ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intersection of print culture, migration and nation-building through the examples from Georgian Canada and from a long-term study. It discusses selected aspects of the contribution of historical geographic information systems (HGIS) to an investigation of book history by examining practicing scholar's visualization and search preferences. Layers in the HGIS of print culture will, when complete, include print production, occupations within the book and allied trades, literacy rates and schooling, political affiliation of agents of the press, religious background and gender, amongst others. The database underpinning the pilot HGIS of print culture in Canada is the Canadian Book Trade and Library Index (CBTLI), which holds information gleaned from census data, trade directories, newspaper advertisements and other printed and manuscript archival sources. A premise underlying the design of the prototype and the captured images is that researchers interrogating an HGIS should be able to move from the general to the specific.
