SimplyMap Deemed “Essential” in ALA Choice Review

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ALA’s Choice Magazine, publisher of independent reviews of products and services for academic libraries, released a new review of SimplyMap in the December 2009 edition.

The reviewer, Carol E. Smith from the University of Central Missouri writes, “SimplyMap is an outstanding online subscription service that eliminates these significant technical hurdles [of GIS software] for the average person, providing a user-friendly interface, access to a wealth of built-in data, and surprisingly rich GIS analysis capabilities.

Our team was very happy to learn of SimplyMap’s “Essential”  rating from Choice!

Read the complete review.

Choice


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GRI Exhibiting at ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston – Jan 15-18 2009

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The ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting will be held on January 15-19, 2010 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. (Note that this is not the Hynes Convention Center). Geographic Research, Inc. will be at booth 2168 – stop by and visit us with your questions, for the latest updates on new features, and a demonstration of SimplyMap.

Exhibit hours are:
Friday, January 15, 5:30-7:30 pm
Saturday-Sunday, January 16-17, 9:00 am – 5;00 pm
Monday, January 18, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm

ALA Midwinter 2010

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Legal Information Alert Reviews SimplyMap

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Legal Information Alert, a monthly newsletter covering what’s new in legal publications, databases and research techniques, published a review of SimplyMap in their April 2009 issue titled, “SimplyMap: A Simple Solution for Complex Statistics.”

The review was written by Sonnet Erin Brown, Head of Federal Documents at the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans, who noted how useful SimplyMap could be for legal researchers, especially as a tool for litigation:

“Using SimplyMap, lawyers can look at trends in a neighborhood, such as race, economic standing, crime, education levels, and many other factors. This can give lawyers some insight into jury pools and can also help them determine how to best present a client. The information gleaned from SimplyMap can even help a lawyer decide about whether or not a client should face a jury, a judge, or take a deal.”

Brown goes on to describe how SimplyMap can be invaluable when setting up a business. Lawyers assisting businesses can use SimplyMap to decide the best location for a new restaurant, bank, or even a law firm. SimplyMap is also noted in the article as useful for real estate law (researching demographics of neighborhoods), and legal advertising placement (using crime data).

Looking beyond the data, Brown has many positive things to say about SimplyMap’s interface:

“[SimplyMap] is especially useful for visual learners and for presentations. Instead of graphs and pie charts, users can create actual maps that convey the arguments they are trying to make. Nothing sells a particular argument like a good visual aid. SimplyMap is an amazing visual aid that can make even an Internet novice look like a professional.”

In closing, Brown notes, “An assortment of professionals can use this database to enhance their businesses or careers, including politicians, lawyers, statisticians, and business executives.”

Send us an email if you’d like a full copy of the review. View more information on Legal Information Alert here.

Legal Information Alert

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Wake County Library blog: “SimplyMap is simply wonderful!”

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SimplyMap was highlighted in the Wake County, NC Public Library Business Blog today as a valuable tool for business planning. Wake County has access to SimplyMap through NC LIVE, a statewide collaborative supported by the North Carolina General Assembly through funding from its Communities of Interest.

For those seeking assistance in answering business questions with SimplyMap, NC LIVE has developed a partnership with the Business Librarians (BLINC) throughout North Carolina to help patrons find the information they need. Beginning mid-November, this e-mail reference service will begin, allowing the public to submit inquiries via email which will be researched using library resources and databases, including SimplyMap.

Read more at the Wake County Business Blog.

Wake County

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An Evening with Author Jeff Zaslow

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Jeff Zaslow, Wall Street Journal columnist and co-author of the The Last Lecture, will speak at the Orlando, FL Public Library on Friday, September 11 at 7 p.m.

Zaslow helped the late Randy Pausch share his last lecture in the powerful bestselling book.  With eloquence and inspiration, the book imparts key messages about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of seizing every moment and making time for what matters.  During these down economic times, his simple lessons are more important than ever.

Geographic Research, Inc. is pleased to be a sponsor of this event. Tickets are $50 each and all proceeds benefit the Orange County Library System.  Purchase online, by phone at 407.835.7481 or in person at the library system’s Community Relations Office on the third floor of the Orlando Public Library.

Zaslow is currently coauthoring Highest Duty, the autobiography of Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, famous for landing US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The book is expected to be released October 13, 2009.

An Evening With Author Jeff Zaslow

Friday, September 11, 7 p.m.

(There will be a special free screening of The Last Lecture at the Orlando Public Library on Saturday, September 5 at 1 p.m.)

More Info

The Last Lecture The Girls From Ames Highest Duty

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UNCG Dataland Blog offers new SimplyMap Tutorial Videos

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Lynda Kellam, the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro has produced some new tutorial videos to help students learn how to create maps and reports using SimplyMap. The tutorials are web-based streaming videos and include sound.

– SimplyMap Quick Start Tutorial #1: An introduction to SimplyMap (1:56)

– SimplyMap Quick-Start Tutorial #2: Finding Specific Census Tract (2:54)

Thank you to Lynda for developing this valuable resource and making it available to the SimplyMap community!

UNCG Dataland Blog

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Men’s Health Ranks Top Sports Towns

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Men’s Health continues to utilize SimplyMap to identify and rank U.S. cities. This time they are studying “sports-obsessed citizenry,” and here is how they did it:

Our stat showdown began with a tally of how many people attend baseball, basketball, and football games (college and pro), as well as who’s showing up at high-school sporting events. Next we factored in Nascar attendance and who’s catching their sports on TV and the radio, all from SimplyMap. We ended by looking at the number of people vying for tickets to any sport, who is buying the most team apparel, and finally, how many people call themselves foam-finger-waving fanatics, from Scarborough Sports Marketing.

The ranking feature extends the power of SimplyMap, making it easy to generate ranked lists of locations for any variable in the system. Thanks to Men’s Health for providing another great example of how to use SimplyMap to power your research projects.

For the full article – and the results, click  here.

0907-skyline-illo-200x200

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Visit us at the ALA Conference in Chicago

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The American Library Association 2009 Annual Conference will take place in Chicago, IL from July 9- July 15, 2009 at McCormick Place West located at 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL.

Geographic Research, Inc. will be exhibiting from July 11-14. Stop by and see us at booth #4946!

Click here for more conference info.

chicago_exhibiting

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Regent University Recommends SimplyMap

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The library faculty at Regent University in Virginia recently spotlighted SimplyMap in their Library Faculty Recommendations blog, highlighting its powerful ability to create professional quality thematic maps and reports. Associate Librarian Marta Lee used SimplyMap to enhance her research project, Wild West Libraries: A Study of Southwest Kansas Public Libraries and was impressed with the gentle learning curve and ability to easily include attractive and professional maps in presentations.

Read more on the Regent University Library Link.

SimplyMap image of S.E. Virginia and N.E. North Carolina with census tracts

SimplyMap image of S.E. Virginia and N.E. North Carolina with census tracts

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