ESRI UK/CHEST Technical Event – 13th September, Edinburgh

The 2011 Esri UK and Eduserv Seminar will be taking place on 13th September at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh. The event is a chance for Esri users from UK Academia to hear about the new Esri CHEST agreement which started on 1st August, as well as what’s coming in ArcGIS 10.1 and various presentations from members of the Higher Education community. Members of the Digimap team will be attending to present on using Digimap data in ArcGIS, we will also have a stand so if you are attending, come and talk to us!

The event is free to attend, but you must register at: http://www.cvent.com/d/0cqnc7

Information about the Chest agreement can be found at: http://www.eduserv.org.uk/lns/agreements/esri-2011#keyfacts

Digimap Training in Birmingham on the 19th May

training courseEDINA is running Digimap training at Birmingham City University on Thursday 19th May 2011. Training is free and available to support staff, teaching staff and site representatives. This course will cover an introduction to all Digimap’s collections, including mapping facilities and downloading data for Historic, Geology and Marine Digimap as well as the Ordnance Survey Collection.

For further information and to book online, visit the EDINA website here: Digimap Training, 19/05/11

Details of all our upcoming training events and webinars can now be found here in the Digimap Blog: Training Events

Digimap for Schools wins Gold Award

EDINA are delighted to announce that the new Digimap for Schools service has been awarded the GOLD Certificate for the best overall resource in the the Geographical Association’s 2011 Publishers’ Awards.

The GA Publishers’ Awards aim to recognise material which is likely to make a significant contribution to geography in primary schools, secondary schools or colleges, and to encourage the creative development of new materials. Further information about the awards can be found here: http://www.geography.org.uk/news/publishersawards/

OS MasterMap in Digimap for Schools
OS MasterMap available through Digimap for Schools

The Award was presented at the Geographical Association’s Annual Conference at the University of Surrey, Guildford on Thursday 14th April 2011 to EDINA’s Director Peter Burnhill and Ordnance Survey’s Director General and CEO, Vanessa Lawrence.

Peter Burnhill said, “This Gold Certification from the Geography Association Publishers is  splendid recognition for all those who have worked together on Digimap for Schools to bring Ordnance Survey mapping into the classroom.

“At EDINA, which is based at the University of Edinburgh, we aim to  live up to your expectations and do for primary and secondary schools  what we have done so successfully for universities and colleges,  encouraging love of maps as well as helping to prepare students for the future.”

About Digimap for Schools
Digimap for Schools is a joint venture between EDINA (University of Edinburgh), Ordnance Survey and JISC Collections and provides easy access to a wide range of current Ordnance Survey maps including national coverage of OS MasterMap, Landranger and Explorer series. Also included are street level maps showing street names and road-atlas style maps.

Subscribing schools can use a seamless digital map of Great Britain at each scale available. Maps can be printed as PDF files at A3 or A4 size and in landscape or portrait orientation. Maps can be printed with an individual’s own map title and name included with the scale bar and school name and address. Search tools include postcode, place name or national grid reference and maps can be moved to centre on any chosen location within Great Britain. Map keys are available for each scale map to explain the symbols used within the map.

For information about Digimap for Schools, how to subscribe and links to a free trial demonstration version of the service, please check the following links:

“How To” Videos on YouTube

You Tube IconWe have created some “How To” video clips and put them on YouTube for everyone to view. They show how to carry out various tasks with Digimap’s online maps and downloaded data.

You can see all the videos on the EDINA Digimap YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/EDINADigimap

If there are any particular aspects of the service for which you would like us to make a video, you can add them to the discussion on our Facebook page or email us directly at edina@ed.ac.uk.

Digimap Training in Leeds 23 February

EDINA is running Digimap training at Leeds Metropolitan University on Wednesday 23 February 2011 Training is free and available to support staff, teaching staff and site representatives. This course will cover an introduction to Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection, including mapping facilities and downloading data.

For further information on the course and to book online, please read the EDINA website here:

http://edina.ac.uk/events/courses/geo/2011-02-23-digimap_collections_training.html

AGI Awards – Digimap Highly Commended

EDINA has receive a Highly Commended mention at the annual Association for Geographic Information (AGI) Awards for Innovation and Best Practice. http://www.agi.org.uk/agi-awards/

EDINA was entered in the Innovation and Best Practice (Charitable Status) category based on the presentation given at GeoCommunity 2010 by Tim Riley. Tim presented a paper entitled Digimap: 10 Years Old and yet Brand New. The migration of an established service to new GIS infrastructure. This described how much of the infrastructure of Digimap had been updated to a mainly Open Source solution which significantly improved the quality of service offered by Digimap. You can download Tim’s paper here: http://assgeoinf.squarespace.com/storage/geocommunity/papers/TimRiley.pdf

and view his presentation here: http://prezi.com/vkvslwzxtkzr/digimap-10-years-old-and-yet-brand-new-migration-to-a-new-gis-platform/

The winner of this charitable status section went to MapAction for their work in response to the Haiti and Pakistan earthquakes.

New Digimap Training Announced

Some new Digimap training event dates have been advertised on the EDINA website. Both courses (which require attendance in person) and webinars (requiring online attendance) have been scheduled. Further details of both can be found on the EDINA Events and Training page:

http://edina.ac.uk/events/

To find an event by it’s location, try our Events Map: http://edina.ac.uk/events/eventsmap/
This will show you the location of all the events EDINA is taking part in so that you can find an event near you easily. Different types of events are colour-coded and you can zoom in and out of the map to clarify locations.

Signing up for an event is easy. You can register online using the booking form provided with the details for each event.

ESRI/Chest Technical Event – 23 September, London

The Chest Agreement with ESRI expires on 31 July 2011. Some of you may remember helping to shape the current Chest Agreement and how tricky it was. We’re starting work on the renewal early, with a break-out and discussion session at the Eduserv & ESRI Event for Higher Education on Thursday 23 September 2010 at the Congress Centre in central London.

This event follows on from the success of two previous technical events, held at the University of Leeds in 2008 and University of Birmingham in 2009. The meeting is intended to bring together people from universities who are either using ArcGIS or other ESRI software or providing and supporting ESRI software in their institutions.

In addition to the very important session on shaping the new Chest Agreement, this year’s event will also feature sessions on:

* What’s new in ArcGIS 10
* How to get the most from Virtual Campus
* Mobile GIS best practice
* User presentation from University of Worcester.

Most of the presentations will be by people from within the Higher Education community. The event will also include a free (optional) networking breakfast for both users of GIS and those who licence the software to share experiences and discuss challenges. Lunch is also included.

This is a completely free event.

For details of the current Chest Agreement, please visit: www.eduserv.org.uk/ESRI

For complete details and to register, please visit: http://www.esriuk.com/trainingevents/events/chest2010/

New Webinar Dates – online training

Some new webinars about Digimap have been posted on the EDINA events page:

http://edina.ac.uk/events/

These short sessions are available to any Digimap user, whether staff,
student or researcher.

Should the session times or content not be quite right for you, we will
happily set-up some alternative sessions.

You can contact us to discuss your training needs via the EDINA Helpdesk or you can call our Training Officer, Vivienne Carr, on 0131 651 1852.

Training Reminder: Manchester and Nottingham

EDINA would like to remind you that booking is now open and there are spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, which are open to staff members in UK higher and further education institutions:

University of Manchester:

  • Guidance for site reps: 9 March 2010
  • Making maps in Digimap Collections: 10 March 2010
  • Downloading data from Digimap Collections 11 March 2010

Bilborough College, Nottingham:

  • Guidance for site reps: 7 April 2010
  • Making maps in Digimap Collections: 8 April 2010
  • Downloading data from Digimap Collections: 9 April 2010

You will find more details of course content and booking forms on EDINA’s Training and Events page . If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please contact EDINA for advice at edina@ed.ac.uk.