USING GIS TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE DISSEMINATION STRATEGIES: DESIGNING A DIGITAL KIOSK FOR THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF SEGUIN ISLAND, MAINE

Seguin Island, Maine is a publicly-accessible wildlife sanctuary and national historic site that displays an incredible complexity of crustal deformation preserved in its rocky shorelines. In 2006 and 2007, undergraduate researchers conducted surveys of geologic, topographic and cultural features on Seguin Island, Maine as part of an NSF-funded REU Site program using digital mapping-grade handheld GPS, survey-grade RTK GPS and total stations as well as hi-resolution georeferenced aerial imagery. Geologically, Seguin offers unique exposures of a parasitic fold structure on the eastern side of the Robinhood Cove syncline and the complex geometry of numerous syntectonic granite intrusions. Since 1795, the island has served as a key navigation marker and home to a long series of lighthouse keepers, workers and their families. Today, it is uninhabited and protected as a seabird nesting ground and national historic site. For scientists and conservancy managers, documenting this environment and communicating information about its historical and scientific value has become a priority. A digital island kiosk can serve as a user-friendly medium for Seguin's conservators, providing a necessary bridge between pure research and popular dissemination of results. For visitors and students, these resources offer science that is socially relevant – this is considered paramount in addressing issues of scientific illiteracy. As Hobson (2000) notes, scientific literacy is best achieved by teaching concepts in a streamlined and interactive way – a digital kiosk embodies this approach. The developed kiosk includes survey data, georeferenced historic maps, and geologic research findings. In addition, a series of QuickTime flythrough videos have been developed as a visually interesting method of data display. User-friendly GIS access can prove vital in effective conservancy stewardship, in addition to being a sophisticated lobbying tool in determining future land use. A synopsis of these data has been developed as a clickable PDF. Since the PDF can be emailed and web-accessed, it is available to managers on or off location and can be shared with trustees, potential donors, and local K-12 educators.