GENERAL BACKGROUND ON GIS Geographic teaching has undergone rapid and dramatic changes since World War Two. Geography began to be regarded as a scientific discipline. This paved the way to widespread acceptance of quantitative methodology in geographic research and teaching. The Quantitative Revolution, as it is often called, was later followed by another wave of revolutionary changes in terms of extensive use of computers. The overall environment is the advent of the "information age". Ever since the mid-1980s, computer applications in geography have been increasing by leaps and bounds. Subfields of geography like computer cartography, remote sensing, and geographic information systems are now heavy users of computer hardware and software. Other more conventional geography subfields like transport geography, climatology, etc. are on the rise in their need for more computer access. This is the general background against which the Geographic Information Systems (G.I.S.) lab of the Geography Department at Baptist University was being planned and implemented. The effort is consistent with the mission of the department to provide high quality lab training so much emphasized in many prestigious geography departments overseas. This short article serves to trace the history of development of the lab and to give a general introduction to its facilities. The objectives are twofold. One is to provide a historical document of this effort to import technology into geographic teaching, thus enhancing the quality of teaching and research of the department. The second objective is to familiarize students in the department who have limited or no awareness of the lab with what facilities are and will be available. Hopefully, this article will be an encouragement to all students to venture into this exciting and growing important approach to geography. HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT The G.I.S. lab (officially labelled as the G.I.S. Unit within the Cartography Lab) is currently located at room W901A in Oen Hall. It existence owes much to the current head of department, Denis P. Fitzgerald, in terms of funds acquisition and planning foresight into this area. Although early ideas of developing a G.I.S. lab extend to several years ago, substantial planning and development efforts were in full swing starting in late 1988. At that time, the Geography Department was still housed in temporary quarters on the Renfrew Road campus. Extensive purchase of equipment were made in the 1989-90 academic year. After one year, i.e. during the 1990-91 academic year, the whole department moved back to the Waterloo Road campus, speeding up the consolidation and implementation efforts of both the Physical and Cartography Labs, together with the G.I.S. components. The room designated as the G.I.S. lab is definitely the focus of all high-tech equipment housed in the Geography Department. In concrete terms, all computers and their peripherals are stored in room W901A. It is intended to serve both the students and staff in regular teaching as well as research. Also, the lab is not devoted exclusively to G.I.S. purposes. All geography coursework related to computer usage will utilize facilities installed in the lab. It has been a short period since the lab came into full operation in late 1990. However, the achievements so far has been impressive by any standard. Consistent praises by foreign visitors so far are definite encouragement to further and even more comprehensive development of the lab. CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLANS The attached Figure shows clearly all connections associated with hardware within the lab. The bulk of equipment for student usage include fifteen sets of IBM/AST/Leo machines with individual Summagraphics digitizers attached . Two 6-colour plotters and a color inkjet printer are available for plotting A4-size colour hardcopies. For black-and-white copies, there is a large size 24-pin dot matrix printer. With regard to staff and research installations, there are four AST machines attached to a laser printer and a dot matrix printer, and three Interpro2730 workstations from Intergraph attached to a Calcomp A0 size plotter, and A1 size digitizer. There is also a new Intergraph TD-4 workstation running on Windows NT, attached to an A0 Size Calcomp digitizer, and linked to the three workstations. Additional equipments is a colour scanner to scan images into digital files for subsequent processing. From the Figure, one can clearly see that most of the hardware are networked with Baptist University's Novell, VAX and RS6000 accounts. This arrangement provides easy access to all other software deposited in the College's mainframe which may be of interest to geographers. A common example is statistical packages like SPSS and SAS. Currently, usage of the G.I.S. lab are basically classes on Computer Cartography, Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, Quantitative Methods II, and Advanced Climatology. The list should have been much longer, given longer history of development and more kinds of software are purchased. Also, third year geography students who write topics on G.I.S. or computer cartography also constitute a large batch of users. Clearly, the lab is rapidly becoming insufficient. Two operating forces acting simultaneously aggravate the problem. One is the rising demand of students to use computers to work on their regular assignments, G.I.S.-related ones in particular. Another trend is the number of staff members interested in furthering their use of computers is also expanding. In the near future, classes like transport geography, environmental conservation, etc. will also incorporate some elements of computing when associated software are available. Technically speaking, within the campus's local area network, students can gain access to the library of geography software anywhere, provided that they possess a GEOG account number. In reality, students working on specific geography problems have to rely heavily on digitizers, pen plotters, and colour scanners as inputs. These have to be available nearby. The G.I.S. lab is the central activities area. Also, questions related to geography can be handled by our Mr. Bosco Tsang, the Cartography/GIS Lab Supervisor (btsang@hkbu.edu.hk), Manuals associated with geography software are deposited in the lab for easy and quick reference. Thus, the G.I.S. Lab is an indispensable learning site for geography students. Given the limited physical space currently available in room W901A, the G.I.S. lab urgently requires an expansion plan. If the Geography Department returns to the new Renfrew Road campus, more space for a separate G.I.S. lab is envisaged. Even if the decision is to stay in the same site as it is now, such an upgrade is still contemplated to occupy vacated rooms. With such an intention, rough floor plans of the new G.I.S. lab have been drafted. This plan includes a purchase of five additional machines, associated digitizers, one additional dot-matrix printer, and a new large monitor for class demonstration purposes. The physical layout of the portion for staff usage in the new lab is equally ambitious. In addition to existing equipment, the plan is to further acquire a server for the whole lab. A large standing digitizer is suggested for the benefit of graduate work or possible consultancy projects related to G.I.S. Another significant feature under planning is to acquire two Macintosh computers. It is based on the belief that G.I.S. software on the Macintosh platform also need to be taught and utilized. AVAILABLE DATA AND SOFTWARE A lab cannot function solely on the existence of hardware. Software availability is the prime concern in the development of every G.I.S. lab. For those whom have access to our geography local newsgroups, an updated list of software available will be posted in hkbu.geog.forum regularly. CONCLUSION The mission of the G.I.S. lab is crystal clear. It is a center of learning computer applications in geography. It is also a research site whereby contemporary spatial problems are analyzed and solved. The lab is also an area where staff and students can explore and appreciate the impact brought about by information technology onto the geography discipline. As technology advances so rapidly, even greater efforts have to be made to maintain the lab up to international standards. Furthermore, as Hong Kong is striving hard in terms of technology upgrade in all spheres, computer training in every aspect is a definite asset to graduates. Competency in geographic methodology like G.I.S. will create a clear edge to geography graduates when they seek non -teaching jobs related to land development. .