About GIS

What is GIS?

A Geographic Information System (GIS)  integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.  Addiitional information related to this definition can be found at the  ESRI web site,

The Map and Data Centre provides data files and GIS layers for teaching, research, and institutional planning to faculty, students, and staff at Western and the affiliated colleges.

 Where can I find geographic information system (GIS) files?

Geospatial files can be found within the geospatial data and digital resources web page of the Map and Data Centre. Files are also available via the Equinox Data Delivery System. This online system provides access to data made available through Statistics Canada's Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), to DMTI files, to some (but not all) ICPSR and OGDE files, and provides pointers to other sources of data (e.g. web sites with data and statistics).

Collections

Western Libraries Map and Data Services subscribes to or is a member of numerous map and data licensed collections.  A listing of the collections can be found at the Geospatial Data web page.

GIS Software

Information related to the GIS software ArcGIS that is availabe via a site license to users at Western can be found at the Site License web page concerning ArcGIS.  Self-study courses related to ESRI products are available free of charge via the Virtal Campus license.  The ESRI software is avilable for undergraduate users through the campus genlabs as well as through myVlab.