ArcGIS is a Geographic Information System (GIS) – a software program for working with maps and geographic data. A GIS allows you to work with any data that you know a location for (e.g., addresses, latitude/longitude, census locations, name of a place, etc.). ArcGIS is available on all the library computers, and by download to the University community.

Although similar in some ways to online mapping sites, ArcGIS has greater analytical capabilities and allows you more input and control over your map. We’ll learn some GIS fundamentals and how to get started using ArcGIS.

In this workshop we will learn:

• how to navigate ArcMap
• kinds of GIS data
• how to add data to a map
• basic symbology and labelling
• how to filter data
• how to calculate new data and map it