IMAGIN - Improving Michigan's Access to Geographic Information Networks
IMAGIN E-News - July, 2006
Current News
Help Make Next Year's Conference a Success Also! - The goal of the Annual Conference committee is "To support the highest quality annual conference for members and other participants and attract a diverse cross section of public/private/non-profit organizations and individual members."
There were many positive comments about this the 2006 conference and the conference committee is already planning next year's conference to be even better! The conference committee is looking for people with great ideas and the willingness to help make next year's conference a success. The conference committee will be meeting again soon to set the direction for next year's conference in Kalamazoo.
Please contact IMAGIN at: info@imagin.org with any questions you have and to let us know how you would like to contribute. The committee is currently seeking a co-chair as well as regular committee members.
The Michigan Digital Government Summit will be held October 12 & 13 at the Lansing Center. The keynote speaker will be Astronaut Rick Searfoss, Colonel, USAF Retired. Topics will include: New Technologies, Digitial Government Trends, Best Practices, Cross-Jurisdictional Collaboration and Policies and Standards. For more details, see: http://www.govtech.net/events/index.php/MichiganDGS2006
The Michigan Counties Association of Mapping Professionals (MiCAMP) has announced their 11th Annual Michigan County GIS Conference that will be held September 13-15, 2006 at Boyne Mountain Resort. For more information, see the MiCAMP web site at: http://www.micamp.org/
The MSU Map Library contains 207,000 paper maps, about 4,000 atlases, 500 CD-ROMs and online digital data to serve the cartographic needs of the MSU community. MSU Libraries also has a secondary mission to serve the needs of Michigan residents.
While our 2005 large scale coverage of Liberia might not interest you, or our faithful reproduction of the 1513 Piri Reis map, we do have some interesting resources of note to the Michigan GIS community:
  • The MSU Map Library is one of the few collections in the country that tries to collect every edition of every USGS topographic map, all scales. Many universities have scaled back to neighboring states only or newest edition only.
  • On CD-ROM we have collared TIFF files of all newest edition Michigan USGS topographic maps.
  • We recently received shipment of 19,000 geologic maps from the recently closed MSU Geology Library.
  • Hydrogeologic Atlas of Michigan, 1981.
  • Michigan Inland Lakes and their Watersheds: An Atlas, 1974.
  • Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Michigan, about 2,200 1:600-scale maps of 337 communities spanning 1870-1960.
  • We try to collect every plat book published of Michigan counties.
    • The MSU Map Library is located on the 3rd floor, west wing of the MSU Main Library (park on the north side of the football stadium and walk over the bridge). We are open 49 hours per week in the summer and 91 hours per week during the school year, excepting holidays and university breaks. See http://maps.lib.msu.edu/ for hours and more information.
    Need the Michigan Official MDOT State Map? - For all your summer traveling in Michigan, did you know you could view and download (in .PDF format) the official state map of Michigan? You can also view enlargements of many cities and order maps to be sent to you free of charge. You can view the Official Michigan Department of Transportation Map web page at: http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,1607,7-151-9622_11033_11151---,00.html
    The Great Lakes Ecological Assessment home page contains a number of GIS maps that you may not know about, but may be just what you're looking for. The Great Lakes Ecological Assessment Home page is part of the U.S.D.A Forest Service North Central Research Station web site. There are a number of maps here of the Great Lakes Region including many of Michigan and sections of Michigan. There are maps such as "Michigan Bedrock Geology", Minimum/Maximum monthly temperatures based on 30 year averages, "Michigan Early Settlement Vegetation", "Gypsy Moth Defoliation/Infestation", and many others. Many of these maps are not very detailed because of the large area covered, but there are a lot of different types of maps and one of them may be what you want. Many of the maps are .JPG or .GIF images, but there is contact information on many pages that may be able to get you more information if you need it.
    New E-News Theme! - In addition to our permanent 'GIS in Michigan' coverage, we will begin having an additional theme for each monthly issue. This theme will not limit the E-News articles to only this theme, but rather it will provide an additional focus for some of the articles.
    The theme for the August 2006 issue of E-News is 'GIS and Michigan Education'. This can be items relating to many aspects of GIS in Michigan such as: school district maps, bus routing maps/applications, maps of school awards, school locations, school grounds maps, GIS in higher education, GIS in secondary education, etc. Send any ideas you have relating to GIS in Michigan or the 'GIS and Michigan Education' theme to enews@imagin.org.
    Let us hear from you! IMAGIN's E-News is a publication by, for and about IMAGIN's members.
    Please send in your contributions for the following categories:
  • Local News Items (It does not have to be earth shattering.)
  • General GIS News items that relate to Michigan
  • Suggestions for Web Mapping Site-of-the-month
  • Training Oportunities Offered in Michigan
  • GIS Tips & Suggestions
  • Local User Group Meetings
  • GIS Related Conferences
  • Job Openings
  • Recent Hires/Promotions
  • GIS Related Events/Meetings
    Send your suggestions to enews@imagin.org
    • Upcoming Events
  • July 17, 2006: ESRI Northern Michigan User Group Meeting, Mitchell State Park, Cadillac, MI
  • July 21, 2006, 2:30pm: IMAGIN Conference Com. Mtg., Washtenaw County Lib., Ann Arbor
  • August 7-11, 2006: 2006 ESRI International User Conference, San Diego, California
  • August 16, 2006: Macomb County GIS Users Meeting, Mt. Clemens, MI
  • August 16, 2006, 2:30pm: IMAGIN Conference Com. Mtg., Washtenaw County Lib., Ann Arbor
  • August 18, 2006: IMAGIN Board/Planning Meeting, DNR RAM Center, Roscommon, MI
  • August 25, 2006: Oakland County GIS Steering Committee, Pontiac, MI
  • September 13-15, 2006: Mi-CAMP 11th Annual Conference, Boyne Mountain, Boyne Falls, MI
  • September 15, 2006, 2:30pm: IMAGIN Conference Com. Mtg., Washtenaw Cnty. Lib., Ann Arbor
  • September 26-29, 2006: URISA 44th Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC
  • October 12 & 13, 2006: Michigan Digital Government Summit, Lansing Center, Lansing, MI
  • May 7-9, 2007: IMAGIN 2007 Annual Conference, Radisson Plaza Hotel, Kalamazoo, MI
  • For more events, see the IMAGIN Calendar of Events
    • Training
    Date(s) D Organization City Description
    July 18-19, 2006   ESRI E. Lansing Introduction to ArcGIS I
    July 20-22, 2006   ESRI E. Lansing Introduction to ArcGIS II
    August 7-8, 2006 Y MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing Introduction to ArcGIS
    August 9, 2006 Y MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing ArcGIS - Introduction to Vector Analysis
    August 10, 2006 Y MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing ArcGIS - Introduction to Geodatabases
    August 16-18, 2006   ESRI Livonia Managing a Versioned Geodatabase
    Aug. 31- Sept. 1, 2006   ESRI Livonia Introduction to Geoprocessing Scripts Using Python
    For links to Michigan GIS training facilities visit the IMAGIN training page.
    To include your Michigan GIS training in this list, send the details to: enews@imagin.org
    D = IMAGIN Members get a 10% discount on this training.
    Web Mapping Site of the Month
    The City Of Holland's mapping presence on the web started with static jpegs and pdf files made available for download. In 2002 the decision was made to create an interactive site. Software and costs were evaluated, and the City decided to utilize open source software to drive the site. MapServer software, created by the University of Minnesota, was selected to run the site. The site was created in-house by two IT department staff and was up and running within two weeks. The interactive site is now on its second revision and has been expanded with Chameleon, another open source software package developed by DM Solutions. The city still makes its plat book and miscellaneous maps available for download in pdf form. However, the interactive map has become very popular for both internal and external users. View the City of Holland's online mapping system at: http://www.cityofholland.com/Brix?pageID=24
    Spotlight on Supporting Organizations
    Wade Trim Wade Trim is a full-service consulting firm specializing in engineering, GIS, surveying, planning, landscape architecture and operations. We were established in 1926 and employ over 400 people in 13 offices in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. We have over 14 years of experience in the design, development, and application of GIS. Today, we maintain state-of-the-art GIS computing facilities in several Wade Trim offices, and apply our experience and resources to a variety of complex projects. Wade Trim provides professional services to government and private clients with a focus of integrating GIS into everyday tasks to save time, lives and money. Our experienced GIS analysts, planners, technicians, database designers and GPS surveyors provide expertise and resources to address a variety of challenging projects. For more information, please call us at 800.482.2864 or visit our website at www.wadetrim.com.
    Each month, this section will highlight one or two of our supporting organizations. If your organization would like to be in the spotlight, please contact IMAGIN headquarters about becoming a supporting organization.
    Employment
    Job Openings
    Organization Title
    Oakland County User Support Specialist II - GIS
    Allegan County County Planning Coordinator
    To include your job openings, new hires or promotions in this section, please send the information to enews@imagin.org. Please include the URL for your organization also. Check the IMAGIN jobs page for other openings.
    Technical Notes
    What is XML? - XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is probably an acronym you've heard of by now, but may not know anything about. Fortunately, for the most part, you may not need to know anything about it because most programs do a good job of hiding the details from you. However, if you do need to know about it or are just curious, thankfully, there is free help available on the web. Sometimes, knowing a little bit of XML can make your job a lot easier.
    What is XML? Very simply put, XML is a format for storing 'information' in a user defined, text based format. An easy way to think of it may be to think of it as a 'database in text format'. Because it is text based, it can be edited with a simple text editor such as 'Notepad' so XML is very easily editable, if you know a little bit about it.
    Some examples of XML information that you may have heard of are as follows:
  • ArcXML is the XML format that ArcIMS uses for defining map services and map requests.
  • SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is the format used to define vector coordinates using XML.
  • Web Services (note: very technical) use XML as the means to communicate across the web.
  • KML is the XML format used to add your own geographic data to Google Earth.
    • XML seems to be here to stay and chances are you will be running into it sooner or later. The following is a listing of just a few sites where you can get XML information.
  • http://www.w3.org/XML/ - The official XML site, but not much beginner info.
  • http://www.xmlfiles.com/xml/ - Introduction
  • http://www.w3schools.com/xml/ - Tutorial
  • http://www.xml.com/pub/a/98/10/guide0.html - Technical Introduction
    • If you have any technical notes you would like to pass along, please send them to enews@imagin.org
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe
    To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send your request to: enews@imagin.org Note: For security, we can only honor requests that come from the address to be changed.
    If you received this E-News via your email subscription, your subscribed email will appear on the following line. If not, it will say "(YourEmailAddressHere)".
    Your Subscribed E-Mail Address: (YourEmailAddressHere)
    Please, feel free to forward this IMAGIN E-News to anyone you think is interested in GIS and encourage them to subscribe to the IMAGIN E-News by sending a request to enews@imagin.org.
    IMAGIN E-News Information

    Editor - Tara Maguire, GIS Coordinator, City of Birmingham
    Editor - Matt Malone, GIS Coordinator, City of Farmington Hills
    Editor - Brian Buckley, Senior GIS Specialist, Hubbell, Roth & Clark, Inc.
    Publication Date: July 14, 2006
    E-News Web Page:http://www.imagin.org/resources/enews.html
    Email Address: enews@imagin.org
    Any corrections to the E-News will be posted on the web site above.
    Please email us your comments and suggestions. Thanks!

    © 2006 IMAGIN. All rights reserved.