Integrating Spatial and Data Literacy Into Your Course with PolicyMap
Are you looking to add spatial and data literacy to an upcoming course but don’t know where to start? PolicyMap, a database the Marquette Library subscribes too, is a good place to being.
It also has extensively diverse data sets from more than 150 public and private agencies. A small sample of data sources includes the Harvard/UC Berkeley Equality of Opportunity Project, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census, the Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Brookings Institution, Zillow, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Some of the data sets, such as Zillow Home Sale Data and Cost of College Estimates, are exclusive to PolicyMap.
You can also upload your own geographic data and overlay it with existing PolicyMap datasets.
The interface is easy to use and quick to grasp but if you need some help along the way PolicyMap provides numerous short tutorials covering various aspects of the tool and frequent webinars delving into basic and advanced capabilities of the tool.
Their Mapchats blog provides updates on new data sets and case studies of how data in PolicyMap is being utilized such as this post on Where Small Businesses Employ Most Workers.
Create an account to get started and reach out to the Lab if you have questions about integrating GIS into your next course or research project.
