Research Guides: Academic Technology Fair (SC): GIS

GIS in Action

This map offers an example of GIS in action after the major earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Volunteers with Open Street Map used cellphones and other location-aware devices to create this map of collapsed buildings, roadway obstacles, and other possible hazards. Relief workers and others used the map to assist in navigating the altered landscape.

Simple GIS Tools

Scribble Maps
Easily draw on maps and share them with others. Simple enough to be used by beginners.
Fulcrum
Create your own location-based data collection apps and deploy them to your mobile device within minutes. Collect data in the field quickly and accurately, with maximum flexibility.

Social Explorer
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Use Social Explorer to visualize U.S. Census data from 1790-present. For example, you can create maps showing demographic changes in a certain area over time. Social Explorer includes both the long-form Census and American Community Survey data.

Social Explorer's "Reports" function allows you to easily generate tables of Census data for export to Excel and other programs. You can use this data in the web mapping tools listed below or in ArcGIS.

Web Mapping

These tools allow the user to upload a spreadsheet of data and create a map.

Google Fusion Tables
Easily upload a spreadsheet of data and create a map (using Google's basemap). Your spreadsheet must include a column of location data (e.g. addresses, zip codes, coordinates) in order for the mapping to work.

Try Google's tutorial to create a simple map and get a sense for how Google Fusion works.
CartoDB
Has more of a learning curve than Google Fusion. CartoDB offers beautiful basemaps, but also requires some knowledge of CSS and SQL.

Spatial Data

The Tri-College Libraries Maps & Geography guide includes the following types of spatial data resources. Swarthmore also licenses some geospatial data for use by members of the College community - ask Doug Willen or Sarah Elichko for assistance accessing that data.

Questions about GIS?

		Sarah Elichko Social Sciences Librarian Contact
		Megan Heckert Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Contact
		Doug Willen Academic Technologist for Social Sciences Contact