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Mapping & GIS: Penn Mapping and GIS Club

This is the LibGuide which contains tutorials on Mapping and Geographic Information Systems, as well as annotated links to useful sources for research and learning in GIS. Many of the tutorials are from past workshops. Please feel free to contact our mapp

PennMGIS

Penn Libraries Mapping & GIS club (PennMGIS) by Research Data & Digital Scholarship.

Note:  In the Spring semester 2023, the group is meeting in-person in Goldstein Electronic Classroom (Room 114), Van Pelt,  regularly on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 12pm - 1pm. Our first session for the semester is on Feb 16, 2023.

The Penn Libraries Mapping & GIS club (PennMGIS) presented by Research Data & Digital Scholarship team at the Penn Libraries is a group that meets to discuss, learn, and collaborate on topics and projects related to mapping, geospatial data processing, visualization, and analysis tools through hands-on tutorials, workshops, and presentations.

The group meets in-person in Goldstein Electronic Classroom (Room 114), Van Pelt, and via Zoom regularly on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 3pm - 5pm. The first hour will feature workshops, talks, and discussions, and the second hour will be reserved for co-working and collaborative project work.

Students, staff, and faculty at any level of skill are welcome!

Meeting 02/18/2021, 3pm - 5pm 

  • Brief address by Nicky Agate, Assistant University Librarian for Research Data & Digital Scholarship.
  • Introduction to the purpose, format, and requirements of PennMGIS.
  • Short presentation on Geospatial tools and software.
  • Other discussion, Q&A, and suggestions.
  • Suggest or vote for a topic at https://pennmgis.hearken.io/

Meeting 03/18/2021, 3pm - 5pm

  • QGIS Basics tutorial: We will explore GIS data models and formats, and the various components of the free and open source QGIS interface and tools.
  • Requirement: Bring a laptop with QGIS preinstalled from https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html
  • Recommended: QGIS Standalone installer 3.16 (also known as "Hannover"), long term release (LTR).

Meeting 04/15/2021, 3pm - 5pm

  • Building interactive Web maps.
  • We will explore how to build interactive Web maps and applications using the ESRI's ArcGIS-online and Web AppBuilder.
  • We will also learn how to create simple web maps using OpenLayers and Leaflet. Both are free and open source JavaScript libraries.
  • Requirement: Bring a laptop with QGIS preinstalled from https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html and should signup for an ArcGIS online account.
  • Recommended: QGIS Standalone installer 3.16 (also known as "Hannover"), long term release (LTR).
  • If you don't have an ArcGIS online organizational account setup yet, drop me an email at gmisgna@upenn.edu with "ArcGIS online" subject line.

Meeting 06/17/2021, 3pm - 5pm

  • Digitizing and Editing Spatial Data: 
  • Oftentimes, you might need to create your own vector layers by digitizing from scanned maps or images to use in your analysis. In this meeting we will explore the on-screen digitizing and editing capabilities of both ArcMap and QGIS to create polygon, line, or point vector layers. 

Meeting 07/15/2021, 3pm - 5pm

A workshop on Accessing and Visualizing Census Data focusing on various ways of obtaining Census Data for use in GIS analysis and mapping.

  • Access census data through Social Explorer,
  • Access directly from Census Bureau's website and visualize in desktop GIS software (ArcGIS and QGIS),
  • Access through python based census API wrapper.

Meeting 08/19/2021, 3pm - 5pm 

  • Cancelled

Meeting 09/16/2021, 3pm - 5pm

A workshop on Accessing and Visualizing Census Data focusing on various ways of obtaining Census Data for use in GIS analysis and mapping.

  • Access census data through Social Explorer,
  • Access directly from Census Bureau's website and visualize in desktop GIS software (ArcGIS and QGIS),
  • Access through python based census API wrapper.

Meeting 10/21/2021, 3pm - 4pm

  • A workshop on building Interactive map using python and Jupyter notebook.
  • Will demonstrate how to build a simple IP Address locator tool.

Meeting 12/16/2021, 3pm - 5pm (Cancelled, Final Exams week)

QGIS Basics tutorial:

Meeting 01/20/2022, 3pm - 5pm

Digitizing and Editing Spatial Data: 

  • Oftentimes, you might need to create your own vector layers by digitizing from scanned maps or images to use in your analysis. In this meeting we will explore the on-screen digitizing and editing capabilities of both ArcMap and QGIS to create polygon, line, or point vector layers. 

Meeting 02/17/2022, 3pm - 5pm

OSM as a source of Spatial Data: 

  • Often dubbed as the "Wikipedia of maps", the Open Street Map (OSM) can be a source of detailed spatial data for a mapping project any where in the world which otherwise might be difficult to obtain or costly from proprietary sources. OSM is a crowd sourced data constantly edited by a largest volunteer community of mappers. If you would you like to know how to extract and use OSM data for a project or  how you might be able to edit and contribute data for humanitarian emergency areas using OSM, then this session is for you.  

Meeting 03/17/2022, 3pm - 5pm

Building Interactive Web maps: 

  • A hands-on tutorial on how to build interactive web maps in QGIS (no coding), and in python Jupyter notebooks.  

Meeting 04/21/2022, 3pm - 5pm

Cancelled in favor of an Earth Day Mapathon, Friday, 04/22/2022, 3pm - 5pm : 

Meeting 05/19/2022, 3pm - 5pm

Accessing and Visualizing US Census Data: 

  • Demonstrates various ways on how to access and visualize US Census Data in a cloud platform, desktop GIS software, or programmatically in Python & R environments.  

Meeting 06/16/2022, 3pm - 5pm

QGIS Basics tutorial:

Meeting 07/21/2022, 3pm - 5pm

How to create interactive web maps: 

  • Demonstration of various tools of creating interactive web maps.  

Meeting 08/18/2022, 3pm - 5pm

Downloading & using LiDAR point cloud data in QGIS : 

  • Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is a technology used to create high-resolution models of ground elevation with a vertical accuracy of 10 centimeters. In this session we will demonstrate how to access LiDAR data from the USGS's "The National Map" website, download the data and visualize it in QGIS. 

Meeting 10/20/2022, 3pm - 5pm

30 Day Map Challenge: 

  • During the month of November, map enthusiasts from all over the world join to take part in Topi Tjukanov's #30daymapchallenge where all interested are invited to create a map each day with the tools of their choice centered around that day’s theme posted each year at https://30daymapchallenge.com/ . We will discuss how we can participate in the map challenge for this year.  

Meeting 12/15/2022, 3pm - 5pm

Georectifying scanned historical maps: 

  • Georectification is taking an image such as a scanned map that has not been adjusted to be in a known coordinate system, and assign it a known coordinate system. In this session we will demonstrate various tools and ways of georectifying scanned maps.  

Spring 2023 schedule

The group meets in-person in Goldstein Electronic Classroom (Room 114), Van Pelt, on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 12pm - 1pm.

Our first session for the semester begins on Feb 16, 2023.