NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 21 number 2 - Winter 2001

By Steven Morris, Research and Information Services

The NCSU Libraries' Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services have steadily been developed and enhanced since 1992. By facilitating the input, storage, manipulation, and display of geographically referenced data, GIS allow users to relate disparate information on the basis of common geographic location. In addition to providing online access to data resources, the library's GIS services offer users technical support, training, and workstation access. Substantial enhancements have occurred recently in the area of data collection development, user training, and collaboration with off-campus organizations.

One key data acquisition has been statewide coverage of one-meter resolution Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) from the U.S. Geological Survey. The DOQQs consist of digital orthophotography, in which displacements associated with terrain and camera angle are corrected to create digital photographic maps, which have proven to be the most frequently requested resource in the library's GIS data collection. Through partnerships with state agencies, added-value versions of the DOQQs are available to campus users as well.

Using funds from a $20,000 University Extension Grant for a project titled "Building a Database of Local Government Geodata Resources," the library began another data acquisition effort concentrated on GIS data from North Carolina local government. Data resources that are typically available from county and sometimes city governments include high-resolution digital orthophotography, land-parcel data, land-use data, street centerlines, topographic contours, and various infrastructure and cultural data layers. Initial data acquisition efforts have focused on the Neuse and Tar river basins, as well as coastal North Carolina. The goal is to acquire data for fifty counties by summer 2001.

The library's GIS workshop program has been supplemented by a campus subscription to the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Virtual Campus online GIS training modules, to provide a training component that complements the library's model for time- and location-independent access to GIS data resources. The subscription, which was secured with the support of NC State Humanities Extension and Publications, allows NCSU faculty, staff, and students to enroll in any of more than twenty online GIS courses and learn at their own pace. The Web-based training supplements the extensive Web-based GIS documentation maintained by the Libraries.

Efforts to improve public access to GIS data have also gone forward. The Web-based Upper Neuse Region Data System, developed as a collaborative effort of the College of Natural Resources, the Libraries, and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, has been supplemented by the Western North Carolina Data System, created by the same partners. This online mapping service provides public, interactive access to more than ninety different mapping data layers, such as streets and flood zones, for the twenty-four westernmost counties of the state.

Collaboration with North Carolina state agencies has deepened in the past two years. In spring 2000 the NCSU Libraries entered into a memorandum of agreement with the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA) for campus access, via the library, to state government GIS data. Steve Morris, as the library's leading GIS expert, served on the state government Internet Map Server Work Group, which was responsible for requirements analysis and initial design of the new state government map server, ncmapnet.com. The map server provides public access to state government GIS data resources. Morris also represents the University of North Carolina system on the State Mapping Advisory Committee.

As a reflection of the growing role of GIS and data in the mix of library services, two new half-time positions have been added to its data services operation, a data services librarian and, for two years, an NCSU Libraries Fellow. Future directions for library GIS services include developing remote and thin-client access to very large data resources. As data holdings grow exponentially larger in size, and as the user population becomes more diverse and geographically dispersed, a need will arise to facilitate flexible, interactive access to data resources by both on- and off-campus users of varying skill levels. For more information about the Libraries' GIS services, go to URL http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/gis/. Queries should be directed to Steve Morris, Data Services, at (919) 513-2614; electronic-mail address: steven_morris@ncsu.edu.