GeographicInformationSystems(GIS)forLibraries

Seti Keshmiripour

GraduateLibraryAssistant

ResearchandInstructionalServices

UNTLibraries

Spring2014

Overview Background Definition GISData Layers AreasofGISApplications GISApplicationsinLibraries GISReferenceLibrarian GISToolsandSoftware HowtofindGISData Examples

Background

ThehistoryofGISgoesbackto60s Pioneers:Canada,HarvardUniversity,andEnvironmentalSystemResearchInstitute(ESRI)

GISproducers ESRI

Intergraph

ERDASImagine

HexagonGeospatial

MapInfo

Smallworld

Definition

GISanalyzedata,findpatterns,andassesstrendsinordertoanswerquestionsandmakedecisions.

GISprovidestoolstocreate,share,andusegeographicinformationwithothers.

GIScomponents:hardware,software,data,peopleandworkflows

Geographicalinformationincludes spatialinformation:wheresomethingis

attributeinformation:whatsomethingis

SpatialData‐ Vector

Representsfeatureswithdistinctboundariessuchashousesandrivers

Basedoncoordinate:Longitude&Latitude Points Polylines Polygons

SpatialData‐ Raster Rasterrepresentscontinuousdatawithoutdistinctboundariessuchaselevationandprecipitation.Itisagridofcells.

Cellsarearrangedinrowsandcolumns.Eachcellcontainsavalue.

AttributeData

Attributedetermineswhatsomethingisandusuallycontainsnameandtime.

Layers

Layerisasetoflogicallyrelatedgeographicfeaturesandtheirattributes

Thevisualrepresentationofageographicdatasetinanydigitalmapenvironment.

Differentlayersofinformationarecombinedtogethertoshowtheareasthatmatchesourcriteria.

AreasofGISApplication ResourcesManagement LandUsePlanning Defense UtilitiesandEnvironmentalMonitoring WildlifeBiology PublicHealth DemographicAnalysis BusinessPlanningandMarketing Agriculture WeatherandClimate Crimelocation DataVisualization …

GISApplicationsinLibraries

ResearchandAdministration UsingGISfordecisionmaking

Services Locatingbooksormappinglibrarycollection

Mappingsubjectcontent

Mappingandnetworkingsuppliersanddistributers

Userstudy

DatabasesandTools ProvidingaccesstosoftwaresuchasArcGIS

Offeringworkshopsandtrainingsessions

AssistingresearchersbyprovidingaccesstoGISandspatialdatabases

GISReferenceLibrarian

Tohaveknowledgeofgeospatialconceptsandtools

Tohaveskillstostructureproblemsinreferenceinterview

Knowledgeofgeospatialresources Web‐baseddatabasesandlibraries Nonweb‐baseddatabasesandlibraries

Tohelpusertofindgeographicaldatasets,geo‐spatialdata,etc.

GISTools&Software ArcGIS QGIShttp://www.qgis.org/en/site/ GRASSGIS(GeographicResourcesAnalysisSupportSystem)http://grass.osgeo.org/

Marblehttp://marble.kde.org/ OSGeo (OpenSourceGeospatialFoundation):“wascreatedtosupportthecollaborativedevelopmentofopensourcegeospatialsoftware,andpromoteitswidespreaduse”. http://www.osgeo.org/

HowtofindGISData

Governmentagencies,Organizations,Privategeographicagencies USCensushttps://www.census.gov/ ESRIhttp://www.esri.com/ DentonCountyGIShttp://dentoncounty.com/dept/main.asp?Dept=127

NorthCentralTexasCouncilofGovernments(NCTCOG)http://gis.dfwinfo.com/

What’sdone

CornellUniversityGeospatialInformationRepository(CUGIR)http://cugir.mannlib.cornell.edu/

HarvardGeospatialLibraryhttp://calvert.hul.harvard.edu:8080/opengeoportal/

WashingtonGeospatialDataArchive(WAGDA)http://wagda.lib.washington.edu/

UniversityofArizonaElectronicAtlashttp://uair.arizona.edu/item/292543

Examples

Hypotheticalsituation#1:DentonCountyisplanningonbuildinganewpubliclibrary.Theyneedtodecidewhereitshouldbelocatedinordertoservethelargestpopulation?

Proximityofthenewsitetotheareaswithhigherpopulationdensityisthecriterionfordecisionmaking.

Map of the U.S. census tracts (source: ESRI)

Making a layer of the census tracts of Texas

Making a layer of the census tracts of Denton county

Locations of the current public libraries and population density (darker area, higher population density)

Potential location

Examples

Hypotheticalsituation2:DentonCountypubliclibrariesisplanningonincreasingthebudgetofHispaniccollections.Whichpubliclibraryshouldreceivemorebudget?

ApubliclibrarylocatedneartheareaswithhigherHispanicpopulationdensityshouldreceivemoremoney.

Locations of the current public libraries and Hispanic population density (darker area, higher Hispanic population density)

Potential location

Potential location

References ESRI(2014).Retrievedfromhttp://www.esri.com/

Hanson,A.,Heron,S.,&Reehling,P.(2008). Integratinggeographicinformationsystemsintolibraryservices:Aguideforacademiclibraries.Hershey:InformationSciencePub.

LibrariesinDentonCounty(2014).Retrievedfromhttp://dentoncounty.com/other/libraries.asp

Phadke,D.N.(2006). GeographicalInformationSystems(GIS)inlibraryandinformationservices.NewDelhi,India:ConceptPublishingCompany.