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GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Interest Group

Member Group Annual Report

CHAIR / OFFICERS

Chair: Kate McNally Carter, University of Houston

Vice-chair: Cynthia Henry, Texas Tech University

Subcommittee Chairs:

Events & Social Planning: Joshua Been, Baylor University

Survey & Outreach: Sylvia Jones, Southern Methodist University

Data Collaboration: Michael Shensky, University of Texas at Austin

TDL STAFF LIAISON

N/A

MEMBERSHIP

The GIS Interest Group’s charter describes its membership policy, which is open to “all non-commercial parties who would like to learn, contribute to, or discuss GIS.” Chair and Vice-chair roles must be occupied by affiliates of TDL member institutions. 

Institutions represented in the active membership include University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at San Antonio, Baylor University, Texas Tech University, University of Houston, Sam Houston State University, Southern Methodist University, Texas State University, and more. Attendance is recorded at monthly meetings and subcommittee meetings.

INITIATIVES & ACTIVITIES

The GIS Interest Group hosts a variety of events throughout the year and is actively involved in various projects. Below is a summary of the major initiatives and events slated for 2023. 

Projects:

• Updated the group charter to reflect current group structure and clarify TDL support

• Consolidated Mentoring and Events subcommittees to increase efficiency, decrease overlap/workload of members

• Established updated process for maintaining GIS Across Texas Libraries survey and dashboard

• Updated the GISIG Confluence page to increase visibility of the group

• Made significant progress on creating shared metadata crosswalks for the GeoSteer project which will facilitate sharing of geospatial metadata records between institutions and allow them to be ingested into GeoBlacklight based geospatial data portals

• Discussed initiating video interview series: Stories of GIS Across Texas: GIS Practitioners in Higher Education

Events:

• GIS Birds of a Feather @ TCDL - May 16, 2023

• Informal GISIG dinner/social event @ TCDL - May 17, 2023

• Summer Webinar Series: 

  • 3D Modeling Library Spaces Using QGIS - July 26, 2023 (Michael Shensky and Katherine Strickland)

  • Researching Your Community with QGIS - August 2, 2023 (Joshua Been and Kate McNally Carter)

• GIS Day PechaKucha Celebration - November 8, 2023

GROUP STATUS

The GIS Interest Group is very active, meeting on a monthly basis as a larger interest group with additional monthly meetings for its subcommittees. Meetings are scheduled for 2023 on the 4th Friday of each month at 2pm CST, though this meeting time may vary from year to year according to the preferences of the group.

Each subcommittee holds regular meetings throughout the year, and has established their own procedures and timelines to guide their work. The Events & Social Planning Subcommittee meets monthly on the first Tuesday of each month at 10am CST; the Data Collaboration Subcommittee meets on the last Tuesday of each month at 11am CST; and the Survey & Outreach Subcommittee meets in the spring and fall as needed to plan survey deployment and outreach and recruitment initiatives.

The GIS Interest Group would like to request an extension for another 1-year term from TDL.