DAVID SHARPGIS LIBRARIAN

CARLETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARYDAVID_SHARP@CARLETON.CA

GPS for GIS: Going Mobile

Global Positioning System

Geographic Information System

GPS and GIS

What to do with a GPS Unit

Activities

Orienteering and Geo-Caching

Navigation

Field Collection of Data

Geospatial Data Collection at Carleton

- Traffic Lights- Safety Phones- Recycling Containers- Garbage Cans- Benches- Picnic Tables- Smoking Areas- Bike Racks- Trail Heads- Tree Species- Handicap Parking- Homeless Shelters- Statutes/Sculptures – War Memorials, - Kids’ Wading Pools and Spray Pads

But more & more requests for unique data points ...

GPS Units, Accurary and Pricing

GPS Unit Accuracy Price Image

IPhone 15-30> feet $350 (?)

Garmin ETrex Legend

5-<30 feet $300

Magellan Mobile Mapper

1.6-<10 feet $4500

High-End Trimble 3/8 Inch $80,000

GPS Screenshots

Types of GPS Data: Tracks and Waypoints

And Routes

DEMO

Downloading GPS Data into a GIS

Select GIS and GPS Applications

• ESRI ArcExplorer (Free) • ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 ($)

• Google Earth (Free)• Google Earth Pro ($)

• GPS Visualizer (Free)

• DNR Garmin (Free)

Accuracy and Metadata

Metadata (Continued)

North American Profile

Borrowing Agreement

Conclusion

A GPS unit is an economical way for libraries to collect data or lend to students to collect data

Can offer data of ‘teaching’ or ‘classroom’ qualityLower end units cannot support ‘research’ quality I have questions about libraries’ role to act as a

repository of crowd sourced data. I have a question about whether it is a Librarian’s

role to proactively create geospatial dataIt does provide access to a useful mobile

technology that will support the universities teaching mission