The Master of Geomatics for Environmental Management (MGEM) is a 9 –month, interdisciplinary Masters program at UBC, which culminates in the completion of capstone projects by the students. Students learn to use and apply geospatial tools for planning, development, and management. They also evaluate programs designed for protecting and regulating natural habitats and renewable natural resources. During their studies, the UBC Library provides support for student learning and research in innovative ways.
When the most recent cohort of students began their Masters, Eleri Staiger-Williams (acting Forestry Librarian at the time) and Evan Thornberry (Maps & GIS Librarian) co-taught a custom “orientation to the library” session for the class. With discipline-specific expertise in library science related to the students’ area of study, Eleri and Evan were able to provide program-specific research suggestions; in turn, the students could ask discipline-specific questions about their research.
The students helped Eleri and Evan discover some of the latest research directions being explored, so that UBC Library can continue to help students fulsomely work on the leading edge of research.
In March, as students worked towards completing their capstone projects, Evan returned to the classroom. This time, Evan was accompanied by UBC Library Research Data Management Librarian Doug Brigham. The nature of the learning was quite different from the first session. Evan and Doug used their respective background knowledge to demonstrate how to manage file data in ArcGIS Pro and how to deposit data for long-term preservation in Dataverse repository for UBC-affiliated academic research.
The UBC Library Research Data Management team set up a specific MGEM Dataverse to provide ongoing access to the capstone projects data. If your UBC research group or unit would like a Dataverse set up to keep your data together, email research.data@ubc.ca.
The work between the MGEM program and UBC Library showcases one example of how research impacts can be amplified by this type of collaboration. While the stereotype of the library as a building of books is not wholly incorrect—and has an importance all its own –there is so much more going on in the library! With just this one example, we see the importance of Evan’s knowledge of spatial data and Doug’s in Research Data Management.
If you are working in the areas of GIS or mapping, regardless of discipline, and have further questions about your research, you can reach out to evan.thornberry@ubc.ca. If your questions pertain to research-data management, contact research.data@ubc.ca. And, if you have questions about forestry, please contact our Forestry and Conservation Sciences Liaison Librarian at helen.l.brown@ubc.ca.