GeoForum 2014

Academics and librarians from around the UK gathered here at the University of Edinburgh on the 19th of June for EDINA’S GeoForum 2014, which saw some very lively discussions and software demonstrations. EDINA develops and hosts resources, tools and services for researchers from all UK higher education institutions. Their tools for the generation and the analysis of geographically-referenced data are very popular with University of Edinburgh users.

GeoForum delegates heard about the new Environment Digimap, and the new, improved, cleaner interfaces for the other Digimap Roams. There was also a demonstration of the FieldTrip GB smartophone app, which opens up new possibilities. The app allows a group of researchers to gather data on the move using their smartphones, for example survey responses, photos, and their own observation notes, and to then upload these into a group dataset. The co-ordinator of the group creates and customises the form which the researchers will use in the field in advance.

The Data Library team’s Pauline Ward took part in the mini-field-trip walkabout demonstration of the FieldTrip GB app, and found it very easy both to create and customise the forms, and to then use them to gather and submit data. A plethora of potential uses seemed to suggest themselves.