Challenges and strategies of supporting GIS at MIT

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Challenges and strategies of supporting GIS at
MIT

• The MIT GIS Lab
• a collaborative effort by
• Information Services and Technology (IST)
• and the
• MIT Libraries

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History
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Users

• MIT has approximately
• 4,000 undergraduates
• 6,000 graduate students
• 2,000 professors, lecturers, instructors, adjunct
  faculty, etc.
• Graduate students are the most common user group
  for GIS. They have more freedom to explore new
  ideas in their research and more time to learn to
  use GIS well.

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Users

• Departments most frequently using GIS Services
• School of Architecture and Planning
• Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
• Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
• Economics
• Political Science
• Sloan School of Management

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Users

• Intelligent innovative
• Balance many projects at once
• Work 24/7
• Aware of the world around them and care about
  making a positive impact

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iSPOTS How Wireless Technology is Changing Life
on the MIT Campus

• The iSPOTS project aims at describing changes in
  living and working at MIT by mapping the dynamics
  of the wireless network in real-time.
• http//ispots.mit.edu/
• MIT News Office Article (November 1, 2005)
• http//web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/ispots.html

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GIS Staff

• 1 full time GIS position is staffed by
  Information Services and Technology (IST)
  Daniel Sheehan
• 1 full time GIS position is staffed by the MIT
  Libraries Lisa Sweeney
• The CEE Librarian works 5 hours/ week in GIS
  support during the academic year Anne Graham
• 1-2 student assistants generally per semester

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Staff

• There are many staff people in IST and the MIT
  Libraries that help make GIS Services operate
• IST
• ESRI and PCI Geomatica site licenses
  purchasing/maintenance, running license keys on
  server for 24/7 access, software distribution
• Geodata Repository maintenance upgrades for
  servers maintains server software, oracle, SDE
  developed tools for data loading, metadata
  conversion, and search tool
• MIT Libraries
• data licensing, acquisitions, cataloging,
  processing, circulation, IT support for GIS lab,
  metadata for all files loaded into MIT Geodata
  Repository, Social Science data librarian

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Instruction and Outreach

• 11 assistance
• lab hours in the afternoons and by appointment
• IAP workshops
• Independent Activities Period - January
• Workshops during the semester
• Work with MIT classes by request
• ESRI virtual campus classes
• Library print resources
• Orientation sessions at the beginning of the fall
  semester

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Workshops IAP

• 3 hours in duration
• Introduction to ArcGIS
• Working with US Census Data in a GIS
• Working with Digital Elevation Models
• Site selection making spatial decisions using a
  GIS
• Programming in ArcGIS (using visual basic)
• Advanced ArcGIS
• Introduction to imagery

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Workshops during semester

• 1 hour lunch time sessions
• Introduction to ArcGIS
• Working with US Census Data in a GIS
• GPS for library staff
• GPS for anyone at MIT
• Where does water flow? How to read topographic
  maps and work with Digital Elevation Models
• Civil and Environmental Engineering department
  workshop series

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Working with classes

• Examples from Spring 2006
• Site and Landscape Planning Hopkinton, MA
  (11.304J/4.255J)
• Urban Design - New Jersey (11.332J/4.163J)
• The Once and Future City (4.211J/11.016J)
• Architecture studio Building in Cities
  Charlestown shipyard (4.126)
• Engineering for Sustainability (1.020)

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Obtaining Data

• Budget
• Buy vs lease
• Public domain data
• http//seamless.usgs.gov
• http//nationalmap.gov/
• Data sources
• Data formats media storage
• Areas of Interest
• know your users
• strategize

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Enabling Discovery and Access to Data

• Enable discovery
• MIT Geodata Repository Search Tool
• Barton (MIT Librarys online catalog)
• Enable Access
• MIT Geodata Repository
• add data directly to ArcMap
• available 24/7 from anywhere with a network
  connection
• CD/DVDs
• available during Rotch Library operating hours

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Searching the MIT Geodata Repository

• Search Criteria include
• Subject
• Place
• Title
• Publisher
• content date
• published date

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Search Results
Users see the title of the dataset along with the
geometry type and the size of the layer.
Metadata is available for each layer.
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FGDC Metadata available for all MIT Geodata
Repository files
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Challenges for a traditional library system

• Time intensive assistance
• spend about 45 minutes with each user on average
• Intensive use of technology
• General computer troubleshooting
• Digital formats, media types, network access
• Data complexities
• Acquisition Cataloging of unusual materials
• Unusual circulation procedures

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Assistance Examples

• The Wrong Side of the Tracks Estimating the
  Causal Effects of Racial Segregation on City
  Outcomes
• Programming finding neighbors