The proliferation of geospatial data demands the engagement of information organizations, such as academic libraries, for their management and diffusion. The purpose of this paper is to reveal issues related to the development of geospatial collections and explore their efficient use as required by the current information environment. Thus, a research conducted on 363 websites of academic libraries worldwide and 136 websites maintaining geospatial collections were identified. The research questions were formed based on international bibliography and we applied a content analysis method for data extraction. Findings show a significant activity of academic libraries in providing GIS services in accordance with high rates in user education programs, creating the use of geospatial collection and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services more effective. Nevertheless, through their websites we obtained poor response to communicate geospatial collections policies. The majority of the academic libraries surveyed in this study provide commercial software to their users for managing data on a local level, while the minority of library patrons are able to use geospatial data via remote access. This paper explores aspects of development in geospatial collections in academic libraries that have not been adequately raised. Additionally, we provide an overview of geospatial collections worldwide.

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Existing literature on Geographic Information (GI) and libraries points out that American and Canadian librarians have long been aware of the intimate relationship between geospatial data and libraries. In Europe, though, there is almost no literature to this regard, and academic libraries that offer GI services are the exception. Despite the fact that European and National institutions are putting lots of efforts forward for making open data freely available to society, and for supporting full programmes to generate business out of it, this paper examines why libraries and librarians are not perceived as key players in the (geo) data-driven economy.Starting with a survey addressed to academic librarians (in three European countries: Greece, Cyprus and Spain) about their GI knowledge and skills, the paper attempts to shed some light on the librarians' perception about their role in GI management, and to identify to what extent they are ready for providing GI services to their communities. The ultimate goal of this paper is to serve as a triggering factor to wake up European academic libraries, Librarianship programmers and librarians themselves, to encourage them to look for opportunities in geospatial data management.