Michael Goodchild
Professor of Geography
University of California, Santa Barbara
Director
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
State University of New York
E-mail: good@ncgia.UCSB.EDU

Geographic Data and the New Information Profession

GENERAL SESSION II: Converging Domains,
Thursday, February 13, 1997, 9:30am - 10:30am

GIS researchers, working with researchers from other disciplines, are developing a research agenda which includes cognitive models of geographic space; computational implementations of geographic concepts, and issues of fundamental significance raised by the growth of geographic information and associated technologies. It will include impacts of digital geographic information and associated technologies on society; the social, institutional, and economic issues that they raise; the kinds of geographies being constructed in virtual worlds; and the future roles of geographic information in society.

Yet already the transition to digital information offers to change that, by making it as easy to handle special types of information as it is to handle text. The Alexandria Digital Library is an example of efforts to integrate special forms of information into the digital library mainstream. The digital library will be able to manipulate information after it is retrieved, suggesting that the capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS) can be integrated with analogs of the more traditional library functions, and that we need to think of future libraries as fully integrated workspaces. Digital geography will allow librarians to offer entirely new methods of search, lead to new ways of thinking about library collections, and place new demands on information professionals.

.......................................................................................................

Previous abstract || Next abstract || Preliminary program || ALISE home