GIS/Data Center Provides Maps for Research

GIS/Data Center Provides Maps for Research

BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY
Rice News Staff
Nov. 19, 1998

Faculty and students at Rice have at their disposal a new research tool: a high-tech computing center devoted to information-ladened maps.

Although the GIS/Data Center in Fondren Library officially opened last Friday, Dora-lyn Edwards, librarian in charge of the center, said researchers at Rice have been using the center’s resources since September.

GIS is shorthand for Geographic Information Systems, a computer software program capable of transforming data on everything from voter trends in Harris County to the historical route of an escaping slave into valuable maps that visually represent the data. Typically, a researcher viewing data on a spreadsheet is looking at row after row of numbers. The data is there, but some important correlations may be lost.

“GIS is a useful system for assessing different types of information visually,” Edwards explained. “There is only so much you can get from looking at sheer numbers. A map can either first clarify something that wasn’t obvious from looking at it in a textual format or, second, it can be a persuasive tool.”

Funding for creation of the center was made possible by a Hobby Foundation donation to Rice.

Most of the center’s resources are limited to Rice faculty, students and staff, although some government data is available to anyone through the center.

The center also provides introductory instruction and software packages, Edwards said. The two main GIS software programs available are ArcView and MapInfo.

The GIS center also serves as a GIS classroom with equipment capable of projecting a computer image onto a large screen.

The center also offers tutorials and workshops and provides access to data sets, maps and related information otherwise unobtainable by or costly to patrons. In addition, Edwards will assist Rice University instructors with finding ways to integrate GIS technology into teaching and the classroom.