Background and Description
The Geospatial Information Library (GIL) within the U.S. Army Geospatial Center (AGC) is part of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The GIL is used by the staff at AGC and elsewhere within the Corps, the Army and the Department of Defense (DOD) engaged in topographic and/or physical science research. The GIL reflects the mission of the AGC, which is to "provide the Warfighter with a superior knowledge of their combat environment and support the Nation’s civil and environmental initiatives through research, development and the application of expertise in the topographic and related sciences." With this mission in mind, the GIL focuses on providing image maps, topographic and other physical science maps, area studies as well as sources on the physical sciences and geography of regions or countries, and other geospatial data to support researchers.
Key Capabilities
The library is housed in a secure area within the building. The collection consists of printed books and reports, articles, maps, atlases, technical reports, organized but unpublished field data as well as digital cartographic data on numerous media types. The holdings consist of both unclassified and classified materials, along with some proprietary material. The majority of the materials are in English but also available in a diverse range of other languages. The collection is organized primarily by country and continent or region; and by topic if the item does not have a geographical focus. The collection is shelved primarily by format as the geographic scheme is followed within each format. There are separate filing sequences for books and reports, articles in vertical files, atlases, maps, journals, topical, digital, classified and unclassified materials.
Benefits
These geospatial materials are cataloged using an interactive library system called Voyager (http://www.agc.army.mil/factsheet/WebVoyage.pdf). Patrons have access to this information via the online public access catalog. WebVoyage allows users to conduct four types of searches: simple, advanced, country and geospatial. WebVoyage may be accessed at https://voyager.agc.army.mil. Patrons range from topographic teams in-theater that need terrain and/or water resources information over their area of responsibility, to civil engineers that need to analyze infrastructure information.
Product Development
Geospatial Data Branch, Warfighter Support Division, US Army Geospatial Center, US Army Corps of Engineers.
Current Status
Research support services are available to those Army and DOD components engaged in geospatial, terrain or physical science analysis. The GIL’s Products and Services may be accessed at (CAC card required): https://cac.agc.army.mil/Products/GIL/Library-Resources.cfm.
Point of Contact
Geospatial Data Branch, Commercial (703) 428-6903 DSN 364-6903;