Working digitally with historical maps

This article introduces a set of papers presented at a one day workshop titled "Working Digitally with Historical Maps", held at the New York Public Library on 26 February 2012, and now being published in the Journal of Map & Geography Libraries. The main focus of the papers is not on digitizing maps but on what can be done with them once they have been digitized. The author writes not as a map librarian but as a historical geographer seeking a wider role for historical maps in the increasingly digital humanities and heritage; and as the lead coordinator of the workshop.