Do and Teach: Geoinformatics as a Function of the University Library

Given the importance of data and information management to the full scope of geoinformatics, one would expect it sprang from the mind of a librarian and not the collaboration of domain scientists, computer scientists, and IT types. Although one could argue that librarians should have invented geoinformatics, librarians are nevertheless increasingly involved in the development of the more intelligent and complex systems that make up geocyberinfrastructure. Given the unique situation (as discipline-agnostic agents of both education and technological solutions) and nature (often highly technical systems builders, just as often front-line service providers) of librarians, they seem likely candidates to be – like libraries are generally – positioned in that softer area between big-time systems and the user population that may or may not be aware of them, able to access them, or able to operate them. In the same ways librarians were once go betweens for users needing to translate an information need into Dialog syntax, geoscientists now and in the immediate, urgent future will need help learning, accessing, and negotiating the powerful concepts, methods, and technologies that result from geoinformatics progress. The authors will argue that librarians are uniquely skilled, uniquely positioned, and uniquely charged with ensuring that the tools of the future won't be left to atrophy with no users capable of driving them to geoscientific discovery.

The authors will discuss work done at Purdue University Libraries illustrating librarian contribution to geoinformatics not only on the "business end," by building and applying applications that take advantage of data interoperability and modular design, but also in the less sexy arena of end-user education and data literacy. A geoinformatics course taught by Purdue librarians will be discussed, as will past and ongoing geoinformatics-y projects to which Purdue librarians contribute.