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I'm glad the subject of how much work librarians should be doing
with GIS has come up on MAPS-L. It's become a critical issue here
at the University of Chicago Map Collection, where several
hundred people have made use of digital spatial data during the
last twenty months or so. Most of these have used the Sammamish
software to work with 1990 census data, but many people have made
outline maps from the ESRI data sets, and a few patrons have also
played with _Street atlas USA_ and other materials. Just about
everyone has needed help in getting started, and the majority of
users have required vast amounts of additional help. I've done
what I could to minimize this. I've written elaborate instruction
sheets. I've also extracted data likely to be used, as Pat has
evidently done at UConn (but here it's block-level data for Cook
County, and tract-level data for Northeastern Illinois and a
number of other large urban areas (New York, Southern and
Northern California, etc.)). I've quasi-cataloged these
"permanent" hard-disk files and also printed out several dozen
good-quality maps on our plotter so patrons can skip the computer
altogether. But I've still had to spend hours a week helping
people. I enjoy doing this (it's wonderful to see users so
pleased). In many ways helping people make digital maps fits into
the Map Collection's tradition of personal service. But there
have been weeks when there hasn't been time for much else, and
this just doesn't work. (At risk of sounding like the worst
whiner in the world, I'm also anthropology, geography, and acting
sociology bibliographer ("acting" for 2-2/3 years) in a library
that doesn't believe in blanket-order plans.)
 
When I mentioned this problem on the ARL-GIS list late last
spring, the only response I got was that the Library should
provide more staff. It was useful to show this response to my
supervisors, but more staff really wouldn't help much, since it
takes hours and hours to learn to use the software well, and the
students who work at the Map Collection really aren't here long
enough to have a chance to do this, and, besides, I need them to
file maps and do other traditional Map Collection clerical tasks
(although the dropoff in the government's production of paper
maps [a subject I'd like to see discussed on MAPS-L] has allowed
some shifting around here).
 
I certainly don't think we should be withdrawing the service.
There's a demand for it; no one else (certainly not the
University Computing Organization) is going to provide it; it's
actually a good chance for a map library to be a little less at
the margin of things. I hope someone will tell me if I'm wrong,
but the only thing I can think of that would lessen the burden
would be if digital mapping companies made their software easier
for users to manipulate. If GeoSight FactFinder or ArcView were
as easy to maneuver through as your average online catalog there
wouldn't be a problem at all.
 
Chris Winters
University of Chicago Library
 
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