Helena Students to Celebrate GIS Day at the Montana State Library

As part of a global celebration, Montana State Library’s Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) will demonstrate GIS technology to fifth graders from Smith School.

Staff from NRIS, the Montana Natural Heritage Program and the Montana Department of Administration will give interactive presentations using information collected by the children as they walk from Smith School to the Montana State Library. This year, Montana’s First Lady, Nancy Schweitzer, and the Governor’s Policy Advisor for Education, Jan Lombardi, will also participate in GIS Day activities.

Mrs. Schweitzer, Ms. Lombardi and the presenters will pick up the students at Smith School at 12:20 p.m. on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 and then walk over to the State Library for GIS demonstrations from 12:40 – 2:40 p.m.

GIS Day 2007 is a global event that celebrates how geography and geographic information systems are changing the world. It will be held as part of Geography Awareness Week (November 12 – 16), and is principally sponsored by the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the Library of Congress, ESRI, and other partners.

Geographic Information Systems are computer systems that link geographic information (where things are) with attribute information (what things are). Unlike flat paper maps, Geographic Information Systems help people analyze relationships between many different layers of information at once. GIS is used throughout the world to solve critical problems in fields such as health, transportation, law enforcement, natural resources and agriculture.

NRIS’ Geographic Information Clearinghouse is one of the many resources available from the Montana State Library at http://msl.mt.gov.

For more information, contact Sara Groves at (406) 444-3115 or visit the NRIS Web site at: http://nris.mt.gov.

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