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GIS Day is a world-wide annual event which occurs in mid-November during Geography Awareness Week, celebrating Geographic Information Systems technology and its use in the world. The Library of Congress has celebrated GIS Day since its inception in 1999. Information and video recordings (where available) for previous GIS Day celebrations hosted by the Geography and Map Division can be found here.
In 2023, the Library celebrated GIS Day with a virtual event exploring how maps can translate complex scientific discoveries into understandable, engaging and actionable insights about the climate. Geospatial professionals shared their insights on how they use GIS to help us understand climate change, from advanced GIS-powered climate modeling enhanced with the knowledge of indigenous communities, to digitized ship logbooks documenting climate conditions of centuries past, to a demonstration of GIS techniques for visualizing our changing planet.
Speakers for the event included:
In 2022, our GIS Day speakers highlighted the role that geospatial data and GIS technologies can play to create positive change in the face of humanitarian challenges all around the globe. Viewers of the Library's virtual event were able to hear directly from non-profit organizations, companies, federal agencies, and academics speaking on how they use GIS and geospatial technologies in their work and the importance of GIS in serving urgent humanitarian causes around the world.
Speakers for the event included:
GIS Day 2021 at the Library of Congress focused on the US Census. Speakers included:
For almost everyone in the world, 2020 was a year unlike any experienced in their lifetimes. The public health crisis spawned by the outbreak of COVID-19, showed the world that viral pathogens pose an ever-present danger to global human health and economic stability. For cartographers and epidemiologists tracking the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, trying to understand its evolution, zoonotic spillover and mutations, as well as managing the distribution of billions of doses of a potential vaccine and PPE, the virus presented a geospatial analysis challenge like none other. Speakers for GIS Day 2020 looked closely at how mapping and GIS technologies were being used to help public health officials, emergency rooms, epidemiologists and the general public as they struggled to understand the spread of the disease and to allocate precious resources.
Speakers included:
The Library's morning session opened with a keynote address by Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, co-chair of the Congressional French Caucus focusing on Cultural Heritage Preservation Mapping and Congressional Policy. The morning also featured talks on the aftermath of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire and the use of GIS and computer vision in disaster response planning and cultural heritage preservation.
Morning speakers included:
The afternoon session concentrated on applications of the technology with case studies on historic building and engineering archives in cultural preservation, advanced spatial analysis and 3D mapping of UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Afternoon speakers included: Mari Nakahara, Curator of Architecture, Prints and Photographs Division, Kenneth Walton, National Capital Planning Commission, Policy & Research Division,& Will Rourk and Guoping Huang, Scholars Lab, University of Virginia
The Library celebrated GIS Day 2018 with an all-day series of talks on the use of GIS technology in the federal government and academia. Speakers included:
GIS Day in 2017 featured a full day of talks highlighting GIS technology and its impact on the work of policymakers, researchers, and librarians on Capitol Hill and beyond!
Morning Speakers included:
Afternoon Speakers:
GIS Day morning sessions in 2016 included presentations from current students and recent graduates from local schools and universities showcasing their environmentally-focused GIS research. These sessions featured talks on the use of GIS in the federal government and non-profit organizations, as well as highlighting career opportunities in the growing field of GIS.
Speakers included:
