Submitted by Judy Watts
Geospatial Technology Support in Small Academic Libraries: Time to Jump on Board?, by Carrie M. Macfarlane and Christopher M. Rodgers, Middlebury College, has just appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. This article describes in some detail the work that Carrie did with GIS Interns Katie Clagett and Chris Rogers leading to the Google Earth and GIS support that is now offered by Digital Media Tutors in the Wilson Lab.
Congratulations to Carrie and Chris for producing a piece that is both entertaining and useful to other institutions attempting to find a way to offer support for geospatial technologies. What is described in the article represents a huge commitment by three very dedicated individuals – Carrie, Katie, and Chris – leading to the successful application of geospatial techniques across the curriculum. There were many challenges along the way, including rapidly developing technology and the end of funding for GIS interns, but the result is that students and faculty may now find a wide range of support to suit their needs. Kudos, too, to Joe Antonioli and the Digital Media tutors for stepping up to the challenge and adding yet more ways to help.
Nice article. I think it’s a great solution to have the media tutors supporting Google Earth and some support for ARC GIS. I hope that this will be sufficient for most of our students and faculty doing smaller projects. However our 2 interns were able to work more in-depth with our users, so I believe it will be important to evaluate how successful we are with students or faculty needing help beyond several hours of tutor time. Can the geography dept. GIS lab support more extensive requests from users outside geography? We currently have a prof working on a project that may test our limits. There’s also a difference between someone coming in to the lab and doing the work themself but needing help along the way at diffent times (similar to any other technology) and faculty who seek someone to do some of this GIS work for them. How much can be accommodated outside of summer projects? At what point does the faculty member need to hire a student research assistant from dept. or grant funds? I think our experiences over the next few years should help us to answer these questions and refine our program.