You gotta OWN your map...

Making a map and including all of the necessary data to communicate whatever spatial information you're trying to communicate effectively is one thing, but the presentation itself is quite another.  For this week we take a look at elements essential for appropriate map presentation, and your humble blog author is a bit ashamed to admit that in considering these essential map elements for this course I must necessarily disclose that previous maps I've created for past employers may have been a bit lacking....

The above was my submission for class, and you'll notice it includes:  title, north arrow, scale bar, inset reference map of Florida, legend, name and data source.  Ostensibly all of the necessary elements of a well-presented map.  Yours truly was not remiss in including any of these elements in creations submitted to employers in the past, with the exception of one component of arguably tantamount importance- the map's data source.  It is sadly true, the cited data source was not something I thought to include in maps I've created previously, and can only describe the omission as one of completely neglectful oversight on my part.

But today is a new day!  I am fortunate enough to now be working on a graduate degree, and am finally getting caught up on all of the formal GIS training I've lacked my entire career thus far.  This steady review of the basics of GIS is necessary for my continued growth and developing expertise in this very complicated discipline, and for that I am immensely grateful.  The map of the UWF campus above is another submission in my nascent journey as a GIS graduate student, and another example of work on my personal endeavors in this GIS nouveau....