Her focus is on service and collection development, making sure the data sets are current, and that lots of manuals provide backup. Johnson not only trains users in GIS, but goes herself to regular training in the technology. In Seattle, every department in the city uses GIS, and the city supports training for all staff who are using it. Her library is a government documents repository, and she notes that 80 percent of government information has a spatial component. With its focus on city of Seattle data, Johnson sees a key role for the library in providing GIS data for Seattle's neighborhood community councils.
Data includes housing values, demographics, census information, and so on.
She draws a parallel between GIS and internet training, which grew naturally out of the need to provide an increasingly necessary information service to users initially unfamiliar with the technology. GIS is costly in terms of both funding and resources. The rewards for information access are great, however. It provides a tool that simply did not exist before, and public libraries now have the means to place it in their patrons' hands. Bibliography Soete, George J. Geographic Information Systems .