Map Room to Data and GIS Services: Five University Libraries Evolving to Meet Campus Needs and Changing Technologies

Abstract

Programs for geospatial support at academic libraries have evolved over the past decade in response to changing campus needs and developing technologies. Geospatial applications have matured tremendously in this time, emerging from specialty tools to become broadly used across numerous disciplines. At many universities, the library has served as a central resource allowing students and faculty across academic departments access to GIS resources. Today, as many academic libraries evaluate their spaces and services, GIS and data services are central in discussions on how to further engage with patrons and meet increasingly diverse researcher needs. As library programs evolve to support increasingly technical data and GIS needs, many universities are faced with similar challenges and opportunities. To explore these themes, data and GIS services librarians and GIS specialists from five universities—the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Texas A&M, New York University, North Carolina State University, and California Polytechnic State University—with different models of library geospatial and data support, describe their programs to help identify common services, as well as unique challenges, opportunities, and future plans.

KEYWORDS:

• Geographic Information Services
• GIS
• GIS services
• data services
• reference
• instruction
• collections
• outreach
• infrastructure
• spatial literacy

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⁴⁴Data Management Planning Web site: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/guides/datamanagement

⁴⁵Geospatial Data Archiving Project Web site: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap

⁴⁶Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership Web site: http://www.geomapp.net

⁴⁷http://calpolynews.calpoly.edu/quickfacts.html

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⁴⁹http://libguides.calpoly.edu/datastudio