By: Michael de Smith, Michael Goodchild, Paul Longley

Audience Types: advanced GIS class, basic or general class on digital mapping

Geospatial Analysis, a Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques, and Software Tools, is a free, online e-book designed to give clear and authoritative coverage of spatial analysis.  In that way it’s more of a GIScience textbook than a traditional GIS software-oriented textbook.  The content is easily navigated, so it can serve as a strong companion and supplement to any other books or resources used.  Great price.

By: Paul A. Longley, Mike Goodchild, David J. Maguire, David W. Rhind

Audience Types: introductory GIS class, advanced GIS class

Audience Levels: more experienced undergrad students, graduate students

This very comprehensive GIS textbook has become a contemporary classic for its thoroughness and reliability. It aims to explain the geographic information science that underlies spatial analysis and the effective use of GIS as a tool, and its well-known authors have the GIScience background to do this with authority.  Rich with examples and figures, and much discussion of GIS application areas.  Often too much content for an introductory undergrad class, especially when it’s not aimed towards geography majors. Available as an e-book too.

By: Francis Harvey

Audience Types: introductory GIS class, basic or general class on digital mapping

Audience Levels: beginning undergrad students, more experienced undergrad students

Basic principles and explanations of the full range of relevant topics, written in an accessible and clear manner. Each chapter includes questions appropriate for lab activities too.

By: David DiBiase

Audience Types: introductory GIS class, basic or general class on digital mapping

Audience Levels: any student

An e-book that is openly available to the public as part of Penn State University’s Open Educational Resources Initiative.  This book is designed for use with PSU’s GEOG 482 class, the Nature of Geographic Information.   A short version of this course that includes ArcGIS exercises appears in Esri’s Virtual Campus as “Understanding Geographic Data.”

By: Bradley Shellito

Audience Types: introductory GIS class, basic or general class on digital mapping

Audience Levels: any student

From the publishers’s website: Designed for use in an introductory GIS, Digital Earth, or combined introductory GIS/remote sensing course, Introduction to Geospatial Technologies introduces the wide range of geographic information systems available to and used by geographers.  Each chapter is divided into two sections:an introduction to the technology and a hands-on lab activity that utilizes free software widely available on the Internet or ArcGIS, depending on the instructor’s preference.  Because of its introductory approach and wide-ranging applicability, the book can be used effectively by both non-majors and majors.

By: Jonathan Campbell and Michael Shin

Audience Types: introductory GIS class

Audience Levels: any student

This is a comprehensive e-book, able to modified by instructors to be aligned with their course content. Though essential concepts in GIS tend to remain constant, the situations, applications and examples of GIS are fluid and dynamic. The Flat World model of publishing with the MIYO (Make It Your Own) customization platform is especially relevant for a text that deals with information technology. Many instructor supplements included.

By: David O'Sullivan, David Unwin

Audience Types: advanced GIS class

One of the best books (thorough, accessible, well-organized) about spatial analysis and spatial statistics, ever.

By: David Theobald

Audience Types: introductory GIS class, advanced GIS class

Audience Levels: any student

This popular book has been separated into two documents (basics and advanced), and has been revised to take full advantage of digital textbook formats, being published both as an iBook (for iPad) and PDF. In addition, it provides direct links to concepts from Geographic Information Science articulated in the AAG’s “Book of Knowledge” (BoK), which provides a clear way for educators to design, organize, and align their courses within the broader GIScience model curricula.

GIS Concepts and ArcGIS Methods: Basics is an ideal textbook for introductory GIS courses as it demonstrates how to display, query, edit, and analyze feature-based geographic data, while the companion volume, GIS Concepts and ArcGIS Methods: Advanced, covers raster-based geographic data in depth.

By: Paul Bolstad

Audience Types: introductory GIS class

Audience Levels: beginning undergrad students, more experienced undergrad students, graduate students

A popular standby book, appreciated for its clear descriptions, shared figures, and reasonable price.  Additional lab exercises are available, as are all text figures.