Developing a Geographic Information System Index for Historical Aerial Photographs

This paper describes the creation of a GIS database index to the collection of historical aerial photographs of Connecticut housed in the Map and Geographic Information Center in the Homer Babbidge Library at the University of Connecticut. The index allows patrons to search for scanned aerial photograph images for a specific location across multiple years and to retrieve digital scans from the Library server. Procedures for scanning and georeferencing the images, preparing metadata for the images, and creating the GIS database index are described.

Community Trails in Community Context: GIS Analysis of Associations between Trail and Neighborhood Characteristics

This research examines the site and situation characteristics of community trails as landscapes promoting physical activity. Trail segment and neighborhood characteristics for six trails in urban, suburban, and exurban towns in northeastern Massachusetts were assessed from primary Global Positioning System (GPS) data and from secondary Census and land use data integrated in a geographic information system (GIS). Correlations between neighborhood street and housing density, land use mix, and sociodemographic characteristics and trail segment characteristics and amenities measure the degree to which trail segment attributes are associated with the surrounding neighborhood characteristics.

Two Perspectives on GIS/LIS Education in the United States

Education in Geographic information science (GIS/LIS) happens in the United States both within surveying-related academic programs and in other academic programs that use spatially oriented data and information. This article presents an overview of two such programs. The first is a four-year Bachelor of Science degree program in Geographic Information Science at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. The second is a concentration with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree program in Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut (UConn). Geographic information science is the primary focus of the Texas A&M program, whereas GIS/LIS is an emphasis of the UConn program. Both approaches are presented for comparison.