News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Date: November 12, 1999
Contacts: T. Wangyal Shawa (609) 258-6804
Geographic Information Systems LibrarianPatty Gaspari-Bridges (609) 258-5483
Assistant University Librarian for Special Libraries
Head of Geosciences and Map Library
Princeton University Library Celebrates GIS Day
Event Offers Information on Geographic Information Systems in Research and Everyday Life
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Princeton University Library will celebrate GIS Day on Friday, November 19, 1999, the last day of Geography Awareness Week (November 15-19).
A GIS, or geographic information system, is a rapidly growing technology for organizing geographical information. Such systems can be used to map customers to study demographics, look for patterns in the way a disease is spreading, model the path of atmospheric pollution, and much more.
GIS Day is a global event to educate people about how geography makes a difference in our lives through the technology of GIS. Schools and organizations around the world are using the day to demonstrate GIS technology.
A GIS can take many forms, but in general it is an organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information. A GIS uses information such as an address, ZIP Code, census block, or latitude and longitude coordinates to map information for better analysis.
"There are currently about half a million GIS users in the world, but most of the public is unaware of this growing technology," says T. Wangyal Shawa, Geographic Information Systems Librarian. "Used to solve problems in such areas as environmental protection, pollution, health care, land use, natural resources, conservation, business efficiency, education, and social inequities, GIS provides a unifying framework for analyzing and understanding the world around us."
The GIS Day activities and locations are as follows. All events are open to the public.
10:30 am. Guyot Hall, Room 10.
Opening of GIS Day. Talk by Richard M. Allen "Does the United States Need More Natural Disasters? A study using GIS tools." The talk is on the research completed by the students of GEO499-1998, which was presented to various federal agencies in Washington, including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Richard M. Allen is a Geosciences Ph.D. student, Winner of the Charlotte Elizabeth Proctor Fellowship and the Outstanding Student Paper Award from the American Geophysical Union.
11:15 am - 12:00 pm. Map Collection, Geosciences and Map Library, Guyot Hall
Open House. Includes map galleries, information on Library GIS service and geospatial data, consultation on GIS, and refreshments.
1:00 - 4:00 pm. Firestone Library Lobby, Map Galleries
Information on Library GIS service and geospatial data, and consultation on GIS.