by Wilpen L. Gorr and Kristen S. Kurland
ESRI Press, 2008, 456 pp.

Demands for effective GIS training are growing as more and more academic and professional disciplines begin to rely on this powerful technology to create maps, collect data, and perform advanced analysis.

Designed for a broad audience, GIS Tutorial meets this growing demand by combining ArcGIS tutorials and self-study exercises that start with the basics and progress to more difficult functionality. Presented in a step-by-step format, the book can be adapted to your specific training needs, whether it's teaching GIS to a classroom of graduate students or using the book for individual study.

Within the tutorials, students will learn to use a range of GIS functionality, from creating maps and collecting data to using geoprocessing tools and models for advanced analysis. The reader-friendly exercises make the GIS Tutorial the perfect choice for beginners and more experienced users of GIS, regardless of their background.

The book incorporates three proven learning methods to help you retain new software skills and encourage critical thought and problem solving:

• Scripted exercises that use detailed step-by-step instructions and result graphics to expose you to specific ArcGIS tools and GIS workflows.
• "Your Turn" exercises that require you to perform specific GIS tasks without step-by-step instruction.
• Exercise assignments that pose real-world problem scenarios that you must solve on your own using ArcGIS.

Please Note:

Trial Software: Included with the book is a fully functioning 180-day trial version of ArcView 9.3 software on DVD-ROM, as well as a CD of data for working through the book's exercises. Once installed and registered, the single-use software cannot be reinstalled, and the time limit cannot be extended.

Operating System(OS): The single-use ArcGIS Demo Edition software on the DVD in this edition requires the Microsoft Windows Vista, XP or Windows 2000 operating system.

Hardware requirements: A minimum 1.6GHz processing speed; 1 GB RAM; 1+ GB free hard disk space, including 50 MB on the operating system drive; an additional 285+ MB hard disk space is required for the exercise data. DVD Drive.