Supporting Geography and GIS Education in Libraries Now and into the Future

Abstract

As library educators with a spatial focus, we are always reframing how we analyze the world around us, and what skills or knowledge we need to instruct others on how to do the same. Addressing spatial thinking within the walls of libraries is not a new idea, and indeed has been covered by previous special issues of this journal (Bidney 2019). However, with the constant change in GIS technology and an increased focus on these skills by students and faculty from departments outside of geography, more librarians are grappling with how to best develop and deliver educational content related to core concepts and ever-changing technologies. We work to constantly develop and redevelop pedagogy materials and instruction opportunities to best address the growing need to engage with spatial thinking. This issue brings together works by library educators from both academic and public libraries, to showcase programs that broaden our communities’ understanding of mapping and spatial research. The title of this editorial and special issue is quite ambitious. We dispatched a call to library educators teaching in informal settings asking them to describe pedagogical approaches, research, or the construction of materials to promote spatial literacy or GIS education through library instruction and/or outreach. We received a balanced set of articles that illustrate the variety of formal and informal GIS education happening in libraries. From focused lesson plans and a GIS Day program description to workshops, full workshop series, university courses, and community-based events, this issue provides some examples of the role that libraries are playing in teaching people about geographic concepts, spatial literacy, basic and advanced GIS skills, and spatial data management. Libraries teach people of all ages about geographic practices, maps, data, and spatial information. However, that does not always mean we have a clear idea about what services or instruction we need to offer. In fact, this is an open question for the community posed in a recent editorial https://doi.org/10.1080/15420353.2021.1965404