GIS Services in EDS
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Introduction

Support for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping software on the Morningside Campus are available in EDS. As a part of a cooperative arrangement with Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), EDS and CIESIN are working toward developing a Columbia-wide GIS user support policy.

As one of the first Columbia organizations to develop expertise in GIS, CIESIN has provided the bulk of GIS support to the Columbia community. Additionally, CIESIN has administered Columbia's ESRI product site license for many years. During that time, use of GIS has grown substantially among the data user community and across many disciplines. Knowledgeable about trends in data service, EDS has been aware of the surge in GIS use among data users, and has been preparing to support GIS users by training staff members to use GIS software, obtaining spatial datasets, and forging relationships with members of the Columbia community known to be using GIS in order to better understand their support needs.

EDS services have traditionally been provided as part of a collaborative effort between Academic Information Systems (AcIS) and the Libraries. With the hope of further building on that tradition, EDS would like to participate the development of a Columbia-wide GIS infrastructure in which GIS users could share their expertise and resources when such combined efforts would benefit the Columbia community. Furthermore, EDS would like to assist in the distribution of spatial datasets which have been purchased under license agreements which allow access to all members of the university as well as directly support GIS users in the following three loosely divided categories to be addressed in detail below:

Data Access

EDS offers access to a wide selection of data studies that have the geographic components necessary for mapping. Most popular among the existing EDS user base are the census data and the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line® files. TIGER/Line® files are a digital database of geographic features such as roads, railroads, rivers, lakes, political boundaries, and census statistical boundaries covering the entire United States and its territories. The database contains information about these features such as their location in latitude and longitude, the name, the type of feature, address ranges for most streets, the geographic relationship to other features, and other related information.

There are three different products which allow the mapping of census data offered in EDS. The first set of products are produced by Geolytics, and have an extremely easy-to-use interface. Geolytics products have been available in EDS for many years, and various Geolytics programs provide data for the 1980, 1990, and 2000 censuses. Within the programs, users can make simple color maps which could be used in a report or create either ESRI shape files or MapInfo Exchange Format files to be imported into a GIS application for further processing. EDS has user guides available to describe this process. Importing Geolytics' data and spatial files into a GIS application can be especially useful when users would like to combine some census data with other datasets.

A second product newer to EDS is Allocate, the data extraction software distributed with the Census 2000 Summary File DVD/ROM's produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. EDS has purchased an enhanced version of Allocate in which census data can be merged together with a spatial dataset during the initial data extraction, making the process of combining census data and spatial data much more efficient. Unlike the Geolytics products, Allocate does not actually create spatial files. Instead, a user must merge a spatial data file and census data file extraction into a MapInfo or ESRI product file during the extraction process. Although this may initially sound complicated, this is extremely advantageous to users wishing to use a custom spatial file or create custom variables by allowing them to tailor their extraction to meet their research needs.

Finally, EDS users have access to the raw TIGER/Line® files in EDS which they can then process themselves to meet their specific research needs. To assist users in this, EDS has purchased TGR2SHP, a easy-to-use commercial conversion utility which allows users to design custom ESRI shape files based on their specifications. Access to the raw TIGER/Line® files and TGR2SHP is currently only available to users by appointment.

Beyond census data and the TIGER/Line® files, EDS also provides access to a variety of other spatial data and map files on CD-ROM, the New York State GIS Data Sharing Cooperative, and other Internet based resources. Also, EDS' collaboration with CIESIN has made it possible for EDS to provide access to spatial data studies that they have developed and continue to maintain. CIESIN staff provide EDS with the metadata that describe a study, which is then loaded into DataGate, the EDS catalog and search engine of data studies. The metadata are rich with keywords that the DataGate search engine uses to identify studies upon user queries. Links within the study descriptions then take users directly to CIESIN's online distribution location for viewing and downloading such files.

GIS data support is not limited to data files provided by EDS. Whenever possible, EDS will help users who have obtained data from an outside source should the assistance fall within the normal range of EDS services.

Software Access

AcIS has made access to GIS software widely available on Columbia's Morningside campus by ensuring that the ArcView GIS application is available in all the AcIS labs, electronic classrooms, and electronic podiums (see AcIS Facilities for details). ArcGIS is also available on all the AcIS machines which are able to meet the minimum system and hardware requirements necessary to run such an intensive program. As equipment is upgraded, ArcGIS will become as widely available as ArcView on the Morningside campus.

At present, EDS provides access and support to ArcView and ArcGIS (ESRI), MapInfo, CensusCD+Maps (Geolytics), and TGR2SHP (TGR2SHP software support and assistance converting raw TIGER/Line® files to ESRI shape files is available by appointment only). In addition, EDS has plans to evaluate other GIS products which may be of use to the Columbia community.

Documentation and Training

EDS provides GIS documentation to the Columbia community in order to support GIS users performing their own work in much the same way EDS supports statistical package users. Although EDS does not teach GIS skills, EDS attempts to make users aware of the training opportunities which exist on campus through CIESIN. As a part of the ESRI software site license agreement, CIESIN has access to course codes that allow those at Columbia to take self-paced online tutorials at the ESRI Virtual Campus. EDS has arranged to distribute these course codes via an online request system available on the EDS web site. In addition, EDS assists CIESIN in promoting CIESIN-sponsored GIS training and outreach efforts which include GIS courses taught by CIESIN affiliates through the School of Continuing Education and "GIS Day" on the Morningside campus. A summary of our current GIS services including links to training options and documentation is available at the following URL: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/eds/gis/.

EDS both acquires and develops documentation that supports the GIS data and services provided in EDS. As such, documentation developed by EDS is often dictated by the types of software available in EDS and the demands of EDS users. EDS and CIESIN staff have discussed using their combined expertise to identify topics where users frequently encounter difficulty and to develop needed documentation not currently available. Also on the table between EDS and CIESIN is a joint policy dictating the division of labor based on the level of support needed by the GIS user between the EDS and CIESIN staff supporting Columbia's GIS users as the demand for assistance with GIS software rises.

GIS documentation in EDS is made up of ESRI print publications and EDS User Guides. Below are lists of the GIS documentation currently available and the GIS documentation in development.

ESRI Publications:
Current GIS-Related EDS User Guides:
GIS-Related EDS User Guides In Development:
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