Briefs

GIS Day: Cornell and the city of Ithaca are jointly sponsoring Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day Nov. 20 on campus and at the Tompkins County Public Library. GIS Day, free and open to the public, is held each year on the Wednesday of the National Geographic Society's Geography Awareness Week. It is a global event celebrating GIS, a computer-based mapping tool that takes information from a database about a place, such as streets, buildings, water features, and terrain, and turns it into visual layers. The local event will feature introductory GIS workshops, poster and project showcases, and a keynote speech by demographer Brad Edmondson. GIS open houses will be held throughout the day in downtown Ithaca and on the Cornell campus. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the City of Ithaca Planning Department hosts a GIS project and poster session at the Tompkins County Public Library. Then, on campus, there will be a poster and project session from 1 to 4 p.m. at Mann Library. Both open houses will feature live demonstrations of GIS in action. The two introductory GIS workshops will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. in B05 Uris Library and in Mann Library's Stone Computing Center. Register for either workshop by calling 255-5406 or sending e-mail to mann_ref@cornell.edu.

Shoemobile: The Department of Environmental Health and Safety has announced that Red Wing Shoes will be on campus with its shoemobile Friday, Nov. 22. The shoemobile, which provides a large selection of safety shoes, will be at the Environmental Health and Safety Building, 201 Palm Road, from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Employees eligible to receive department reimbursement for safety shoes should use their procurement card when purchasing shoes. Purchase prices above departmental allowances can be paid by the employee with cash, personal credit card or check. Questions can be referred to Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) at 255-8200 or by contacting the EH&S personnel at the shoemobile.

ESL teachers needed: The Cornell Campus Club English as a Second Language program is seeking volunteers to teach English to adults from non-English-speaking countries in the spring semester. A volunteer typically teaches one two-hour class per week to a group of 12 students. Experience in teaching ESL is an asset, but teaching support is available for people without training. Spring semester classes begin in the last week of January 2003. For more information, contact Anita Watkins at 257-8590 or anitawatkins2001@yahoo.com.