GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGIES: IMPACTS ON INFORMATION ACCESS AND EXCHANGE FOR THE GEOSCIENCES

The use of geographic information systems has rapidly increased over the past ten years across the sciences and interest in its use in academic libraries has also increased. This increase and the rapid development of geographic information technologies have resulted in a need for easier and more effective mechanisms for accessing and exchanging digital geoscientific data. In light of this need, the development of geographic information technologies focusing upon the exchange and access of geoscientific data will be reviewed and potential impacts on users will be presented. Trends in data sharing such as data sharing networks, the Geographic Markup Language, and data standards will be evaluated as to what value they have for current users and geoscience information specialists. The purpose of this study is to briefly review the field and literature of geographic information science (GI Science) and discuss research areas relevant to geoscientific information sharing. The development of interest in GIS in the library literature as well as interest in library issues from the GI science community will be demonstrated and future developments in geoscientific data sharing presented.