Remapping the University of Wisconsin Cartography Lab

Abstract

Established in 1953, the UW-Madison Cartography Lab (Cart Lab) is a full-service cartographic production facility housed within the Department of Geography. The core mission of the Cart Lab is to provide undergraduate and graduate students a unique apprenticeship experience on map design projects, supplementing their classroom learning experience with on-the-job training working with real-world clients. In recent years, we have added basic research, community-engaged service, and professional development activities to our portfolio to respond to the shifting priorities of the university and evolving demands of the cartographic industry, as well as our own internal values as a unit in a public institution. Arguably, more change has occurred in the Cart Lab in the past two years than the prior 75 as we encountered a global pandemic, responded to new campus budget models, moved our physical space in Science Hall, and retooled our personnel. In this presentation, I discuss the basic operations of the Cart Lab as background context, dive into several of the key challenges we have faced in recent years to remain relevant, and discuss some of the opportunities for enhancing the value proposition of "Cart Labs" across campuses based on our experience.