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Introduction to GIS and the ArcGIS Suite for
CIRA/CARE
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When: January 14th 9am – 4pm (noon-1pm lunch break)
Where: Bass Library Electronic Classroom L06AB (Lower level)
Who: Presented by Stacey Maples, GIS Assistant & Instruction Coordinator at The Yale University Map Department /
Russell “Skip” Barbour, Ph.D., Co-Director, Data Management & Statistical Analysis, Center for Interdisciplinary
Research on AIDS;
Overview
A one-day course designed to introduce fundamental GIS concepts and a basic understanding of how to use the ArcGIS
suite of applications: ArcMap, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox. A brief introductory talk will introduce the fundamentals of
GIS, after which participants will proceed with hands-on exercises for the duration of the workshop. Topics will include,
but are not limited to: Displaying data, querying data, generating labels, spatial analysis, geocoding and creating hardcopy
maps and reports. This class serves as an introductory course for GIS users with little or no experience with ESRI
software.
GIS Basics
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What is GIS?
Short History of GIS;
Point, lines polygons and pixels… the basic data models;
Coordinate Systems and Projections… The What that Informs the Where;
What can you do with GIS?
Where is GIS Going?
Introduction to ArcGIS, Data & Project Management
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The various GIS data formats supported by ArcGIS (Shapefile, GRID, Geodatabase, etc…);
How to examine your spatial data using ArcCatalog;
Creation of File Geodatabases;
Importing GIS Data into a geodatabase;
What is a Map Document (.MXD)?
How to set Relative Pathnames to make your GIS Projects more portable;
Finding GIS Data in the Public Domain (Census, Hospital Service Areas, etc…);
How to add spatial data to your Map Document;
Dealing with Coordinate System/Projection issues;
Navigation in the Data Frame;
Interaction with spatial data through the Table of Contents;
Using Definition Queries ;
How to alter Map Feature Symbology;
Conversion of XY coordinates data to a Geodatabase feature class;
How to join tabular data to geographic boundary files;
How to Geocode tables of street addresses;
Georeferencing of scanned map data;
Creation and editing of Geodatabase Feature Classes.
How to perform Geoprocessing analyses
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Use of the ArcToolbox toolset;
The Yale Map Collection
At Sterling Memorial Library
130 Wall Street, Room 707
Stacey Maples – GIS Assistant
203-432-8269 / stacey.maples@yale.edu
www.library.yale.edu/maps
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How to create new fields in a feature dataset or table;
How to calculate the geometric attributes of a feature;
How to calculate attribute values across feature attribute fields;
How to Join datasets based on attribute values;
How to create Summary Statistics tables from datasets;
Conversion of XY coordinates data to a Geodatabase feature class;
Creating Custom ArcToolbox Geoprocessing Tools using ModelBuilder;
How to create a distance raster to measure distance for a feature dataset;
How to extract raster values to a point feature dataset;
How to aggregate point features to counts in a polygon dataset;
How to Join datasets based upon location;
Simple OLS Regression in ArcGIS;
Exporting data for use in other applications (SPSS, SAS, STATA, etc…).
Creating Map Layouts and Reports
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Design considerations;
The difference between Data View and Layout View;
Working with Annotation Classes;
Managing Multiple Data Frames;
How to add Essential Map Elements (North Arrow, Legend, etc…) for effective map creation;
Customizing Map Elements;
How to modify the properties of a data frame;
Using Extent Rectangles to link Data Frames;
How to export your map to PDF, TIFF and other formats;
Extended functionality of PDF Map Documents in Adobe Acrobat.
The Yale Map Collection
At Sterling Memorial Library
130 Wall Street, Room 707
Stacey Maples – GIS Assistant
203-432-8269 / stacey.maples@yale.edu
www.library.yale.edu/maps