Living the Future 6 -- April 6, The Future of GIS Services in Academic Libraries: Exploring the Next Step Christine Kollen, Geography & Maps Librarian, Social Sciences Team, University of Arizona Library

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Outline  History of GIS in Libraries  Current focus  Changes effecting GIS in libraries  Trends in academic libraries  Changes at UA  Acquiring geospatial data  Beyond the Arizona Electronic Atlas  Next Steps

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, History of GIS in Libraries  Libraries see advantages in the early 1990s as GIS software becomes more user friendly  Partnership between ESRI (GIS software producer) and ARL -- ARL GIS Literacy Project (1992) provides training in GIS software and access to spatial data  Libraries are starting to provide web access to geospatial data to create maps and to provide access to data  Examples include: Massachusetts Electronic Atlas (morphed into) the Harvard Geospatial Library Washington State Geospatial Data Archive Inside Idaho (University of Idaho) University of Virginia GeoStat University of Connecticut’s MAGIC collection University of Arizona’s Arizona Electronic Atlas

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, UA Library’s GIS History  UA became involved with the ARL GIS Literacy Project and offered GIS services in 1996  Developed GeoFac in 1998 in response to student requests for help with the software  Developed the Arizona Electronic Atlas in 2004 in response to student comments about GeoFac  Went from geospatial data on CD-ROM and access to GIS software through one designated computer to currently providing access from all computers in the Information Commons (Main, Science-Engineering, and Fine Arts Libraries)

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, What are other ARL Libraries doing? SPEC Kit on Spatial Data Collections & Services (Dec. 2005) reported:  Growth in no. of locations offering spatial data support on campuses  Shift to disciplines beyond geography  Challenges reported include: data collection and data licensing for digital data; processing and storage of electronic formats and online maps  Increase in responsibilities for cataloging & acquisition  Half report increase in reference & instruction  Most have seen an increase in spatial data users  Increase in use of digital spatial data  Some report decrease in GIS software consultation, students & faculty are pretty independent

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Other Academic Libraries Survey of implementation and use of GIS in 128 smaller academic libraries  Out of 138 responses, 22 have adopted GIS in their library and 28 are planning to in the near future  The survey focused on hardware & software, staffing, levels of service, training, monetary support, and use in the implementation of GIS  Difficult to get started with providing GIS services without also obtaining outside funding

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Campus GIS Environment  GIS services the Library provides strongly related to what GIS classes and services are available on campus and their needs  School of Natural Resources’ Advanced Resources Technology group has operated a GIS lab since 1988  School of Social and Behavioral Sciences opened a GIS lab in 1999  More classes are being taught that utilize GIS software – desktop GIS and internet applications

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, UA Advanced Resources Technology (ART) Group Part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences  Units on campus with GIS spatial needs are coming to ART  Requests for application development – such as using hand-helds to gather field data  Newly approved GIS certification for graduate students (jointly administered between ART & Geography)  In classes, students are created ArcIMS projects

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Center for Applied Spatial Analysis (CASA)  In the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). Similar mission as ART but not as developed  Faculty and graduate students in SBS come to them for assistance/training

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, GeoVisualization Lab  New lab (fall 2005) in the Dept. of Geography and Regional Development  Combines research, teaching, and collaboration with the community  Lab is mainly for faculty that teach urban revitalization and public funding projects  Work with community groups to help them address an issue or problem  Help community develop GIS skills  Students in the classes develop ArcIMS sites

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Current Focus at UA Library  Arizona Electronic Atlas  Acquiring geospatial data  Providing GIS software and data help

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Changes that are effecting GIS in Libraries  GIS is evolving to a federated technology – will be distributed and federated  Organized in metadata catalogs requiring interoperability and content guidelines  Increased availability of online geospatial data especially for the United States – as an example the release of the U.S.Geological Survey National Map  GIS for the Nation – participants from NGOs, federal, state, local & universities

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Changes that are effecting GIS in Libraries (cont.)  Online interactive mapping, such as MapQuest  Google’s release of Google Earth and Google Map’s APIs  Integration of GIS into non-geography classes

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, What trends do other ARL Libraries see?  Overall demand is growing  Increase in spatial data acquisition and user demand for GIS reference services  Increase in conversion of analog materials to digital  Increase in acquiring foreign digital geospatial data

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, What are other ARL Libraries planning?  Explore data acquisition & discovery strategies  Add more staff  Change in Service goals – assistance in locating data, selecting the appropriate use of spatial data instead of how to use the software  Promote GIS to users from disciplines new to GIS  More BI and GIS projects, larger web presence through ArcIMS projects  Collection development policy for acquiring geospatial data  Tools to facilitate collaboration between data users, scholars, and the community.  Investigate usability of geospatial tools for searching

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Map Libraries in Transition  Conference sponsored by Cartographic Users Advisory Council was held last May  Wonderful opportunity for Geography, Map, & GIS Librarians to come together to hear talks focused on maps/spatial data, to discuss issues of common concern, and how we can collaborate  One result was to develop a map scanning registry  How can the individual organizations work more effectively together?  Hold this conference more frequently

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Future Direction & Needs of GIS at UA campus  GIS certification for graduate students  GeoServ – portal to three UA sites: ART, CASA, Arizona Remote Sensing Center Add Atlas later if concept is proven Add Arizona state agencies  Data needs include online access to spatial data of Mexico and current street level data for Arizona with geocoding abilities

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Needs Assessment of the Arizona Electronic Atlas Needs assessment as part of Atlas Business Plan last year  Emphasis on community outreach -- translating research that we do at the University into a language that the public can understand.  Go beyond mapping to develop mechanisms or tools to help users make decisions

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Atlas Needs Assessment (cont)  Data and data-related needs for research: More local data, federal data, border data (into Mexico) More collaboration and networking across various departments on campus to obtain datasets  Develop static maps that could easily be used in classes  Develop more interdisciplinary map themes in the Atlas such as Environmental Justice  Resource that helps teach geographic concepts such as scale, projection, use of color

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Changes at the UA Libraries  UA Libraries this past year has reorganized in order to be more flexible and able to deal with changes in the environment  One of our new cross-functional teams, Delivery & Access investigated how the Library should deal with data sets and is also administering a fund for new and continuing Digital Initiatives

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Future Directions at the University of Arizona Library  Move from providing assistance with GIS software (most students no longer need help)  Provide online access to spatial data  Continue to provide access to mapping Arizona data through the Atlas  Going beyond the Atlas – more collaboration on campus through new initiatives  Digitizing aerial photography

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Acquiring Geospatial Data  Faculty and students in general are requesting that more and more information be available online  A lot of U.S. geospatial data is available online Exceptions include current streets and local data  Majority of information published by the federal government is available online – maps are not  Country data is needed Deciding what to purchase (take into account the cost and licensing)  Spatial data for Mexico and other Latin American countries

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Decision Support Tools & Translating Science for the Public  Move to go beyond ArcIMS applications such as the Atlas to create more of a decision support tool  Need to translate science occurring at the universities into information the public can use  Example: Geography’s GeoVisualization Lab and use of CommunityViz  Example: Arid Land’s WALTER site

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, New Initiative  Need outside funding to move forward with the Atlas  Importance of collaborating with other units on campus Importance of identifying units with similar interests and challenges  ClimateView  How is the approach to ClimateView different than the Atlas?

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, What’s Next?  Work with groups on campus to integrate the use of ClimateView into the curriculum  Move on to other topics of importance to the campus and the state  Continue developing these modules that work with the Atlas and provide key learning modules

Living the Future 6 -- April 6, Questions?