Dickinson’s Geographic Information Systems Lab offers courses in GIS and actively collaborates with faculty, staff, and students all around the College. Dickinson faculty pursuing digital projects with a geo-spatial component should make sure to consult with staff at the GIS lab.

Some of the central issues and questions involved in the application of digital mapping to the humanities are articulated and explored in  Visualizing Geography: Maps, Place, and Pedagogy, a forum hosted by three HASTAC scholars. The potential of GIS for a wide variety of types of humanities scholarship is explored (with lots of examples) by William A. Kretzschmar, Jr., “GIS for for Language and Literary Study,”  in Kenneth M. Price and Ray Siemens, eds., Literary Studies in the Digital Age: An Evolving Anthology (MLA Commons).

GIS is far from the only tool available, however, and not the easiest one to use. Thanks for the following collection of links are due to Jeffrey McKlurken of the University of Mary Washington.

Geography and geospatial visualization tools

Google Maps is a Web-based resource — maps.google.com

• Guides
  • Great basic intro to using Google Maps:  http://mashable.com/2008/12/04/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-google-maps/
  • Google’s guide to Google Maps: http://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=1687350&answer=144352
  • Another basic intro, this time to some of the mashups (added layers) people have made with Google maps: http://webtrends.about.com/od/howtoguides/ss/google-maps-how.htm
• Teaching with Google Maps
  • Use Google Maps in university settings: http://www.deanandprovost.com/sample-articles/google-maps-academic-affairs.aspx
  • Educational Uses of Google Maps (emphasis on pre-college education, with some relevant information) http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2006/08/educational-uses-of-google-maps.html
  • Using Google Maps to Collect Spatial Responses in a Survey Environment: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2012.01081.x/pdf
• Interesting historical and current uses of Google Maps
  • Tona Hagen’s mapping of MD Physician’s 1744 travels http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=100153201231944797667.000472f19634583452f0e
  • Mapping of student protests, London http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=113314616990789414427.000496f96fd6739e0982d&ll=51.506338,-0.126847&spn=0.003599,0.009645&z=17
  • Build your own — Frederick Douglass’s escape route http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200273650394898450026.0004625a37e782caaca90&msa=0&ll=40.618122,-74.355469&spn=1.76581,4.22699

Google Earth — software downloaded to your computer, but requires internet access to download maps — http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

• Guide
  • http://support.google.com/earth/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176576
• Teaching with Google Earth
  • Google Earth for Educators — excellent resource
    • http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/
  • Educational uses for Google Earth http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/09/back_to_school_educational_uses_wit.html

MapLib — Host created maps on your own server

• http://www.maplib.net/
• Examples of Student project using MapLib and a map
  • Civil War Fredericksburg — http://projects.umwhistory.org/cwh/maps
  • UMW Buildings — http://buildings.umwblogs.org/

NeatLine — Set of add on tools for Omeka that allow presentations using maps, images, and texts

• http://neatline.org/

WorldMap: http://worldmap.harvard.edu/

• Guide
  • FAQ (links to downloadable tutorial) http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/worldmap/book/faq
• Teaching with WorldMap
  • http://geonode.org/2011/02/worldmap/
• Examples of academic/scholarly uses of WorldMap
  • http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/using-the-worldmap-platform/38992
  • http://worldmap.harvard.edu/japanmap/

QGIS– Open-Source GIS system–provides data viewing and analysis capabilities: http://www.qgis.org/

• Guide
  • QGIS User Guide: http://qgis.org/en/documentation/manuals.html
  • QGIS Workshop: http://maps.cga.harvard.edu/qgis/
  • Tutorials: http://qgis.spatialthoughts.com/
  • Introduction video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Oer-i6nVc
• Article that suggests both power of tool and potential difficulty for entry-level users
  • http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/introducing-qgis/38833

Other map-based tools

Visual Eyes — create dynamic visualizations from images, documents, maps http://www.viseyes.org/

• Example: Jefferson’s Travels — http://www.viseyes.org/show/?base=jt

HistoryPin — http://www.historypin.com/

• Be sure to check out the tours and collections page: http://www.historypin.com/curated/

MapStory — Build your own map-based narratives.

• http://mapstory.org/