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Digital Mapping Techniques '00 -- Workshop Proceedings
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-325

New Jersey and GIS, Perfect Together

By Zehdreh Allen-Lafayette

New Jersey Geological Survey
29 Arctic Parkway, CN 427
Trenton, New Jersey 08625
Telephone: (609) 292-2576
Fax: (609) 633-1004
e-mail: zehdreh@njgs.dep.state.nj.us

In 1835, the New Jersey Geological Survey (NJGS) was formed to provide a geological and mineralogical survey of the state. This was considered a temporary appointment that would end with the completion of the project. The Survey has been in active service to the State of New Jersey ever since, becoming "officially" permanent in 1864. Early published reports of geologic research resulted in etched plates containing hand drawn geologic layers and text brought together through a graphics technique called "paste-up". By the mid-1980's, the cartographic staff packed up their drafting pens in favor of high-end graphics computers.

To keep up with the thirty-two geologists, NJGS has a cartographic staff with a Section Chief and three full-time Geographic Information Systems Specialists. The Supervising Topographic Engineer spends the majority of his day working on report figures and designing and preparing reports for publication. The GIS Specialists are responsible for entering manuscript maps into the GIS, creating plates and figures from digital data for publication, and assisting and/or training other staff in the use of Arc/Info, ArcView, Pagemaker, Illustrator, and CorelDraw. Many of the geologists enter their own data into the GIS; some have enough experience with ArcInfo or ArcView to compose the Open-File plates that will be the final format of their research.

The maps displayed in this poster presentation represent a portion of the projects that have been incorporated into our digital data base. Many of these projects are available through Maps and Publications (Carroll Building, 428 East State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608, telephone: 609-777-1038, http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/pricelist/index.htm) as hard copy or in digital format.

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