Increasing Relevance of GIS in Business Schools

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is “the primary platform in which professionals analyze, manipulate, transform, and visualize [geographic information” (Bishop & Grubesic, 2016, p. 5). GIS has been around since the 1960s (Bishop & Grubesic, 2016). Professional and scholarly literature indicates that GIS has had increasingly broad applications coupled with waves of popularity. Many publications describe business use cases for GIS, such as site selection, routing optimization, and business process redesign (Kerski, 2017). While industry adoption is widespread (Farkas et al., 2016), GIS education in business curricula remains limited. Surveys of business school curricula reveal that GIS tends to be included in a minority of programs, is rarely offered as a stand-alone course, and is often championed by individual faculty. This leaves individual business students to seek elective courses or co-curricular options based on interest (King & Arnette, 2011; Farkas et al., 2016). Additionally, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) guidelines lack explicit GIS requirements, and their many other requirements leave little room to currently incorporate it into the curriculum (King & Arnette, 2011).

At the same time, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) surveys show that in 2015, a majority (74%) of responding member institutions were increasingly providing GIS services (March & Scarletto, 2017). Despite this trend, discussions within business librarianship about GIS or collaborations with GIS librarians are limited. Products like SimplyAnalytics are commonly included in business librarians’ reference and instruction resources; however, the emphasis is on access and use of a specific tool, rather than developing transferable GIS data literacy for business contexts.

GIS Literacy Gap: An Opportunity for Business & GIS Librarianship

A lack of exposure and training in GIS data literacies among business librarians may contribute to this gap. Pothier and Condon (2020, 2022) emphasize developing data literacy competencies and the librarians’ role in helping to meet the needs of business students and the workforce. Additionally, Sturgeon et al. (2024) highlight the desire of business librarians to create more focused roles with specialized knowledge of business topics and technologies. Leveraging GIS for business use cases is a very practical, timely, and useful way that business librarians can help develop applied data literacy competencies.

Mapping New Opportunities (HD McKay)

The lack of support for GIS skill development within business curricula presents an opportunity for business librarians to address this gap. This can be done in a variety of ways: connecting with your GIS specialist on campus, tag-teaming with GIS librarians on reference questions, co-sponsoring co-curricular workshops, and managing collections.

One of the first challenges with this collaboration is making contact. Just as business librarian roles are structured differently (e.g., some report directly to the business school and others to the central library), GIS expertise may reside in different units within a given campus. For example, some GIS specialists—with or without an MLIS designation— may be part of the library team and sit in an adjacent cubicle. This was the case during my time as a business librarian at North Carolina State University Libraries, where I would frequently triage reference questions with our GIS librarian. At that time, we had a GIS-designated corner with large displays within the general learning commons space where we could hold joint consultations. In other cases, GIS specialists may be part of a larger government information services department within the central library and located in a different part of campus. This was the case when I worked at the University of Toronto Libraries where I worked at the health sciences library and held an additional appointment to serve users off-campus. The connections can be more tenuous and take more intentional outreach and prioritizing in this instance. Sometimes, the GIS unit may be its own department altogether, or some GIS products may be co-managed through an IT department and the library, as is the case with University of Michigan (n.d.).

Valuable business data can be leveraged from platforms such as Esri’s ArcGIS Business Analyst. Doing so can be a beneficial, if not necessary, complement to the library’s business data collections. At Vanderbilt University, our GIS librarians operate a GIS lab in a unit library and are frequent collaborators on webinars and research projects. For example, we have used GIS tools to help answer business reference questions and support student projects. You can learn more about how we have used GIS tools from our poster (McKay et al., 2024).

From a GIS Librarian Perspective (Alyssa Sklar)

In my experience as a GIS Librarian, collaborating with business librarians and other library liaisons offers a multitude of benefits, along with a few challenges, as is the case with any collaboration. For instance, it broadens perspectives on the relevance of GIS. While GIS specialists might have a primary area of focus, such as in social sciences, public health, environmental studies, etc., working with business librarians can expand understandings of business contexts and strengthen knowledge of tools like ArcGIS Business Analyst. However, Slayton and Benner (2020) note the broad ask of geospatial librarians to be available to “anyone who wants to make a map, find specific spatial datasets, practice spatial data management, learn to use a tool or apply a method specific to their interests” is a challenge (p. 12). Balancing the diverse and specialized needs of the campus community is one of the most significant hurdles.

One of the key challenges is that GIS often requires specialized knowledge, which can create a barrier for both learning and instruction. To lower the barrier, we can focus on web-based platforms like ArcGIS Online or SimplyAnalytics, rather than more complex desktop GIS software systems such as ArcGIS Pro or QGIS. This substantially reduces the learning curve and eliminates the need for specialized equipment or high-powered computer processing, both of which can be costly. This shift not only simplifies the user experience but also enables greater flexibility when working with business librarians and other library liaisons. For example, as a licensing administrator for Vanderbilt’s Esri instance, the set-up for web-based platforms is either seamless or user settings are adjusted with a few clicks to allow for further permissions. Whereas databases like SimplyAnalytics, PolicyMap, and Social Explorer are accessed through the Library Catalog system. Furthermore, using web-based platforms also allows GIS to be done from anywhere and not just when a lab is open and available.

Despite these challenges, collaborations have the potential to introduce new ways to present information and refine library instructional skills. By adopting techniques and approaches used in specific disciplines and integrating them into GIS instruction, both business and GIS librarians can enhance the learning experience of those who are unfamiliar with GIS. Even small adjustments in instruction can make learning GIS more accessible for the GIS-curious. These adjustments could involve focusing the session on a topic of interest instead of just the technology, ensuring users leave a session with an end-product that they have created (e.g. a map or application), or focusing on universal concepts such as storytelling.

Another benefit is the increased recognition of the value of GIS resources. For example, a team of executive MBA students utilized ArcGIS Business Analyst to compare Airbnb and hotel locations in a hospitality gap analysis. In another case, undergraduate students worked with real-world business clients to determine insights on drive-time, demographics, and entertainment expenditures to target audiences for ticket sales. The use of GIS in business contexts highlights its value not only to students and librarians, but also to their clients and broader audiences. Visual outputs, such as a map, demonstrate the utility of GIS as both a tool to analyze data and a platform to communicate information to various interested parties. Such utility amplifies the effectiveness and value of GIS.

Collections Considerations (Chuck Knight)

Geographic information (GI) and GIS applications can present collections challenges. However, the effort may pay off as you explore the various options and consider them within your specific context. You may wonder how to make sound collection decisions about GIS content. First, it is helpful to think about GI as distinct from GIS applications. GI refers to data about locations on or near the Earth’s surface—including spatially based aspects of human behavior and society (Bishop & Grubesic, 2016). GIS applications are the systems that allow us to store and interact with GI. When making decisions, it is important to consider how the GI is packaged with the GIS. Bishop and Grubesic (2016) indicate that using objective measures for selecting GI and GIS applications is difficult. This difficulty stems from “the dynamic nature of GI, as well as issues of cost, legitimacy, and authority” (Bishop & Grubesic, 2016, p. 180). Information availability and accessibility are added complications. For example, the US Federal Government hosts a great deal of GI, but will the data always be available and usable?

Despite the challenges, existing literature offers several useful considerations for selecting GI and GIS applications. Factors that impact acquisition include user wants or needs, availability, format, and staff and budget resources (Florance, 2006). Along the lines of user needs, Donnelly (2009) demonstrates how potential resources can be assessed by performing tasks relevant to users. Aber et al. (2017), while considering the library type and budget, discuss formal needs assessments using quantitative and qualitative measurements to develop a geospatial collection development policy. Such formal processes are certainly relevant for a map or GIS librarian or for the decision-making of an entire library or library system. The challenges here are the amount of time and the number of personnel required to go through the process. However, business librarians could scale user assessment efforts. For example, I recently demonstrated SimplyAnalytics to a class of MBA students. This prompted a conversation with one of the students about how geographic data was used in his prior work in the entertainment venue industry. Knowing about student experiences in real world situations can be helpful when thinking about user needs. Since business students may have a variety of work and internship experiences, a short survey about using mapping or geospatial tools could provide valuable information about GI data and products in business contexts.

If you need to demonstrate needs more formally, user needs can be mapped to detailed evaluation metrics. To evaluate online mapping applications, Kong et al. (2014) developed a set of metrics along three main facets: data content, GIS functionality, and usability. After identifying the three facets, a set of child metrics relating to each facet were derived from a literature review. Six commonly used GIS applications were then evaluated by reviewing vendor-provided information and published reviews. Additionally, usability testing was conducted with a group of undergraduate students performing common mapping tasks where quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The evaluation resulted in refinement of the metrics, and yielded an additional tier of 22 specific items.

While Kong et al.’s (2014) metrics are robust, we believe that evaluations for collections decisions can be simplified and adapted for the local context. To that end, we began working on a tool that measures two main variables—cost and features—with subsets of evaluation criteria (see Table 1). Data from the variables can then be populated to a 2x2 matrix for comparative results.

Depending on your local context, you can add weights to variables and criteria accordingly. For example, to determine cost (and depending on your budget) you might find it more relevant to assign a 60-percent weight to the direct cost (subscription rate) and a 40-percent weight to the indirect cost (staff and student time). Or, perhaps in evaluating features, the data and data sources are more important than the visualization options.

The Takeaway: Practical Tips

There is a wide spectrum of possibilities and collaboration models for GIS librarians to fill this gap on campus and it has never been easier to do so. In the last decade, the ease of use and the availability of many tools have improved by leaps and bounds.

If you’re interested in learning more, here are some tips to help you get started: