This document provides an introduction to full-featured GIS software. It explains that GIS software displays geographic data through visual features like colors and symbols but does not store the actual geographic information. The geographic information comes from databases and collections of raster data and shapefiles stored in an external file repository. It also gives examples of displaying geodata in QGIS using a map of Annette Island, and introduces sample data relating to a German Pietist community in Russia that is stored in different file formats.

1. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
TO FULL-FEATURED
GIS SOFTWARE
DARIAH-DE WORKSHOP
September 2019
Monika Barget

2. FULL-FEATURED GIS SOFTWARE
IMPORTANT: GIS software
displays geo-data and adds
refined visual features
(colours, patterns, symbols),
but it does not store the
actual geographic
information!
Geo-information
ingested into GIS
software comes from
databases and/or
collections of raster
data and shapesfiles
collected in a file
repository!

3. HOW GIS DATA ARE STRUCTURED AND STORED

4. DISPLAYING AND ADJUSTING GEODATA IN QGIS:
E.G. MAP OF ANNETTE ISLAND
• Annette Island or
Taak'w Aan (Tlingit),
part of the Gravina
Islands in the
Alexander
Archipelago of the
Pacific Ocean,
Alaska, United States
of America
• Link to sample data:
https://qgis.org/down
loads/data/

5. GETTING STARTED WITH OUR HANDS-ON SESSION
• IEG Digital Historial
Research on GITHUB:
https://github.com/ieg-dhr/

6. UNDERSTANDING OUR SAMPLE DATA
• Samples: all files
relating to the German
Pietist community in
Russia
• Data were first stored
in .TXT format and
converted to different
.CSV files later
• Introductions to
Geobrowser and
Palladio are provided in
German and English
(„Using …“ PPTs)