NYSGA GUIDEBOOKS AND GEOSPATIAL INDEX NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE

The New York State Geological Association (NYSGA) now permits downloads of its collection of scanned conference Guidebooks for free. Currently these include all of the years between 1925 and 2012. The conferences, held at different locations, often visited stops over a hundred miles away and include much of NJ, some of PA, VT and southern Ontario.

Guidebooks contain outcrop descriptions as well as papers analyzing the geology and putting it into a regional context. Often the detail presented is far beyond that generally available elsewhere: What fossils are found at what locality, for example, or the history of a mine or a mining community. Each guidebook includes work from many fields of study. Most sub-disciplines of Geology are represented, and some field trips emphasize botany, ecology, environmental sciences, etc.

We have produced an index keyed to the field trip stops. In the form of a database, it currently includes the stops and views from 38 guidebooks (1956 - 1994), and work on more recent Guidebooks continues. It is available online as a FileMaker database, a stand-alone app for the Mac, or it can be downloaded to an IOS device and accessed with the free FileMaker Go app.

Complex searches for combinations of years, field trip leaders, particular fossils or minerals, geographic limits, or any terms used in the Road Log descriptions will yield a found set of stops. These can be exported in different formats including kml files which can be opened in IOS or Android navigations apps (Google Earth, PDF Maps, Pocket Earth, etc.).

When used in conjunction with IOS apps the database does not need web access, making it useful in the field, even in those areas without cell phone service. Alternatively, the files exported from searches can be imported into a GIS, or a desktop Google Earth, to be incorporated in research or educational projects.

This database is derived from kmz files, also available for free on the web, showing the routes followed by field trips over the years, and the stops each trip visited. These files are also available on a Google Fusion Table where trips or stops can be viewed or downloaded. In addition, filtering is possible, permitting fairly refined searches, although limited to "AND" conditions.