences, they’ve worked in municipal government, ecological consulting, and volunteered on humanitarian and environmental GIS projects. Their cartography has been featured in Guerrilla Cartography’s atlases.

Learn more about Cole:

Q: What's your area of specialization within maps and data services?

A: I'm a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analyst with expertise in spatial analysis using specialized software, coding, cartographic design, and web mapping.

At MDL, I design and facilitate workshops, develop instructional materials, work on various special projects, and provide technical consultations for anyone interested in GIS. I also help maintain the library's geospatial data collections and am one of the admins our ArcGIS Online instance. I love helping people from all backgrounds learn and I often learn a lot myself in the process.

Q: What's your favorite tool that’s available at MDL?

A: Although the library has access to many proprietary, commercial software packages, my favourite tool is QGIS. This free/open source, cross platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux) GIS application is flexible enough for everything from quick maps to advanced spatial analysis and is supported by a community of volunteer developers. It’s practical in an educational context - students can take what they learn in a workshop and continue using it anywhere without licensing barriers. I love showing people how much they can do with completely free GIS software, whether they’re following along in our workshops (https://mdl.library.utoronto.ca/services/workshops) or exploring on their own.

Q: What’s your favourite map or map item from the MDL collections at MDL?

A: I’m partial to our collection of historical fire insurance plans. These detailed snapshots of Toronto and other North American cities, showing individual building footprints, construction materials, and land use are a good tool for helping us understanding urban change and planning history. They also offer a look at how spatial data was captured long before digital mapping. The Map and Data Library have digitized and georeferenced a large number of these so they can be used in modern mapping workflows. You can check out the collection here: https://mdl.library.utoronto.ca/collections/maps-atlases/fire-insurance-plans-and-atlases 

If you think Cole or someone else at MDL could help you with your research or teaching, please reach out!