1 An introduction to GIS for NOF projects Paul Miller Interoperability Focus UKOLN U KOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (J ISC ) of the Further and Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from J ISC and the EU. U KOLN also receives support from the Universities of Bath and Hull where staff are based.

2 What is GIS? “A system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analysing and displaying data which are spatially referenced to the Earth.” (AGI, 1995)

3 See citymap.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/

4 What is GIS? Geographic Information System Geographic Over 80% of public sector data is said to have a geospatial component –An address, a postcode, a grid reference, even a county… Information Much of the data stored in databases can be linked using this geospatial component –Salary, buying preferences, artistic style, historical period, photographer…

5 What is GIS? Geographic Information System System Not simply the output (often a map) –Includes the processes, procedures, rules, etc. to create, combine, validate, and analyse data….

6 Do I need GIS? It depends… Do you have much data that would make sense linked to a map? –And do any licensing restrictions apply? Do you have access to the requisite skills and equipment? –The software is getting much easier, but it’s still a complex area Does it fit with your project? –Some projects really don’t need this….

7 Ways to use GIS (roughly) Behind the scenes, simply helping you Behind the scenes, producing map images Behind the scenes, producing map images to drive an image map On the website, selecting data in response to user queries On the website, producing maps in response to user queries On the website, producing maps in response to user queries, and allowing the user to interact with the result.

8 Simply helping you… Plotting locations of buildings photographed for management reasons? Ensuring equitable distribution of funds by geography? Tracking users against known areas of Social Exclusion? Highlighting significant areas for more work? The user may never know ‘Boring’ Useful. Ways to use GIS

9 Producing map images… Combining different sources of data in order to produce maps, graphs, etc, which illustrate points on your web site. These maps are ‘static’; just as if they were printed in a book. Ways to use GIS

10 See