Student

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GIS Skills

• Spatial Data and Algorithms understanding: Understand the special case of spatial data, how they work and their internals. Also, be familiar with how certain operations are carried out and when they are applicable. Many operations will run in the software, but not necessarily produce valid results. 
• Data entry: Be able to enter data into a database successfully with minimal errors. This includes editing said data as needs arise.
• Data conversion: The ability to convert data from either older sources (digitization) or from multiple sources to either a common format or common schema. It is extremely useful to be able to work with data coming from GPS and performing data corrections as needed. 
• Data maintenance: Be able to maintain data, correctly archive and ensure quality control.
• *Metadata creation and editing: Maintain logs of data processing and relevant information to include in metadata and ensure accurate creation and maintenance of said metadata.
• GIS Analysis: Be able to perform GIS Analysis as it is often used to solve common problems. An ability to extend and alter the standard analysis to meet requirements is a plus. Remember, data analysis can be performed on vector or raster data, therefore some remote sensing skills are required. 
• GIS Workflow: Understand the workflow to perform some procedure and be able to follow it and enhance it as needed.
• Model Building: Be able to create models of processes to allow for a workflow to be built. Also, model building in the ArcGIS sense is very helpful in this regard.
• Cartography and Graphic Design: Familiarize yourself with cartographic principles and graphic design principles. Maps are used in a variety of ways and presented in a multitude of media. You need to be able to work with that. Think of color, symbology, fonts, etc. Bad cartographic design will often make your analysis hard to decipher and interpret. 

Programming Skills

• Basic understanding of programming: Be able to understand what programming is and what it can do to solve certain problems. Know the strengths and limitations of programming custom solutions to problems, as well as time requirements. 
• Programming language: Familiarize yourself with a programming or scripting language, as it is often used to build workflows or custom solutions to problems. For scripting language, both ESRI and the open source community tend to gravitate toward Python. For programming languages, C++ will give you an opportunity to work in multiple environments, while C# and the .Net languages offer you good development tools and interaction with Windows based software.
• Object Oriented programming: Learn the concepts of object oriented programming and be able to apply them in conjunction with your programming language of choice. Most GIS development is leaning toward this paradigm, and you should too.
• Basic GIS architecture (desktop and web): Understand the architecture of GIS and the method of communication between the different parts of GIS. Be able to distinguish when one can introduce internet-based communication in the mix and how it would work. 
• Web Services knowledge and experience: Web services are everywhere these days, and GIS is not escaping. Learn about them, how they work, and try to implement some of your own. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML and related AJAX technologies are a valuable tool. 

Database Skills

• Able to understand data models and structure: When given a database, you should be able to explore the data models within it and understand the structure of the database. Often times, structure will be represented in diagrams (UML), discussed below. 
• Ability to design data models: Given specific requirements for data, you should be able to design data models to fit your data.
• Database Design tools knowledge: You should familiarize yourself with database design tools, like Microsoft Visio. Most design work for data models uses it. Structured Query Language (SQL) knowledge: Almost all modern Database Management Systems (DBMS) understand SQL for data queries, inputs, deletions, etc. One should be familiar with SQL and be able to perform SELECT, INSERT, MODIFY and DELETE statements. JOINS, RELATES and further SQL knowledge is greatly valued and useful on the field. 

Project Management and Design

• Ability to translate user needs to solutions: More often than not, you will be supporting some client (or boss) that is not familiar with the details of GIS. You need to be able to translate their needs into solutions that can work in your domain. If it is not possible, you also need to be able to say so and offer alternatives. This is similar to requirements analysis used in software development.
• Good communication skills: You need to be able to communicate effectively and with confidence with your team and clients. There is no substitution for this skill.
• Good writing skills: Communicating is not restricted to verbal communication. You need to be able to clearly communicate in writing not only for communicating with your clients, but also to be able to produce metadata and reports of your work.
• Project management skills: Often overlooked in the GIS world, formal data management training is desired and required to run successful projects on time and within budget.

Other Skills

• Ability to apply expertise in multiple domains: GIS skills, while important, are not useful if they can not be applied to different domains. Your knowledge of other domains (like biology, forestry, etc) will allow you to think of creative ways to apply your GIS skills in a multi-disciplinary functions, which is greatly needed. Think outside the box .
• Portability of skills on multi-platforms and online/offline world: Your skills need to be applicable to different platforms. Not only should you learn how to do GIS Analysis, but you should be able with limited help to achieve similar results using other platforms (be it moving from an ESRI training to Idrisi, or from a Windows machine to a Linux machine, or a desktop application to a server based one). An ability to traverse between online and offline worlds is a valuable asset to have.
• Detail oriented: This needs no explanation, but in the GIS world, detail oriented can get you very far. The quality of your work will show (especially when you think of metadata or workflows).
• Customer Support skills:  In most cases, GIS is used as a support tool within large organizations. As such, GIS Analysts oftentimes need to interact with clients, either internal or external. Having good customer support skills ensures you establish strong relations and opportunities.

*assorted authors
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------GIS TEXTBOOKS-----------------------

INTRODUCTION TO GIS

Aronoff, Stan. 1989. Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective, WDL Publications, Ottawa.

Bernhardsen, Tor. 2002. Geographic Information Systems, An Introduction, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Bolstad, Paul. 2007. GIS Fundamentals, A First Text on Geographic Information Systems, 3rd ed., Eider Press, White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

Chang, Kang-tsung. 2010. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Toronto.

Chrisman, Nicholas. 2002. Exploring Geographic Information Systems, 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Clarke, Keith C. 2011. Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems, 5th ed., Prentice Hall Series in Geographic Information Science, Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Clemmer, Gina.  2010. The GIS 20: Essential Skills, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Davis, Bruce E. 2001. GIS: A Visual Approach, 2nd ed., OnWord Press, Albany New York.

Delaney, Julie. 2007. Geographical Information Systems, An Introduction, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, New York.

DeMers, Michael N. 2002. GIS Modeling in Raster, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

DeMers, Michael N. 2008. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems, 4th. ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

de Smith, Michael J., Michael F. Goodchild, and Paul A. Longley. 2011. Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques and Software Tools, a free web-based GIS resource, available online at http://www.spatialanalysisonline.com/, The Winchelsea Press.

Heywood, Ian, Sarah Cornelius, and Steve Carver. 2006. An Introduction to Geographical Information Systems, 2rd ed., Pearson Education Limited, Toronto.

Huxhold, William E. 1991. An Introduction to Urban Geographic Information Systems, Oxford University Press, New York.

Jones, Christopher. 1997. Geographical Information Systems and Computer Cartography, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, Edinburgh Gate, England.

Kennedy, Michael.  2006. Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Konecny, Gottfried. 2003. Geoinformation, Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry and Geographic Information Systems, Taylor and Francis, New York.

Lo, C.P., and Albert K.W. Yeung, 2007. Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems, 2nd ed., Pearson Education Canada, Inc., Toronto.

Longley, Paul A., Michael F. Goodchild, David J. Maguire, and David W. Rhind. 2010. Geographic Information Systems and Science, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Mitchell, Andy. 1999. The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 1: Geographic Patterns & Relationships, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Ormsby, Tim, Eileen Napoleon, Robert Burke, Carolyn Groessl, and Laura Feaster. 2010. Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop, 2nd ed., Updated for ArcGIS 10ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Price, Maribeth, 2009. Mastering ArcGIS, 4th ed., McGraw Hill Higher Education, Toronto.

Star, Jeffrey, and John Estes. 1990. Geographic Information Systems, An Introduction, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

ADVANCED GIS AND/OR SPATIAL ANALYSIS

Bailey, Trevor C., and Anthony C. Gatrell. Interactive Spatial Data Analysis, Pearson Education Limited, Toronto.

Burrough, Peter A., and Rachael A. McDonnell. 1998. Principles of Geographical Information Systems, Oxford University Press, Toronto.

Clarke, Keith C., Bradley O. Parks, and Michael P. Crane (eds.). 2002. Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Modeling, Fourth International Conference on Integrating Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Modeling, Banff, Canada, September, 2000, Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. 1994. Understanding GIS, The ARC/INFO Method, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.

Fortin, Marie-Josée, and Mark Dale. 2005. Spatial Analysis, A Guide for Ecologists, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Fotheringham, A. Stewart, Chris Brunsdon, and Martin Charlton. 2000. Quantitative Geography, Perspectives on Spatial Data Analysis, Sage Publications, London.

Fotheringham, A. Stewart, Chris Brunsdon, and Martin Charlton. 2002. Geographically Weighted Regression, The Analysis of Spatially Varying Relationships, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Fotheringham, A. Stewart, and Peter A. Rogerson. 2009. The SAGE Handbook of Spatial Analysis, SAGE, Los Angeles.

Longley, Paul A., and Michael Batty (eds.). 2003. Advanced Spatial Analysis, The CASA Book of GIS, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Maguire, David J., Michael Batty, and Michael Goodchild (eds.). 2005. GIS, Spatial Analysis, and Modeling, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Mitchell, Andy. 2005. The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Vol. 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

O’Sullivan, David, and David J. Unwin. 2010. Geographic Information Analysis, 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Stillwell, John, and Graham Clarke (eds.). 2004. Applied GIS and Spatial Analysis, John Wiley and Sons, West Sussex, England.

Waller, Lance A., and Carol A. Gotway. 2004. Applied Spatial Statistics for Public Health Data, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Wong, Davis W.S., and Jay Lee. 2005. Statistical Analysis of Geographic Information, with ArcView GIS and ArcGIS, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

APPLICATIONS OF GIS

Boyles, David. 2002. GIS Means Business, Vol. 2, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Greene, Richard P. 2006. Exploring the Urban Community, A GIS Approach, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Grimshaw, David J. 2000. Bringing Geographical Information Systems into Business, 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Harris, Richard, Peter Sleight, and Richard Webber. 2005. Geodemographics, GIS and Neighbourhood Targeting, John Wiley and Sons Canada, Etobicoke.

Peters, Alan, and Heather MacDonald, 2004. Unlocking the Census with GIS, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Stillwell, John, and Graham Clarke (eds.). 2004. Applied GIS and Spatial Analysis, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto

Waller, Lance A., and Carol A. Gotway. 2004. Applied Spatial Statistics for Public Health Data, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Wing, Michael G., and Pete Bettinger.  2008. Geographic Information Systems, Applications in Natural Resource Management, Oxford University Press, Toronto.

CARTOGRAPHY

Brewer, Cynthia A.  2005. Designing Better Maps, A Guide for GIS Users, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Campbell, John. 2001. Map Use & Analysis, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Toronto.

Dent, Borden, D. 1999. Cartography, Thematic Map Design, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Toronto.

Jones, Christopher. 1997. Geographical Information Systems and Computer Cartography, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, Edinburgh Gate, England.

Kimerling A. Jon, Aileen R. Buckley, Phillip C. Muehrcke, and Juliana O. Muehrcke. 2009. Map Use: Reading and Analysis, 6th ed., ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Kraak, Menno-Jan, and Ferjan Ormeling. 2010. Cartography, Visualization of Spatial Data, The Guilford Press, New York.

Maher, Margaret M. 2010. Lining Up Data in ArcGIS, A Guide to Map Projections, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Peterson, Gretchen N.  2009.  GIS Cartography, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, New York.

Robinson, Arthur H., Joel L. Morrison, Phillip C. Muehrcke, Jon A. Kimerling, and Stephen C. Guptill. 1995. Elements of Cartography, 6th ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Slocum, Terry A., Robert B. McMaster, Fritz C. Kessler, and Hugh H. Howard. 2009. Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization,  3rd ed., Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

DATABASE DESIGN

Arctur, David, and Michael Zeiler. 2004. Designing Geodatabases, Case Studies in GIS Data Modeling, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Shekhar, Shashi, and Sanjay Chawla. 2003. Spatial Databases, A Tour, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Yeung, Albert K.W., and G. Brent Hall. 2007. Spatial Database Systems; Design Implementation and Project Management, The GeoJournal Library vol. 87, Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Zeiler, Michael. 2010. Modeling Our World, The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Concepts, 2nd ed., ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

GIS CURRICULUM

DiBiase, David, Michael DeMers, Ann Johnson, Karen Kemp, Ann Taylor Luck, Brandon Plewe, and Elizabeth Wentz.  2006. Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge, Association of American Geographers, Washington, DC.

GIS IMPLEMENTATION AND/OR PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Huxhold, William E., and Allan G. Levinsohn. 1995. Managing Geographic Information System Projects, Oxford University Press, New York.

Korte, George B., 2001. The GIS Book, How to Implement, Manage, and Assess the Value of Geographic Information Systems, 5th ed., Onword Press, Albany, New York.

Thomas, Christopher, and Milton Ospina, 2004. Measuring Up, The Business Case for GIS, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Tomlinson, Roger, 2011. Thinking About GIS, Geographic Information System Planning for Managers, 4th ed., ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

GIS FOR HISTORY

Knowles, Anne Kelly (ed.). 2002. Past Time, Past Place, GIS for History, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

HISTORY OF GIS

Foresman, Timothy W. (ed.). 1998. The History of Geographic Information Systems, Perspectives from the Pioneers, Prentice Hall Series in Geographic Information Science, Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

REMOTE SENSING

Campbell, James B. 2006. Introduction to Remote Sensing, 4th ed., The Guilford Press, New York, New York.

Jensen, John R. 2004. Introductory Digital Image Processing, A Remote Sensing Perspective, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall Series in Geographic Information Science, Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Konecny, Gottfried. 2003. Geoinformation, Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry and Geographic Information Systems, Taylor and Francis, New York.

Lillesand, Thomas M., and Ralph W. Kiefer. 2007. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 6th ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Mather, Paul M. 2011. Computer Processing of Remotely-Sensed Images, An Introduction, 4th ed., John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

STATISTICS

Rogerson, Peter A. 2010. Statistical Methods for Geography: A Student’s Guide, 3rd ed., Sage Publications, London.

WRITING

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 2008. The Craft of Research, 3rd ed., The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Northey, Margot, David B. Knight, and Dianne Draper. 2009. Making Sense in Geography and Environmental Studies, A Student’s Guide to Research, and Writing, 4th ed., Oxford University Press, Toronto.

Turabian, Kate L., Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 2007. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed., The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

LINKS TO TUTORIALS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.RASTER GIS
2.