USGS National Atlas User Survey

Version: March 29, 2012

Introduction

Staff members of the National Atlas of the United States® would like information about your use of its products and services to help us focus our efforts to improve National Atlas offerings. Your responses to this survey are important in helping National Atlas better serve the needs of users like you. This survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. In exchange for your participation, we will provide you with a map that provides a striking satellite view of the United States and outlines terrain data and Landsat imagery. This machine-folded map measures 41 inches by 45 inches. Please complete this survey by (SPECIFY DEADLINE). If you have questions about completing this survey, please visit the National Atlas exhibit booth (#2718).

[For paper surveys only] Please return your completed survey today to the National Atlas exhibit booth (#2718). Thank you for your assistance.

Privacy Statement

Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary. Please be assured that your participation in the survey is anonymous, and survey responses will be prepared in summary form, not tied to any individuals.

[For online version, add “Click here for the Paperwork Reduction Act Statement”]

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT Statement: This survey collects information that will be used by NationalAtlas staff to improve products and services available on www.nationalatlas.gov. Your response to this request is completely voluntary.

Burden estimate statement: Public reporting for this form is estimated to average 10 minutes per response. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB Control Number. This information collection is approved under OMB Control Number 1040-0001, with an expiration date of INSERT DATE. Comments concerning clarity, utility of information or burden reduction may be sent to The USGS Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Geological Survey, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, MS 807, Reston, VA  20192.

OMB Control Number: 1040-0001

Expiration Date: INSERT DATE

First, we’d like to know a little bit about you.

Top of Form

1. What is your organization’s primary focus?

• Administration

• Agriculture

• Cadastral Records

• Cartography

• Defense/Intelligence/Homeland Security

• Demographics/Census

• Education

  • K–6^th grade

  • 7–12^th grade

  • Higher Education (college/university)

• Energy

• Environmental Management

• Forestry

• GIS Services

• Health and Human Services

• Law Enforcement/Public Safety/Emergency Management

• Library/Museum

• Marine Environment

• Media/Publishing

• Mining/Construction

• Manufacturing

• Planning/Economic Development

• Transportation/Communications/Utilities

• Water Resources

• Other (please specify)_______________________________________________________

2. Which of the following descriptions most closely describes your position?

• Agronomist/Farmer

• Biologist

• Cartographer

• Database Manager

• Developer/Programmer

• Economist

• Educator/Instructor

• Engineer

• Executive

• Geographer

• GIS Manager/Supervisor

• GIS Analyst/Researcher/Specialist

• GIS Data Production Technician

• IT Manager

• IT Technician

• Manager/Supervisor (non-GIS/IT)

• Scientist

• Other (please specify)_______________________________________________________

Next, we have a few questions about what you typically use.

3. How essential is your need to perform the following types of geospatial tasks? Select one response for each row.

	Essential/Critical to my work	Somewhat Important	Not very Important	Not Important/ Needed at all	Unsure of Need
Search for GIS data
Download GIS data
Connect to GIS Web services

4. How frequently do you use each of the following broad types of geospatial tools? Select one response for each row.

	Use Monthly or More Frequently	Use Every Few Months	Use Yearly	Use Every Few Years	Do not use at all
Search for GIS data
Download GIS data
Connect to GIS Web services

4. When you are searching for small-scale data (small scale ranges from 1:1,000,000 to 1:10,000,000), which services or catalogs do you use? Select all that apply.

• Online search services, such as Google or Bing

• Geo.Data.Gov (Data.Gov)

• nationalatlas.gov (National Atlas of the United States)

• GEOSS (Group On Earth Observations)

• Earth Explorer (USGS)

• USDA Geospatial Data Warehouse

• ESRI ArcGIS.com

• Other (please specify) ________________________________________

Now we’d like some information about your data needs.

6. Which of the following types of data do you use? Select all that apply.

• Vector

• Table

• Raster Image

6. What are your preferred formats for vector data downloads? Select up to three responses.

• ESRI Shapefile

• ESRI Geodatabase

• VPF_DB (Vector Product Format Database)

• GML (Geography Markup Language)

• KML (Keyhole Markup Language)

• Other (please specify) _______________________________________

8. What are your preferred formats for downloading table data? Select up to two responses.

• dBASE DBF

• Excel spreadsheet

• Delimited text (comma, tab, etc.)

• Other (please specify)_____________________________________

9. What are your preferred formats for downloading raster image data at resolutions ranging from 100 meters to 1,000 meters? Select up to top three responses.

• GeoTIFF

• Any ESRI supported image format with an ESRI world file

• ESRI Grid

• ERDAS Imagine

• JPEG 2000

• Other (please specify) ____________________________________

The following set of questions is about Web Map Services.

10. The National Atlas currently delivers an image Web Map Service that complies with the latest Open Geospatial Consortium specification (1.3.0). Did you use this National Atlas Web Map Service in the past year?

• Yes

• No

• Don’t recall

11. [If Yes to Q10] How satisfied were you with the National Atlas image Web Map Service?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

  

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied 12. Why were you dissatisfied?______________________

13. How important to you is adherence to open standards for access, visualization, and interoperability?

• Very important

• Somewhat important

• Neither important nor unimportant

• Not very important

• Not important at all

14. Which are you more likely to use?

• ESRI dynamic map service (fully symbolized)

• Open standards map service (fully symbolized)

15. Web Feature Services allow users to retrieve and update vector geospatial data using open protocols. Do you already use Web Features Services?

• Yes 16. Please tell us how you use them_______________________________

  

• No

17. When do you anticipate using Web Features Services?

• Within the next year

• Sometime between 1 and 5 years

• I don’t anticipate using them

18. Web Coverage Services allow users to query and retrieve raster coverages. Do you already use such services?

• Yes 19. Please tell us how you use them_______________________________

  

• No

20. When do you anticipate using Web Coverage Services?

• Within the next year

• Sometime between 1 and 5 years

• I don’t anticipate using them

We’d like to know about your use of and activities with base maps. The National Atlas is designing a new softcopy base map at 1:1,000,000-scale.

21. When you make your own map, which of the following do you use?

• A GIS alone

• A graphics program like Adobe Illustrator

• A combination of GIS and a graphics program

• Other (specify)_______________________________

22. Which of these do you use? Select all that apply.

• An online base map service you can view in ArcGIS or some other visualization system

• Softcopy base maps in GIS formats

• Softcopy base maps in publishing formats

23. [If online base map or softcopy in GIS format in Q22] Which online base map services do you use most frequently? Select all that apply.

• Google Maps

• Google Earth

• Bing Maps

• The National Map (by USGS)

• ESRI ArcGIS.com

• Yahoo Maps

• Other (specify)_______________________________________________________

24. Please prioritize the following characteristics in terms of importance to you in a small-scale online base map service. Assume that ease-of-use and reliability of service already exist. Rank order your top three choices, with 1 being the most important choice, 2 being your second most important choice, and 3 being your third most important choice.

Rank Order (1=most important, 2=second most important, 3=third most important)

___ Ability to print what I see onscreen

___ High quality map design

___ Map projection

___ Symbols match published map

___ User selected features for display

___ Other (specify)_____________________________________________________

25. How important is it for you to have base maps in each of the following scale formats? Select a level of importance of each map type.

	Very Important	Somewhat Important	Neither Important nor Unimportant	Not Very Important	Not Important at All
Maps at multiple scales	o	o	o	o	o
Maps at a fixed scale	o	o	o	o	o
Maps at a known scale	o	o	o	o	o

26. Which of the following small-scale base map backdrops are you most likely to need? Rank order your top three choices, with 1 being your top choice, 2 being your second choice, and 3 being your third choice.

Rank Order (1=top choice, 2=second choice, 3=third choice)

___ Bathymetry

___ Color shaded relief

___ Land cover

___ Monotone shaded relief

___ Ocean bottom

___ Satellite image

___ Other (specify)_________________________________________________

27. Online base map services from ESRI, Google and Microsoft are typically presented in a Web Mercator map projection. Does this meet your small-scale base mapping requirements?

• Yes

• No

28. Given that Web Mercator does not meet your small-scale base mapping requirements, what is your preferred map projection?

• Albers Equal Area

• Geographic coordinate system

• Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

• Other (specify)__________________________________________________

29. Which GIS-ready base map formats are you most likely to use? Select all that apply.

• ESRI MXD

• ESRI Layer Package

• ESRI Map Package

• Other (specify)___________________________________________

30. Tell us about using base maps in publishing formats. Which map publishing formats are you most likely to use? Select all that apply.

• Adobe Illustrator

• Encapsulated Postscript

• GeoPDF

• Other (specify)_______________________________________________

31. What are other things that might help you make your own maps using a small-scale National Atlas base? Select all that apply.

• Codes in the dataset for assigning symbology

• Codes in the dataset to facilitate generalization and presentation at smaller scales

• Layouts and templates

• Plain (non-symbolized) data in GIS or Illustrator publishing formats

• Other (specify)____________________________________________

In this final section, please tell us about your experience using nationalatlas.gov.

32. Have you visited nationalatlas.gov in the last six months?

• Yes

• No

• Don’t remember

32. [If Yes to Q32] During your most recent visit to nationalatlas.gov, what type of information were you seeking? (Select all that apply)

• General information about the National Atlas of the United States (e.g., documents describing the products and services of the National Atlas of the United States)

• General information about maps of the United States

• Maps

• Tools for teaching geography

• Other (specify)___________________________________

32. [If maps selected in Q33] Which of the following types of maps were you interested in? (Select all that apply)

• Page-sized maps for printing

• Customizable maps on the Web

• Digital mapping data

• Paper wall maps

• Other (specify)____________________________________

32. Did you find what you were looking for during your most recent visit to nationalatlas.gov?

• Yes

• No

36. What suggestions do you have for improving small scale data and base map services provided by NationalAtlas.gov? Please include information you would like to see made available on nationalatlas.gov that you have not been able to locate.

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

37. Would you like to join our site-visitor panel and provide us with periodic feedback on particular issues related to site design and our products and services?

• Yes

  

• No If you would like to receive emails notifying you of NationalAtlas product and service updates, please provide your email in the “Contact us” section of www.nationalatlas.gov

37. [If Yes in Q37] Please provide your email address in the space below.

Email Address:___________________________________________________

Thank you!

We appreciate your feedback regarding the National Atlas. Your comments will help us develop and improve our geospatial products and services.

Pacific Consulting Group 15