Daily Quiz

To jumpstart your day and keep sharp on survey principles check out Kytle Brook's Daily Survey Quiz questions. Kyle also offers PS exam review material. Please support Kyle by participating  in his quiz and maybe pitch in a few bucks using his donation link.

Online Presentation & Discussion Forums

Mentoring Mondays (https://mentoringmondays.xyz/). A free weekly online seminar which meets Mondays at 4:00 pm Pacific.  Experts from all over the country presenting a variety of surveying topics. Meetings (over 100 so far) are recorded and available for viewing on the website.

Wisdom Wednesdays (http://wisdomwednesdays.xyz/). Another free online seminar which meets every other Wednesday at 4:00 pm Pacific. This is a book-club meeting: at each meeting a chapter of a surveying book of consequence is discussed. It makes for some lively discussion and constructive learning.  Evidence and Procedures for Boundary Location was the first book reviewed followed by Legal Descriptions by Wattles. The Fall 2024 session has started and is discussing The Pincushion Effect by Jeffery Lucas. Want to join in and save 25% on the book cost? Check out the Wisdom Wednesdays website for more info.

RoundTable Tuesdays (RTT; https://roundtabletuesdays.xyz/#) is back and in its current incarnation is a platform for discussing particular surveying issues. It's directed at smaller firms where there may not be sufficient mentoring resources or other professionals for guidance.  It will meet once or twice a month (depending on demand) to discuss a particular surveying situation and solicit input from participants. Register at the website to participate. If you have a problem that's a head-scratcher, consider submitting it to RTT for discussion: use the link on the website. No problem is too big or too small. 

Textbooks

Surveying and Mapping textbook at the Open Textbook Library. This book provides an introduction, at academic level, into the field of surveying and mapping. The book has been compiled based on hand-outs and readers written for the third-year course Surveying and Mapping, in the bachelor program Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands). 

Introduction to Geomatics, is another Open Textbook, this one from the Geography= Dept at the University of Saskatchewan. It covers maps, coordinate systems, GIS, and remote sensing.

The Nature of Geographic Information is an excellent open geospatial textbook offered by the Department of Geography at Penn State University. 

Classes and Reference Material

Also at Penn State, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences offers GPS and GNSS For Geospatial Professionals online class that has a lot of good material. 

The NGS Testing and Training Center is an excellent source of free geodetic material. NGS offer webinars which are recorded and included in its video library as well as some online lessons, access to presentation materials, and technical assistance. That's in addition to the Publications Library where you can view and download documents. If you can't find a publication in the Library, send an email to the Librarian - the Librarian's been able to track down some old documents for me.

Many historical PLSS publications are available at the BLM/NTC Knowledge Resource Center Library. A slightly larger collection has been assembled by Arizona's BLM Office. Both are excellent resources, particularly if you're researching original Instructions.

Other

Although not free, geolearn (https://geolearn.wcea.education/) offers many reasonably priced short presentations on a wide range of surveying topics. Account creation is necessary to view their course catalog.

For those seeking CST certification, review courses are available at Learn CST (https://learncst.com/)

updated 10 Oct 2024