I've created an AppleTV app that uses IIIF (technology behind Art Institute of Chicago image release) that was based on this. Though this content area was historic maps [1]
This Search API is focused on searching within IIIF content (think full text search of a book). There is currently a Discovery Working Group[1] looking at broader discovery of IIIF resources.
Hi, you should also look into checking to see if there is a MapTime http://maptime.io/ near you. MapTimes have sprung up all over the world and are a great way to learn about mapping and OSM.
Thanks! Considering I probably couldn't even spell choropleth a month or 2 ago, I'm pretty grateful for Mike Bostock and his proclivity for documentation (for D3 and mapping concepts in general) by creating working examples. http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock is my favorite thing on the internets.