Tuesday, February 5, 2019 by Mary Lynne Bartlett
Alright, alright. Round two, I am back and better. Before I get too ahead of myself, my name is Maryam Shaker-Azab, I am a 2B Kin Student. This is my second term being a library ambassador. One of my responsibilities is to connect with students and shine a light on some of the awesome resources available to them at the Library. Today, I present you with the Geospatial Centre. Now, I know what you are thinking, “Maryam, I am not in Environment/Geography” While let me enlighten you, as an Applied Health student, I need to know and understand demographic information about a population, and where can I get this information? You guessed it! The Geospatial Centre. From 3D maps, to cool visualizations made by taking data about car accidents in Toronto to Stats Canada data, the Geospatial Centre has many resources available to help you ace your next project!
What is the Geospatial Centre?
The Geospatial Centre is where you can find street data, environmental data and orthoimage for most of Ontario. Resources include thousands of maps, ranging from worldwide maps to maps of the City of Waterloo. Aerial photos and atlases for Canada and other counters around the world.
Where is the Geospatial Centre?
It is located on the third floor of Dana Porter Library, near the elevators. For the winter term, the Geospatial Centre is open from 8:30-6:00 pm from Monday-Thursday. And from 8:30- 4:30 on Friday, on the weekends it is closed. Geographic Information System (GIS) is open from Monday- Friday at 10:00-12:00 and 1:30-4:30.
What are some other things available for student use?
A coloured printer and a large-format scanner are all available to student use. Also, the Geographic Information System (GIS) computer stations where organization make maps that are share information, communicate, and perform analysis to collectively solve geographical issues by collecting well-mapped data.
Who can I contact to point me to the right resource for my project?
There are many awesome people at the Geospatial that are welling to lend a helping hand. Eva Dodsworth is the Geospatial Data Services Librarian, you can contact her if you need any help with instructions on how to use GIS software, or tips on how to better your data collection. If you have any last minute question or you can’t make it to DP, you can also access the GIS E-Reference through LibraryGEO@library.uwaterloo.ca .
What are some of the collections available to us?
The Geospatial Centre has an extensive collection of both data and cartographic resources. Some of the resources include online mapping where you can access interactive and digitized static maps and atlases. Also, Aerial photographs and satellite images from 1930-2000, an interactive index and images of the region of waterloo from 1930-1960s in the Air Photos Digitization Project. Lastly, Canada, U.S.A and world geospatial data resources are also available.
-Maryam
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