GIS Specialist Attends Indianapolis Annual Conference

Annual Indiana Geographic Information Council Conference Report

Angela Gibson, GIS Specialist, attended the Annual Indiana GIS Conference in Indianapolis on February 19-20, 2008. The conference included workshops centered on the ArcGIS Server, Web-based mapping with Google and Microsoft, and new online environmental sensitivity tools.

Shorter length sessions were offered for a variety of subjects, such as the state of the USGS National Geospatial programs, development of the Indiana Historical Aerial Photo Index, usability of free and low-cost GIS software, and a variety of subject and various task-specific topics. Two especially interesting software programs available at little to no cost that allow for desktop and Internet viewing, manipulating map data, and even some analysis were discussed. The first is AccuGlobe from Digital Data Technologies (for PC) and My World GIS from Northwestern University (for MAC). AccuGlobe Desktop 2007 can be downloaded for free at www.accuglobe.net and offers many GIS standards such as support for ECW, JPEG, and PNG layers, and legend grouping. My World GIS is a Geographic Information System (GIS) designed specifically for use in educational settings. It provides a selected subset of the features of a professional GIS environment, www.myworldgis.org/software.

This year’s Annual Indiana GIS Conference offered a plethora of new ideas, technologies, and creative uses of GIS technology, many of which will prove to be very useful for students and faculty who use the Geospatial Resources and Map Collection at Bracken Library.