Purpose:
The goal of this grant was to establish an association wide resource
for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) awareness. This was achieved
by providing funding for audio-visual equipment rental for presentations
involving GIS. Although the Geography and Map Division took the lead
in planning these presentations, other SLA divisions were invited to use
the resources provided by this grant as well. This benefited the
SLA membership as a whole by increasing the understanding of the various
applications of this new information technology as more libraries and information
centers incorporate GIS into their patron service operations. In
the future, information professionals will be called upon to access, acquire,
and assess geospatial information using GIS in response to requests from
corporate, private, academic, and government decision makers.
In order to prepare SLA members to meet this challenge, this grant’s goal
was achieved through the objectives of increased attendance among
SLA membership at GIS presentations and increased involvement by other
SLA divisions in planning GIS presentations.
Statement of Work:
This grant provided funding for three years (2001-2003), and the work
cycle was repeated on an annual basis.
With the goal of establishing an association wide resource for Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) awareness, the following steps were employed:
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Made potential cooperating divisions aware of available audio visual funding
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Explored potential topics
-
Confirmed topics and presenters
-
Estimated budget for presentations
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Presentations at conference; collected attendance statistics
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Wrote reports
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Paid conference audio-visual expense
Significance:
Geographic Information Systems are becoming more common in special
libraries as researchers and decision makers realize the visual impact
and rapid comprehension provided by the geospatial display of information.
As more information users become aware of the potential of GIS, more special
librarians will be tasked to provide GIS-based services for corporate,
private, academic, and government decision makers. In order to evaluate,
plan, and initiate these services, librarians must be aware of the information
retrieval potential of GIS. The grant funded GIS programs mainly
focused on demonstrating GIS information retrieval as used by subject experts
rather than providing GIS developer instruction, although a continuing
education instructional program for GIS was held at the 2003 annual conference
in New York City. Since the Geography & Map Division members
specialize in providing geospatial information reference service, the Division
took the lead in providing a geospatial component to SLA's conference programming.
Evaluation:
The GIS awareness program’s effectiveness was evaluated through two
methods. First, statistics on the number and primary division affiliation
of the presentation attendees were collected and compared to the statistics
for the pre-grant GIS presentation at the 2000 conference.
The change in the number of attendees and the diversity of primary division
affiliations were determined relative to the pre-grant GIS presentation
in 2000 and after each subsequent GIS presentation at the annual conference.
Second, as GIS awareness increases, each year should bring new divisions
interested in co-sponsoring presentation. A record of the participating
units was provided in the interim and final reports.
Staff:
John Anderson - Division Past-Chair
Kelly Blessinger - Division Member and Grant Chair
Mary Galneder - Division Treasurer
Bruce Obenhaus - Division Past-Chair
Anita Oser - Division Past-Chair, 2001 Conference Program Planner
Vanette Schwartz - Section Chair, 2002 Conference Program Planner
Dissemination:
Interim reports after each annual conference briefly describe the GIS
presentation topics and provide the co-sponsoring division(s), audio-visual
expenses, and statistics on the members and primary division affiliations
of the attendees. The annual interim reports were disseminated
to the SLA national office and division leadership through the appropriate
discussion lists including, but not limited to, those lists for unit leaders
and program planners. |
