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THEME ARTICLE

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Received 2 June 2008 Revised 4 June 2008 Accepted 6 June 2008

Use of geographical information system (GIS) in the cataloging of documents

A case study of earthquake documents collections
Mehri-e-Sedighi
Iranian Research Institute for Scientic Information and Documentation (IRANDOC), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose This article seeks to demonstrate the use of geographical information system (GIS) in cataloging of documents, such as earthquake related documents. Design/methodology/approach This research was descriptive-analytic and its steps are summarized as follows: collecting the data, entering information into the GIS, system management and nally producing outputs. Findings The investigative result shows that: by using of GIS, all types of data available in the various databases can be illustrated, analyzed and reviewed simultaneously and easily. Furthermore, data geographical dispersion can be easily studied and the geographic positions from the view point of earthquake and other related issues have been studied, identied and introduced to the users for doing studies. Practical implications There are numerous implications for current and future use of GIS in cataloging of documents. In addition to updating and editing functions, access to available data could be tailored to the various requirements of the users. Originality/value The system not only provides a tool for spotting numerous capabilities and potential but is also useful for identifying research gaps in different geographic regions. Keywords Geographic information systems, Cataloguing, Earthquakes, Document handling, Iran Paper type Research paper

Library Hi Tech Vol. 26 No. 3, 2008 pp. 454-465 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0737-8831 DOI 10.1108/07378830810903364

1. Introduction The major task of an information system includes doing some operations upon the data in order to make decision on their more quick, exact and optimized use for the issues related to this data. This process begins with gathering, changing, amending and saving the information and includes the management issues, analyzing and modeling them. This will help us in searching and providing the space for queries upon the large amount of data and presenting the attribute data in a short time. A geographic information system (GIS) holds all information technology responsibilities upon the geographical data. Use of this tool along with capability of being used in a world wide information network is deemed as the favorite and required ground for introducing the countrys capabilities and talents in international levels.

Increasingly an expansion of user of this system is one of the key issues which can result in increase of the capabilities and capacities of this system. As the GIS can pave the ground for accessing and analyzing the large amount of information based on the geographical spatial, at the present situation, use of this system depends on the requirements of the regions or countries and is used in various sections such as environmental studies, city and municipal planning, city safety services, transportation and city trafc management, preparing the basic maps, land use management, banking services, mail services, population studies and city installations management (electricity, water, gas, etc.). Through passing time and developing the systems, use of GIS will be expanded to all the sections related to land. Accordingly, for introducing some parts of the ability and the merits of this system for quick access to the data, assess analyzing and evaluating the data wholly, the present study is done with aim of survey of use of GIS in cataloging of documents: a case study of earthquake documents collections. For reaching such an aim, all the attribute and spatial information related to the earthquake sciences from the accessible databases have been classied, controlled, separated and codied in order to be entered into the GIS. In order to establish a database for the above-mentioned information, the data has been entered to the system by means of Arcinfo software and the data layers have been formed here. Then, in order to show, explain and analyze the data sufciently the Arcview software has been used. In this way, in addition to quick and correct access to the data required in abundant volume, the spatial and attribute data about earthquake can be depicted in forms of map, table and diagram and also can be edited and updated and used based on the various use and targets. Also the way can be paved for identication and introduction of the various potentials and capabilities and the study related gaps in the different geographical areas. Finally, in order to generalize the use of this system concerning the other information (related to the spatial position in some aspects); a model of the plan is presented. 2. The major elements of GISs GIS structure is composed of a hierarchy with four fundamental levels: (1) Hardware. Various hardwares are used in GIS. . The hardware related to entering the data (keyboard, digitizer, and scanner). . The hardware related to data management (sub hardware such as mouse). . The hardware related to outputs (printers, drawers). (2) Software. GIS needs a computerized program to be initiated. The most well known ones include Arc/Info, Map/Info, Spans, Arc/View having various operational functions for analyzing the problems and statistical calculations and are generally manufactured by the large computer companies. (3) Information. No aim and suggestion exist without information. In fact, most of the activities are allocated to the information, because information is the heart of GIS. Quality of the information is one of the considerable and major issues. It is directly related to the exactness, preciseness, scientic principals, data composition, analyzing and modeling.

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(4) Organization and human resources. It is the major part of GIS, because organization and human resources control the GIS operations. Powerful GIS, hardware and software cannot work effectively without support of the skilful staff. Organizing the effective staff playing role in executing, optimising and nally directing the systems is necessary for successful implementation of the system. 3. Data analyzing process in GIS GIS is the computerized system with four major capabilities about land-reference data: (1) Input of data. (2) Data management. (3) Processing and analyzing data. (4) Output of data. So, the system can be considered as GIS whose software system includes four above-mentioned functions. As a result, most of the digital systems making maps, remote sensing systems, and thematic maps making systems are not regarded as the GIS. 4. Method and model of the research This study is descriptive analytic and its steps are summarized as follows: (1) Collecting the data. (2) Entering information into the GIS. (3) Managing and analyzing the data. (4) Producing outputs. 5. Collecting the data The data to be entered into GIS is of two types: (1) Attribute data specifying the characteristics of the features. (2) Spatial data specifying the situation and form of the features. Attribute data In this study, the data required to be entered into the system, based on the document being studied are as follows: Document number; writer; geographic coordinates; year in which the study conducted; university or organization which done the study; document code. After being separated, controlled and classied, the available document information (including Persian thesis, non-Persian thesis, conferences proceeding, papers, research projects and reports) have been recognized favorite. Other available earthquake related documents have not been worthy of being used and illustrated in the system due to the reasons as follows: . Lack of spatial data in some of documents. . Lack of access to the considerable part of the documents such as research projects, reports information, and etc.

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Lack of exact geographic information (spatial) in some texts. Repetition of some documents.

Spatial data Spatial data is the data concerning the place, form and the relations between the geographic features in the earth surface on the map and generally saved as the coordinates. The quality of this information will have considerable impacts on analyzing the data in formation of the databank. The spatial information required for entrance in this system are: . Geographic coordinates of the studied areas (registered in the documents) transferred to the system by keyboard. . Information layers including the maps of provinces, towns, cities, lakes, provinces centers and geological map of Iran, all with the scale of 1 : 250,000 were available in standard form and can be used for reaching to various goals. In a number of documents that geographical coordinates of the research place were indenite, the geographical area being studied have been dened. The above data layers were provided by the Ministry of industries and mines of Iran and then were entered to the system for the required operation. Data entry methods into the system. Based on data types, i.e. descriptive data and spatial data; there is various ways for data entry to the system. In this research, three methods were used as follows: (1) Recording by keyboard. Attribute data were recorded by the keyboard and they are generally recorded as tables provided in Windows system, or as the descriptive information about an area or a phenomenon. In this research the collected attribute data were entered into the system by this method and were based on the available spatial data. (2) Manual digitizing. In this research after entering the attribute data by keyboard some of the spatial data were entered by the manual digitizing method. The spatial data that were entered by this method are as follows: the geographical coordinates recorded for any of documents (place of doing researches). After entering all of the available coordinates in ArcInfo software, the desired topologies created by clean and build orders for the layers. By this method in addition to achieving the automated calculating of the perimeter or surface, topological relation between maps components were created. Thus, the layers based on type can be represented as points, lines or polygons. In this research, in order to facilitate the representation of six data layers (coverage), using of pointed topology is recommended. (3) Entering of the available digital les. Because of the existing difculties and the time-consuming procedure of the codication by keyboard and manual digitizing, using of the data as digital form is always considered in this area. If a digital copy from the required data is available, it is entered to system by this method. In this research, the available data layers including maps of provinces, cities, towns, lakes, province centers and the geological map of Iran and sheeting of maps, all with the scale of 1 : 250,000, were used and thus are easily adaptable together, to directly enter to system by this method and can be used in GIS.

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Establishment of attribute database. In order to establish a database from the attribute data, all the data available be it Persian and non-Persian thesis, conferences proceeding, reports and so on selected and separated by Access software, entered to system and organized in form of dbf(data base eld) in three groups of tables, reports and forms. As it has been noted, each of the data were directed and related to the map, aimed at regulating the data based on the scanned maps. As the result, the users can receive a map of the area being studied through clicking their desired code in the database while observing the document attribute information. 6. Summary of the measures taken by the available softwares As it was noted, six data layers had been formed included types of the documents studied namely, Persian and non-Persian theses, conferences proceeding, papers, projects and reports, by Arcinfo software. Geographic coordinates of the above mentioned documents were entered into the system by the same software. The next step involves entering the information table concerning the above mentioned layers (provided already by Access software) into Arcinfo. Because the attribute information related to this study is the Persian language and no decision have been made for textual data and their linkage to the Persian graphic program in Arcinfo (v. 3.2), some parts of the information was changed into Persian language by the FoxPro software and then entered into Arcinfo. Based on the data studied, the above mentioned database includes 6 elds as follows: Document number; writer (name and surname); geographic coordinates; year in which the study conducted; university or organization which done the study; document code. Except the geographic coordinates eld whose data is entered manually, all the operations are applied on the all mentioned elds. Now, geographic coordinates cannot be entered in mechanized manner by means of the available tools, but it will be possible by programming. Data layers are transferred into Arcview after being organized. The mentioned layers are prepared for being analyzed by operation of GIS and also for extraction of various uses. 7. Analytical functions on the spatial and attribute data The power of GIS is in integration of attribute analytical functions with the spatial one. For example, we can determine a specied area in graphic with desired particulars by means of attribute analytical functions and using spatial analytical functions. This feature makes GIS systems distinct from automated mapping systems, which are allocated for work on spatial data. These functions are divided as follows: Retrieval, classication and measurement . Retrieval functions. These functions retrieve the data available in attribute database by the users based on the selected conditions. Optional search can be performed in various layers and the results can be as the tables being saved and used for further studies.

Two kinds of queries including spatial and aspatial are done by GIS. Aspatial queries are questions about the features descriptions. For example, this question How many documents are there about earthquake? is aspatial query, because the questions and answers are not required analyzing the spatial components. This type of search is done solely by the software available in the database. The question How the spatial distribution of the earthquake documents is in the country? is a query for spatial due to relation to a location (Figure 1). The way of search in GIS can be very interactive. The users can study the map on the computer screen or search by reminders or searchers. The user can select a feature on the computer screen and answer the question What are the particulars of this feature? The searches are integrated and the features are shown adopted to two or more spatial or aspatial criteria. Drawing area maps, receiving outputs from the data are considered as the operations of these functions: . Classication functions. Classication is one of the simplest functions used in databases. This operation can be done on a single layer of data. As the result the classication process includes nding layers attribute particulars and attributing features. Classication can be performed in the most complex form on some overlapped layers. In this study, a collection of available documents can be classied and illustrated based on subject, location or year. An example will be demonstrated in Figure 2 in the next pages.

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Figure 1. Dispersion within Iran of some earthquake studies based on type of documents

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Figure 2. Dispersion of earthquake documents by date in the Fars province

Measurement functions. Each GIS provides functions for measurement. Measurements include the distance between the points, lines length, perimeter and areas of the polygons. Overlay operation This operation is required for integrating and mixing the various layers and creating layers and new information. The operation for adapting the data layers is done in logical or arithmetical form. The arithmetical operation includes the operation such as addition, multiply, subtraction and division in each layer of data and the logical operation includes adapting the locations in which a specied collection of requirements for users or the other features exist. The options and queries concerning the various locations or layers with the common features necessitate applying adaptation of the data layers. In this case, the system should search in the layers topography tables and then select the desired points from many layers and illustrate them in form of overlapped layers. The common feature could be the location of layers as seen in Figure 3. With layers adapted to each others, the database is in most part completed and so much information can be extracted from selected layers.
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8. Outputs A GIS should include the required software for illustrating the various maps, diagrams or tables in different ways. The cartographic skills should pave the ground in this

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Figure 3. Overlay operation

regard in order to produce the maps illustrating the spatial distribution of phenomena simply. Graphic products are worthy of being illustrated about studying the spatial analysis results. Selecting the type of illustration of the outputs depends on the various factors such as the data nature, separation capacity, the required scale, software and hardware limitations and also the number of applicants for outputs. In addition, we should be able to produce the non-graphic outputs in a GIS. These outputs are used for transferring the data between the different processing systems and also for keeping the data for a long term. The outputs are generally divided into two types including (1) Hardcopy such as the thematic maps, diagrams, tables and statistic reports provided by printer or plotter. (2) Softcopy illustrating the data produced on the screen. This type of output is used for using the latest processes and analyses. In the present research, the layout or output from the maps is produced in the Arcview, after analyzing the data. The guiding table, map title, symbol of geographic north and also the maps scale are dened and printed in the latest step. Thematic maps In the thematic maps, the structure of a data distribution illustrating the data features as the elements of internal relations of the various is drawn. The thematic maps can be

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used for describing a large number of phenomena used. The maps illustrating the dispersion of data are the example of thematic maps. In this study, geographical dispersion of the earthquake documents can be illustrated based on the various parameters simultaneously in all provinces or in different provinces separately. For example, Figure 2 shows the dispersion of earthquake documents by date in the Fars province. Diagrams The results of the analysis by a GIS can be shown effectively by non-map graphics. The total aim is to create a relation simply for imaging of information. The quantity information available in the database can be changed into the different graphics. Bar and circle diagrams are examples of diagrams of this system. These diagrams can be drawn in form of vertical and horizontal ones. The circle one shows the information by dividing the circle and specifying the ratios. Furthermore, one part can be separated and distinct from the others. For instance, Figure 4 shows a circle diagram of earthquake conferences proceeding by date?. Tables Providing tables for each features and attribute data or for all attribute data are the other outputs of the GIS. Special data can also be selected by means of query function and different tables can be produced for illustrating the data. Other outputs As it has been stated, other outputs may be presented in form of image processing and illustration on the color monitors. The recent type of output is applied by the users who use the system daily. The data is also supplied in CD, Diskette and so on.

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Figure 4. Circle diagram of earthquake conferences proceeding by date

In order to generalize the use of this system concerning the other information (related to the spatial position in some aspects), a model of the plan is presented (Figure 5).

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9. Results After performing the various steps of collecting data, entering information into the GIS and system management and nally producing outputs, considerable results came out and totally the study served its aims: . With regard to the GIS capabilities for saving, analyzing and reviewing the spatial and attribute information, a complete and comprehensive database of the geographical sciences data about earthquake studies can be established. This database can keep unlimited amount of spatial information including maps and pictures and attribute information including bibliography and the users can select, remove, add and edit their desired data and analyze it and nally choose their desired output. . All types of data available in the various databases can be illustrated, analyzed and reviewed simultaneously. So, these inputs can be compared from different aspects (subject, year, and so on). . Data geographical dispersion can be easily studied and the geographic positions from the view point of earthquake and the other related issues have been less studied, identied and introduced to the users for doing studies.

Figure 5. Process diagram and steps of doing a study

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By using the analysis functions and other logical and various applications (data management, selection of favorite models. . .), the database can be prepared to answer the questions raised by the users and meets their needs and when necessary analyze the other issue regarding the data.

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10. Executive suggestions concerning GIS related studies Some executive issues paving the ground for GIS related more studies are outlined as following: . Collecting accepted standards for producing information and maps. . Allocating required budget for establishing GIS in other organizations and institutes. . Promoting computer skills and hardware technology. . Taking appropriate measures for collecting and developing Persian software aiming at reducing the costs and promoting the users convenience. . Developing the culture of effective and correct use of the software and complying with the copy write rules. . Specifying or promoting GIS course in the universities and taking advantage of the experts experiences. . Publishing papers and bulletin on GIS. . Holding seminar and conference for familiarization with different elds. . Timely training of the experts prior to purchase and initiation of GIS technology.
References Jingfeng, Xia (2004), GIS in the management of library pick-up books, Library Hi Tech, Vol. 22 No. 2, p. 209. Patrick, Florance (2006), GIS collection development within an academic library, Library Trends, Vol. 55 No. 2, pp. 222-35. Renata, Solar and Dalibor, Radovan (2005), Use of GIS for presentation of the map and pictorial collection of the National and University Library of Slovenia, Information Technology and Libraries, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 196-200. Rhonda, Houser (2006), Building a library GIS service from the ground up, Library Trends, Vol. 55 No. 2, pp. 315-26. Steven, P. Morris (2006), Geospatial web services and geoarchiving: new opportunities and challenges in geographic information services, Library Trends, Vol. 55 No. 2, pp. 285-303. Further reading Abler, R.F. (1987), The National Science Foundation Center for geographic information and analysis, International Journal of Geographic Information Systems, Vol. 1, pp. 26-303. Alesheikh, A.A. (2000), Data Management and GIS Application Seminar Notes, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, K.N., Toosi University of Technology, Iran. Delavar, M. (1997), Development of probability maps to assess the accuracy and reliability of information in the output of a GIS system, PhD Thesis, University of New South Wales, School of Geomatic Engineering, Australia.

Graaf, Gertjan et al. (2003), Geographic Information Systems in Fisheries Management and Planning, technical manual, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Parhizkar, Akbar (1997), Presenting favorite pattern for city services center with study in urban GIS models, PhD Thesis, Tarbiat Modarres University, Humanities Sciences College, Iran. Parhizkar, Akbar and Gouli, Ali (2002), The necessity of using modern geographic information system technologies in Iranian culture, (using geographic information system for knowing Iranian culture), Summary of papers of rst conference in knowing Iranian culture, Tehran, Iran, pp. 326-8. Tomlin, C.D. (1990), Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic Modeling, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Zarei Nejad, Mojgan (2002), Process of Change in the Geographic Information System Technology in IRANs Geology and Exploration, available at: www.gisdevelopment.net/application/ geology/mineral/techgi0072pf (accessed March 11, 2004). Corresponding author Mehri-e-Sedighi can be contacted at: sedighi@irandoc.ac.ir

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