DeKalb residents have a way to be updated on geographic information in the county.

The Information Management Office was established in 1999 in order to maintain a database of information for DeKalb County that allows people the opportunity to share and store information digitally.

One main focus of the IMO is the Geographic Information System program. GIS is meant to give people information by using an interactive county wide map with a variety of criterion that can make the map distinct from all others.

The GIS program was established online about a year ago and continues to be regarded as the most up-to-date source for geographic information in DeKalb County. GIS went online after compiling a database of information to put into the system since 1994.

GIS online is a way for people to get visual information about anything from boundaries of library districts, fire and police department districts to census information by creating maps or seeing aerial photos of specific towns and districts within those towns.

In order for the public to access the sophisticated GIS, they must go to the DeKalb County Administrative Building and use a county computer. But there is a way to use a less-sophisticated PDF version of the GIS, which can be accessed at www.dekalbcounty.org.

The GIS program manager, Sheila Minogue, said that this program was established and designed to “allow users to build their own map” specific to their personal needs while “making it as user-friendly as possible.”

The IMO decided to go public with GIS last year to allow the public to use the county-wide property tax program. Minogue said that many people have started to take advantage of the fairly new system and have been very impressed by the results.

It first was created to help nurses who made home visits find individual houses of patients they visited. They would design maps on the GIS site specific to where they had to go, like Mapquest and other digital mapping systems.

While Mapquest can only give road maps with detailed directions on how to get somewhere, the GIS program can give detailed maps with a variety of subjects, such as the locations of all the libraries in DeKalb County or the locations of the homes in DeKalb County with the lowest property taxes.

This program can help home buyers and owners compare the taxable value of their property or compare prices of taxes in different districts around DeKalb County.

“Eventually (GIS) will be part of the police dispatch center,” IMO Director Joan Berkes-Hanson said.

Future plans include using the GIS maps instead of paper maps in the police dispatch center and emergency response center, which could make response times to emergencies shorter.