Abstract

OCUL's Scholars GeoPortal: Spatial data infrastructure supporting research in Ontario
Track: Spatial Data Infrastructure
Authors: Jo Ashley

The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) is a consortium of twenty-one university libraries in the province of Ontario, Canada that collaborates through collective purchasing and shared digital information infrastructure. OCUL's new Scholars GeoPortal service (http://geo.scholarsportal.info) uses ArcGIS Server 10 with the JavaScript API, to provide a set of online tools for identifying, exploring, and downloading licensed geospatial data sets for academic research and study in Ontario. In addition to these new tools, the Scholars GeoPortal initiative reduces duplication of effort among OCUL libraries in data storage and distribution, by centrally housing data and technical expertise. This project has put in place a new piece of Canada's spatial data infrastructure, meeting the needs of the research community, which ultimately supports better decision-making and policy development in Canada. This session will demonstrate the GeoPortal's features, and will also discuss the project's impact for Ontario universities, ongoing assessment initiatives and future development.