Global+Imaging+System

= Global Imaging System = toc How GIS affects the LIS profession GIS (Global Imaging System, of which Global Positioning is a part) is data. Today, with the internet, and with the proliferation of free GIS software, there is more data than ever before, being crafted into usable files. GIS can add layers to maps showing topographic, botanic and geological data; GIS can help chart migrations, language pockets, history, and future projections. Students, teachers, researchers, emergency personnel, Google, journalists, politicians, environmental modelers, city planners, construction engineers, transportation companies, and the grandmother next door can create layered information items which need to be managed and stored. Depending on the mission of the facility, any of these, or more than one in any combination, could be relevant for patrons.

Global Positioning System Sailors used the stars to navigate the seas. Famously, the Three Wise Men used a star to find their way. In the beginning, ships sailed within sight of the coastline, which could be dangerous, with off-shore shoals and reefs. The stars, particularly the fixed stars, became a method of night-time navigation. Sextants, then compasses, were used to keep a ship on course. The sun's position told the latitude. Maps were made, using the most accurate information available. Satellites offered the hope of full views of earth's surface. Though they are not completely accurate due to various color and atmospheric influences, they are more accurate than older, hand-drawn maps. In 1993, the U.S. Air Force launched the 24th Navstar satellite into orbit, completing an array of satellites called the Global Positioning System.

GIS users
Special collections and organizations serving historians, geographers, cartographers, genealogists, urban planners and others, can use GPS data to serve their various populations. GPS can align old photographs, and artistic depictions, with current photographs; urban planners can use GPS with photography to see the changing elements in a city; historians can use GPS to see the changes over time that certain elements, such as emmigration and immigration, industrialization, gentrification, urban sprawl, reforestation, erosion, and so forth, have created in a place; students can use GPS images with map overlay to see how times have changed, including public transport, traffic patterns, population migration, and the changing fortunes of various parts of a city. More immediate uses include disaster preparedness. For instance, maps of earthquake faults can be over-laid on proposed building sites and existing structures.

In addition, GIS (global imaging system) can help to take photographs from the same location over a period of decades by triangulating coordinates to show the photographer where to stand in order to duplicate a particular image. Such images are used to locate where a feature used to be, to chronicle the environmental changes in a place, to view habitation patterns; anything a researcher, instructor, student, or anybody else, can think to do with a map, can be enhanced by GIS data.



Examples

 * Business can use GIS to integrate sales to locations; the location of outside workers, such as salesmen or repairmen, in real time, in order to coordinate customer service.
 * Grid data can help speed calculations for elevation and triangulation.
 * Emergency dispatchers can find the best routes for personnel unfamiliar with an area.
 * GPS applications on mobile phones and other mobile devices can monitor traffic along the route; the same layering can inform emergency personnel about the best route to follow to give assistance.
 * City planners can overlay a buildings map onto a fault line map, to show which buildings would be most vulnerable in an earthquake.
 * Rescue crews can use overlays to show both location and topography for downed planes, fire fighting, and other wilderness emergencies.
 * Disaster workers can use overlays to show vulnerable areas in the event of flooding.
 * Layering allows a more complete view of a given location, including heights, water features, coastlines, and development, and allows for aerial and satellite images to be imposed overall.
 * Artists using GIS can re-create or enhance historic photos and artwork.
 * Many other possibilities.

Other references:
Nyssen, J., Amaury, F., Munro, R. N., Billi, P., & Haile, M. (2010, September). Digital photographic archives for environmental and historical studies: An example from Ethiopia. Scottish Geographical Journal, 126(3), 185-207.