In a mature digital library (DL), documents should coexist with
a Geographic Information System (GIS). The GIS component of the
DL should be able to scan documents for toponyms and then
generate a map illustrating the places cited in a document. This
visualization should be available in both static and dynamic
form. The system should be able to generate an animation showing
the place names in the text in the order in which they appear,
allowing the reader to see the shifting geographic focus of the
document. It should be possible as well to indicate the
frequency with which places are mentioned, and readers should,
of course, be able to go from locations on a map to places in
the DL which mention them. One of our current research projects
is to explore the extent to which geographic visualization tools
can help readers grasp the complex temporal-spatial interactions
that shape many (especially historical) documents. For cultural
digital libraries, time and space are crucial categories of
information. Our goal