M1: Oral Presentation C Thursday, 3:30 – 4:00 pm C Lake Superior Ballroom L

GeoGateway Enhancements: The Quick Route to Geographic Information

Chris Cialek, Jim Dickerson
Minnesota Planning Land Management Information Center
300 Centennial Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN  55155
chris.cialek@state.mn.us

Over 900 GIS specialists use Minnesota’s GeoGateway to download 1½ gigabytes of free GIS data each month. They have found that searching on metadata content, rather than filenames or web pages speeds up the work of finding geographic data over the Internet, providing access to over 2500 data bases covering the state. The GeoGateway is a web-based search tool specifically designed to help Minnesota GIS users search for and find the data they need by providing a link to the data resources of the Metropolitan Council, DNR, LMIC, ARDC, USGS, Census Bureau, NRCS and a dozen other data providers. After nearly a year in operation the GeoGateway is going through some enhancements. This presentation illustrates how the GeoGateway works, describes its advantages to GIS specialists in government and the private sector, and explains some new improvements that promise faster access to more data, including an update on new methods for previewing and selecting GIS layers based on ESRI's ArcIMS.