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Our history

The Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) began offering GIS instruction in 1999 with support from the Krusos and the Culpeper Foundations. Our humble home, located in the hot and windowless fourth floor of Burton Hall, started with two computer workstations and a server. The first year included several milestones, including participating in the Conte Neo-Tropical Migratory Bird Survey, building the Mill River GIS database, bringing GIS Day to Smith College for the first time, and tripling lab capacity from 2 to 6 computers.

In the next few years, the role of the SAL within the larger campus and community solidified as the lab ran January interterm GIS trainings, provided GIS and GPS support to classes across the curriculum, and established Smith’s place in GIS educational communities by hosting the Spring Northeast Arc Users Group (NEARC) conference on multiple occasions. This growing presence corresponded to several location changes, as the lab moved down and across Burton lawn into Bass Hall 105, then next door to the much larger Bass 103, before arriving in the SAL’s current location with 20 computer workstations in Room 104 in Sabin-Reed Hall.

Photo showing various drones with placards below them on a wall. A sign above them says "Museum of Drones."

In the last ten years, the SAL also developed a drones program, using drones for environmental and artistic purposes, and offering a two-credit course every fall. We also moved organizationally: from Environmental Science & Policy, to the Libraries, to our current home with the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainability. We still collaborate frequently with our previous organizational homes. With the construction and reopening of Neilson Library, the SAL also added a second space: a smaller classroom with 10 computers in Neilson 012D. 

The SAL has helped Smith students, faculty, and staff creatively engage with spatial data collection, inquiry, and visualization in the past 27 years. Visit our labs to see evidence of the Smith community’s work in the SAL. The back wall of Sabin-Reed 104 includes what might be the world’s only Museum of Drones, created by SAL staff and former student associate Mags McLaughlin (’26). The walls of both labs also feature both student and professional maps, from small projects to large posters to snapshots with QR codes to StoryMaps and webmaps.