ESRI software, compatible with the Property Appraiser and other regional and state agencies, was purchased and a pilot automation project initiated in March, 1995. The Property Appraisers' staff finished the parcel base map in February, 1996 and made it available through an interlocal agreement to other County Departments and Divisions. A copy of this parcel data is maintained on the GIS server and is updated nightly.

The Property Appraisal data was used to initiate a digital map library. This library was established in February, 1996, and additional GIS data and software was obtained. Signed interlocal agreements are in place with the cities of Casselberry, Sanford, Longwood, Lake Mary, and Oviedo to facilitate data sharing, To date, data obtained from a variety of sources or automated in house amount to well over 23 gigabytes of map information and databases. This library is maintained in an Arc/Info format and utilizes State Plane Coordinate (SPC) feet, NAD 83 as its common datum.

The size of the library and the growing number of users rapidly outstripped the capabilities of the small existing GIS server, and a larger server was installed in July 1996, more than tripling the County's GIS capability. This IBM RS6000 J40 server, running AIX Version 4.4, continues to be the heart of the County GIS program, though an active migration program to SQLSDE on a Windows 2000 server is underway. This new SQLSDE server is part of the County Storage Area Network which gives us virtually unlimited storage capability

The server currently supports 18 floating ArcGIS ArcInfo 8.3.2 licenses, 3 ArcGIS ArcEditor licenses, and 32 ArcGIS ArcView 8.3 licenses concurrently. The County also has 44 standalone ArcGIS-ArcView licenses. This combination gives us the capability to service over two hundred regular in-house GIS users.

Available in all five County libraries and the Altamonte Springs City Library are GIS Data CDs which are available for checkout (just like a book). These CDs contain about 120 layers of GIS data in shape file format and free ArcExplorer GIS viewing software. Also available for checkout are CDs containing all the County’s engineering plats and 5 separate year sets of digital aerial photography. Between putting our data in County libraries, internet access to data for download, and interactive maps on the web Seminole County's digital data library is freely accessible to everyone.

Seminole County GIS remains dedicated to providing service and GIS expertise to all County Departments and Divisions.