Geo 801 F '06 Name ______

Searching for GIS-Related Information Come to class ready to discuss: Friday, Sept. 8 (do not leave this assignment till the last minute; some sites get overloaded or go down temporarily and you have to come back)

This is a "library" exercise for graduate students. At one time, a library assignment would have been done completely in the building called The Main Library, but the wealth of materials now available on the web allows us to do a lot of our “library work” right at our own Internet-connected computer. As a graduate student (and later as a professional) you need to be able to answer such questions as: What has been written about subject X? Who wrote the article entitled "Blah blah blah" and when? Has anything been written subsequently on that topic? Who is Prof. Z and what sorts of things has he/she written? What does [supply a GISci word] mean? What is company Y, which is advertising a GIS position, all about? Where exactly is company Y located so I can keep an appointment there? How do I register for the next conference of AAG, which will have some sessions and contacts of interest to me? When is the next IMAGIN conference? the next ICA (International Cartographic Association) or IGU (International Geographical Union) meeting? I need/want a copy of article Z—tonight; how do I get it? How do I send the URL for it to my major professor?

Taking some of these questions, the search tasks below will have hints (they look like this) about finding the information but you should think about what you are doing in following the hints so you could repeat the process and also so you can branch out and discover resources on your own for at least some of these items. You are expected to come to class with answers to the questions and ready to discuss your discoveries.

What if you get stuck? Helping each other is not only permitted but encouraged on this exercise. Do try finding things on your own first, but you may share information and assist one another as needed. Remember that asking for and accepting help when needed is as important professionally as giving help. And remember that one can and should be on both the receiving and giving end from time to time. There is a question at the bottom of the exercise so you can give credit to your helpers as well as indicate your service to others.

1. Find the following through the MSU Library: a) Figure 5 in “Meandering Valleys and Underfit Rivers” by W(illiam) M(orris) Davis, which appeared in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 3, 1913, pp. 3-28.

Go to Electronic Resources, under ‘Search electronic resources by Subject’ use the down button to find “Geography,” GO, then scroll down till you see the list of journals.

b) The abstract for: S. J. Zhao, L. Y. Xiong, and A. Z. Ren, A Spatial–Temporal Stochastic Simulation of Fire Outbreaks Following Earthquake Based on GIS, Journal of Fire Sciences, 2006, 24:4, 313-339.

Find the journal by name on the Library’s regular webpage and find the electronic version of it on its record.

2. Find out what has been written on the use of GIS in educational planning (i.e., school planning [bus routes, buildings issues,…], not things like urban planning programs or preparing classes). If you find a lot of articles, select four of them that seem especially pertinent and attach full references (printouts of the information page is fine; don’t print the whole article). A resource that is worth knowing about when looking for this type of information is the bibliography that was started by Duane Marble and was put on the web by ESRI. Hints for finding it: ESRI page, Training, ESRI Training and Education, Library. You can then put terms in to search for materials.

Another resource that may be helpful is a good old search engine like Google. Have a look at its Advanced Search capabilities as well as the usual quick entry form, and try the Scholar option as well. If you are unfamiliar with such things as using quotation marks around phrases and using "or", go to Advanced Search Tips at the top of the Advanced Search page. If you have some alternative favorite search engine, let us know.

Also, the MSU Library (like many institutional libraries) subscribes to bibliographic services. Go to the library site and select "E Resources" at the top of the page and go to Indexes. Have a brief look at each option and then select ERIC (I use the one on First Search) and see what you find. [What does ERIC stand for? ______hint: look it up on Google.]

Your search notes:

3. A) You read the abstract of an article about succession of riparian vegetation (i.e., vegetation at the edges of waterbodies, especially rivers) and you remember that one of the authors was Walford or something like that. Now something sparked your interest in the contents of that article and you want to read the whole thing. It was in a geographical journal, but that's about all you can remember. Find and attach a printout of the full reference to this article.

Try the ISI Citation Databases, now also known as Web of Science, accessible via the Library. Hints: On the E-Resources page, scroll down till you see it; it is a very general and highly-used resource, hence it is accessible right from that page. When you access the Web of Science page, you will see a Go next to a Web of Science bar, click on that.

B) When you have located the reference, check up on whether there is anything else in that database by Walford. Attach any that you find.

Your search notes:

4. A) Now comes an interesting question. Let's say you want to know what has been done on a topic since an article you read. For example, Michael Goodchild and a whole group of others wrote an article on integrating GIS and spatial data-analysis in IJGIS several years ago. It is probably cited in most articles that have come out since that time that have anything to do with integrating GIS and analysis. You are wondering what sorts of things have been published on the subject since their piece. Use the ISI Citation Databases to see what has since been written. Attach whatever you find. This is an IMPORTANT question and you are expected to come with an answer—seek help if you need to!

Connect to Web of Science (or ISI Citation Databases) from the Library pages. Click on Go next to the Web of Science bar. Get the exact citation of the article using General Search. Type in the author as Goodchild, M. Click the “full source title list” and type in “international journal of g” to get the exact title of the journal (hint: if IJGIScience doesn’t work, try Systems) and be sure to say “ok” at the bottom of the page to transfer it to your search page. Once you get to the citation, note that the number of times cited shows up as something clickable. Click it for the list of items that cite this article.

B) Assuming you found the citations, in how many different journals has it been cited (according to ISI)? Why might this not be the real total?

2 C) No need to do a search for this question: Where would you look for the material on the subject that pre-dated the article?

Your search notes (any part of question 3):

5. Increasingly we can find entire articles on the web. Informal copies of items may be on websites, but some journals are "on the web" as well to appropriate subscribers. You are probably already aware that when you locate a journal in the Library catalog, you can then link to it from that page if the Library has an online subscription. You can also go to E-resources to find journals (as you did in #1), and sometimes that works better because it may connect to an alternate source.

A) Look up the Annals of the Association of American Geographers in Magic and then click your way into a recent issue and bring up the full text of an article. Print out the first page only. (If you have problems use an alternative source; go to E-resources if need be.) Keep the article oepn to answer B).

B) You want to send the URL to a professor so s/he can have a look at it. Here is what to look for to get one in various electronic resources in our library:

JSTOR: Stable URL First Search: Link Pickup, then IP-address recognition URL… Science Direct (Elsevier), Blackwell/Synergy, Kluwer Online: DOI, insert it after http://dx.doi.org Ovid: Email Jumpstart (at abstract view); Your jumpstart URL is:… Infotrac: URL in the regular address line at the top of the browser page BioOne: ditto, but only in the Full Text View (not .pdf)

Write down the URL you would send your prof:

C) Use Web of Science to search for a GIS topic of your choice and use the information to access an article via our library. You may have to write down year, volume, and pages, and copy the journal title to put into the Library catalog, but in all likelihood you can just click on something that gives access.

Your search notes:

6. Who is (choose one least familiar to you): Arthur H. Robinson, Jack Estes, Barbara Petchenik, Mark Monmonier, Harlan Onsrud, Stan Openshaw)? What does this person have to do with GISci? (You 3 can attach relevant materials (no more than 3 selected pages), but write a brief answer to the question here:

Your search notes:

7. What does LIAA stand for (you know it’s in Michigan and has something to do with GIS)? What is the phone number for it? Print out and attach a map that shows where it is (use mapquest or maps.google ).

Your search notes:

8. What is the (early) student registration fee for the next annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG)? In what city will the meeting be held? How much does it cost you to be a student member of AAG?

Your search notes:

9. Finally, who (if anyone) was helpful to you in doing this assignment and for whom (if anyone) were you able to provide assistance or hints?

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