Revamp of Digimap Help pages

ecls/ / Digimap News, Help, New Features

We have implemented a new Help system for the Marine and Geology Digimap collections (Marine Help and Geology Help). The Help pages have been moved to a new production system which will make is easier for us to keep them more up to date and allow you to find the information you are looking for more easily and print better looking pages.

Visually there is not much change to the pages but over the coming months we will be updating and revising the content of the Help pages within Digimap to provide users with improved access to information about the Digimap facilities, the data available and how to use the data in different systems.

If you have any comments about the new Help pages or suggestions please let us know.

Tip: if you want to search for a phrase put it in quotes e.g. “zoom to position”

AGI Awards – Digimap Highly Commended

ecls/ / Digimap News, Training & Events

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.

Digimap for Schools launched

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features

Baroness Joan Hanham CBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (CLG) has launched a brand new service to help improve the teaching of geography in schools with Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, Director General and Chief Executive of national mapping agency Ordnance Survey. The launch took place at Graveney School in Wandsworth, London on Wednesday 10 November at 2pm.

Ordnance Survey is increasing its support for the teaching of geography at all levels by launching a brand new online mapping service for all schools across Great Britain. ‘Digimap for Schools’ provides schools with easy access to Ordnance Survey’s most detailed digital mapping for the whole of Great Britain. For the first time, pupils will have access to maps showing individual building outlines as well as familiar scales of mapping used by outdoor enthusiasts and on websites.

 

Digimap for Schools
View of the Digimap for Schools service

To read the full story, visit the OS website.

Tell us what you think:

ecls/ / Consultations

Here at EDINA we are constantly evaluating our services and really value user feedback. Our funders are also keen to know what impact the services have. We are currently assessing how satisfied our users are with the Digimap Collections so we can gauge how well we are doing. Please could you fill in a quick user satisfaction survey for each of the Digimap Collections you use; you can pass on the links to anyone else you know who uses Digimap.

OS Collection
Historic Digimap
Geology Digimap
Marine Digimap

The survey is very short with only 5 questions after you have put in some details about yourself. All data collected will be held anonymously and securely. No cookies are used in the completion of the survey.

Go-Geo! for all things geo.

ecls/ / Of Interest

EDINA would like to take this opportunity to remind Digimap users that another of it’s JISC-funded services Go-Geo! (www.gogeo.ac.uk) can save time and effort when looking for geodata. Searches for data can be carried out against a number of catalogues held across government holdings, research data centres and data repositories. Increasingly Go-Geo! offers direct access to the data but if not, it offers the name and contact details of whom to contact to obtain the data. Go-Geo! also offers resource channels which can be browsed for up-to-date news and information on free software, online services, data providers, events and books. For those creating data as part of their studies there’s a wealth of information describing how best to document and describe geospatial data including access to geodoc, a tool for creating standards-compliant metadata. For all your geospatial data needs visit www.gogeo.ac.uk today.

Geological Photos in Geology Roam

ecls/ / New Features

Geology Roam now allows you to view British Geological Survey images (of geological features, rocks, fossils and the BGS at work) from the JIDI Image Collection. The images area accessed via the map interface when you are zoomed in to the most detailed geology maps.

There are over 3000 images mainly found in geologically rich areas such as Cumbria, North and South Wales, the Dorset coast, Edinburgh etc. The images cover a wide range of features from details of bedding planes and large crystals in rock faces to aerial photographs of valleys showing glacial erosion features.

To access the photos go to one of the 5 most detailed zoom levels in Geology Roam and click on the camera icon in the tool bar or Geological Photos tab. You can then pan around the maps till you find an area with some photos.

The photos are marked on the map at the location they were taken from; click on the markers to see thumbnails of the image(s) for the location. You can view a full sized image with detail about what is shown by clicking on the thumbnail.

These photos are useful for geologists but there are also some spectacular landscape images that can be enjoyed by everyone.

NEW open service: Digimap OpenStream

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features

EDINA is pleased to announce the release of Digimap OpenStream – a web service delivering OS OpenData to the UK academic sector using open standard WMS technology.

Digimap OpenStream is an EDINA Digimap value-added service freely available to the academic community. Access is not restricted to registered Digimap users, although a one-off online registration is required. The OS OpenData offered is accessible 24/7 and users are able to embed it into their own application software without the overheads of downloading and managing large quantities of data.

Digimap OpenStream provides access to the following OS OpenData products:

  • MiniScale®
  • 1:250,000 Scale Colour Raster
  • OS Vector Map™ District (Raster)
  • OS Street View®

Details of the Application Programming Interface (API) are provided along with simple guides illustrating how to use the service within popular GIS software.

Full details of the Terms and Conditions of Use can be found now at http://openstream.edina.ac.uk/terms

New Digimap Training Announced

ecls/ / Training & Events

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

ecls/ / Training & Events

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/

EDINA Vacancy – Head of Research and Geo Data Services

ecls/ / Digimap News

EDINA

Head of Research and Geo Data Services £46,510 – £52,347

Open-ended Contract

We seek a recognised leader in Geographic Information to sustain, develop and advance our strategic contribution to research and education in the UK. Use your experience in the use of geo-data, and proven record of research and team-working, to deliver online services and take forward project work at EDINA.

Based in Information Services at The University of Edinburgh, EDINA has world-class reputation for its service delivery and project success, in geographic information and more widely, http://edina.ed.ac.uk/. As a UK National Academic Data Centre, designated by the JISC, EDINA serves the needs of staff and students in universities and colleges across the UK, and is called upon to meet needs in the policy research and the school sectors – examples include support for INSPIRE and the recently-launched Digimap for Schools.

For further details about the post and to apply, please visit www.jobs.ed.ac.uk Job Ref Number: 3013235