A Newsworthy Update

During a previous entry, I wrote about how the Touro Synagogue had to stop giving tours because of economic troubles.

Today, it was announced that tours would resume at Touro Synagogue with the help of volunteers. That story can be found here off of the (NBC) turn to 10 website.

Take home message of the story (other than Yay!): VOLUNTEER.

Coraline - A Book Review

Over the past week, I finished the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman. It was recommended to me by my best friend and since I had just seen the movie, I figured it would be a good time to read it (that and it has been forever since I've sat down and read a book from start to finish. I just looked and my last book review was on Feb 9 and that book wise is a ridiculously long time ago, although I did start two books that I haven't finished between then and now.) Neil Gaiman could easily become one of my favorite authors once I begin to read more of his books, seeing that Coraline is the only one I have read. Mirrormask, a movie which came out in 2005, was written by Gaiman; I totally recommend that movie, especially if you liked movies like the Dark Crystal and the Labyrinth.

Anyhow, Coraline is a book about a young girl named, you guessed it, Coraline. I am typing that correctly too, in case you haven't heard of the book or movie, her name is not Caroline and this does play a part in the book, although knowing the character's name, I almost continuously read the book as Coraline even when Caroline was on the page. Coraline moves into a flat converted from part of an old house with her parents. Her parents seem ever busy and a bit clueless as to what to do with Coraline, so Coraline goes off exploring her new surroundings by herself. She explores the property and meets the new neighbors and then she finds a door in her flat that when opened leads to nothing but a brick wall separating her flat from another. But that's what happens only sometimes. When she opened the door again the brick wall was gone and she enters what I imagine to be a very creepy and supernatural air duct and finds herself in a mirrored version of her own flat, complete with parents. These parents take complete interest in her, almost as if their world revolves around her, and even the neighbors get her name right. These parents however have buttons for eyes and tell Coraline that she can stay with them if she accepts her own set of button eyes.

Instead Coraline asks to go home, which these other parents agree to, but when she gets to her real home, she finds her parents missing. Coraline knows that her "Other Mother" must have stolen them. So she goes back to her "Other Flat" to rescue them. Throw in three dead children locked behind a mirror and an unlikely ally in a talking cat, and you have one creepy, but very smart and creative, story.

What children would see as a story about a courageous girl trying to save her parents, adults probably would find this book to be a bit darker. The button eyes alone were enough to creep me out. I think that this is one of the stronger elements of the story as it is often difficult to write a children's book that can truly appeal to adults on a different level. This clearly is a demonstration of Gaiman's talent, but I'll hold out on any more judgement until I read another one of his books.

There are numerous parts of the movie that closely follow the book, but new elements were added in, to what benefit I'm not sure now having read the book. Since I saw the movie first, I actually enjoyed these additions including Wybie, a boy near Coraline's age who plays an important part in the movie (even though the role is somewhat small), and a doll that looks exactly like Coraline, only with buttons for eyes, that Wybie gives to her after finding it at his grandmother's house. As creepy as the doll is, it didn't play much of a role in the movie, and isn't in the book at all, so beyond it tying into Wybie's character and his believing in Coraline, I wasn't disappointed by this change from book to movie. I was a bit disappointed however that Wybie's character was not in the book (most likely stemming from my having seen the movie first, had it been the other way around I probably would have thought that he was an unnecessary element). I still recommend seeing it, especially in 3D (totally worth the extra money for that format).

National Council on Public History Conference- Part 5

Today is the final installment of the NCPH Conference Digital Projects Showcase.

The eighth project was on the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania battlefields and creating an interactive history about them. The interactivity comes in with the creation of a digital map giving people a choice on how to tour the sites from a remote location (who will hopefully want to visit the sites in person) or from the physical sites themselves. Still in an unfinished state (with some improperly coded links) the maps were created using Google and provide information about hotspots including pictures. What I see is encouraging so far and when the project is complete it will include 3D models, flyovers and panoramic photos in a multi-layered map meant to interpret and provoke these sites. In mapping these elements digitally, it preserves the integrity and history of the physical site and provides users with an active role in their interaction with the maps. The link to the homepage for these sites can be found here (http://www.nps.gov/frsp/) off of the National Park Service website. Just click on Virtual Tours under Quicklinks when you get there to see what has been completed thus far. The links to the google maps themselves do not work (possibly due to the maps being unfinished) but the one for Fredericksburg can be found here.*

The next project was called Mapping the American Civil War: Cultural Heritage on the Web and when completed will consist of all sites related to a Civil War event. Okay, so not all, there are some criteria for inclusion. First, it must fit the general theme and time period. Second, the site must be extant and interpreted. It also must be publicly accessible and the owners of these sites must agree to have their property included in the listing. The GIS coordinates also need to be verified. The presentation discussed the numerous hurdles faced during this project the biggest I feel is the scope of the project. Every site involved in the Civil War spanning multiple states. Clearly this is a project that could only be done online because of this scope...so much data! In addition to Civil War sites, the project will also list sites pertaining to the Civil War's legacy, Civil Rights. Another issue the project team talked about running into was that of outdated websites listing information on these sites. Related to that is the accuracy of these sites and multiple sites copying off of one another. Another website issue is trying to rid descriptions of sites from bias when the information garnered about these sites is clearly biased. Biases can come simply from owners wanting to "pump up" their properties to draw more visitors. The goals of the project (in addition to the overall mapping) are to reduce the overwhelming amount of data, provide interested parties with places to go when travelling and to put these interested parties in touch with locals who know more about the sites than what is provided on the central mapping site. Currently the website is not live, the expected launch date is January 2010 and will not be a static site as the creators expect to keep it constantly updated. I wish them the best of luck, it will be an amazing website I'm sure.

The final project also involved mapping, this time of Fox Point a now bisected (due to the highway) neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. One of the things I liked about this project is that it was created by graduate students from Brown, I would have liked to seen more projects from students, but perhaps in a different session. I found the concept interesting and it tied in nicely to my thesis in terms of project output. The problem addressed here was that of what to do with oral histories to make them more accessible for the public. The solution? Memory mapping. Using Google Maps the Brown students transcribed oral histories and then linked them online. When the histories mentioned locations a virtual pin is placed on the map and the part of the oral history that mentions it is posted along with it. In an effort to include photos, a flickr site was created which allows people to comment on photos, add memories (and their own photos) and reconnect with other residents. Scribd is another site used for the project which allows site visitors to scroll through the oral history transcripts. Sadly this website seems like it was a just a semester project, and indeed it was called a prototype that won't be developed further (but will it be added to using the same format for the rest of the oral histories?) I wish it would be developed more as I did enjoy it and the local connection that it had.

I truly have enjoyed writing about them and giving my opinion on them. It was so worth the price of the conference and many of the projects have given me ideas of things I can do now or in the future with my own projects. Out of all of the projects presented, the Fox Point project was the first one that I explored online and I have since employed some of the methods used there in my thesis related website. I have begun mapping John Ronayne's life via Google Maps, more on that sometime later, maybe.

Sadly I was not able to attend the follow up on Saturday morning because RIPTA buses don't run the necessary route that early. Did anyone reading this get to go? It was Session 28 at 8:00am.

* Due to the possibility that the broken link is intentional due to the unfinished nature of the project, feel free to ask me to remove the link if you are associated with the project. Likewise, feel free to contact me if the broken link is not intentional and you would like to know how to make it work so that others may view the maps.

National Council on Public History Conference- Part 4

Part 4 starts off with the project Beyond Steel created by Lehigh University. It is a live project and can be found here at http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/beyondsteel/. As I am writing this, I am having quite a bit of fun exploring the different features of this site and I highly recommend that you go do the same. A grant funded project started in 2004, Beyond Steel is meant to capture the middle of the 19th century through the 20th century. In addition to Sanborn Maps of the area, extensive work has been done to find out the history of the places on the maps- heads of households, their wives and family make up, their occupations, and if there are boarders living in houses. This information is arranged alphabetically by surname and by location, so if you want to know for example who lived at 445 Vine, you can do a search and find that Clinton H Bitting lived at the address in 1900 according to the Sholes directory. Just for your information, he was a tinsmith and his wife's name was Minnie. In addition to that, you can even get an image of the source and see exactly where the information came from (in this case page 173 of the directory). During the presentation, we were told that there were 600 items on the site, which might not seem like a lot, but considering one item (the directory) has multiple pages (522), there is plenty of information to go around. There are also a multitude of essays and numerous photos. There is a comment feature on the photos, which will be extremely useful in identifying the people in them. The goal was to portray the industry and society of the area, and I feel that this project did exactly that. Again, go visit the website and explore it on your own; it really is quite something.

The presentation on the Knowledge Cube is the only one that really confused me, maybe it was because the movie about what it is didn't work or because it is still in the concept stage. I think it is most certainly a mix of both, this was one of those times when it is important to make sure that everything works on a powerpoint presentation when it isn't on your own computer, but I have to give the presenter a lot of credit for making due without it. Looking at just the presentation, she also spoke the loudest, having sat in the back for the previous projects. Anyhow from what I gathered, the Knowledge Cube is in development at Clarkson University and the project is being handled by numerous departments there. It is a project of in house collaboration, which a univerity setting is perfect for. On the campus of Clarkson is a building called Old Main; it isn't in use anymore. Knowledge Cube is bringing it back to life in a virtual sense as the setting of the project is located in it. However, the walls of the virtual Old Main are meant to melt away to present new objects, to create a dialogue about them, and history, so as not to make it seem like an alternate reality. The first run of Knowledge Cube will be static, but as time goes on, interactivity will be added. One of the more interesting aspects of the project so far (I'm sure there will be many more as the project is further developed) is that Knowledge Cube has been created completely using "off the shelf technology" such as Qlab (usually used in theatrical production). There has been no special Clarkson only programming, which is a great thing, so when Knowledge Cube is finished, it will show a multitude of universities, organizations, and locations just what can be acheived using available technologies.

I could write about the next project at this point, which is on Fredricksburg, but I feel that due to its subject matter, it belongs in Part 5 with the Civil War Mapping project. If I could have changed one thing about the organization of the session it would have been the organization of the projects, because some are similar to others. I would have had the Beyond Steel project come after the GIS in Annapolis, and the Maine Memory Network and the Fox Point project (will be in part 5) come after the Massachusetts Studies Network but before PhilaPlace. I can see the point of organizing it this way (if there was a method to its organization that is) because it prevents one from confusing similar projects together, but I just like it better when similar things are grouped more or less together.

National Council on Public History Conference- Part 3

For those of you who have read some of my other posts, you know that I have a background in archaeology, so I was excited to see the presentation on GIS in Annapolis, Maryland. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems and allows one to manage, analyze and display any sort of geographically referenced material.* Using the GIS software, current maps can be matched up with historic maps to compare how an area has changed overtime, or in the case of this project to show where archaeology was carried out in Annapolis today and what it once was in the past. The project began in 2005 partially because it was a way to provide locals with the history that they wanted. Using the GIS interface the projects could target multiple audiences with the same maps tied to other historical documents such as census records and city directories as well as house histories and photographs. Although I have not used GIS, I have done my share of comparing multiple historical maps with today's maps for my thesis and for another class I took called Researching Historic Properties. It is a sometimes long and complicated process and I was amazed by the breadth of the project, the whole area analyzed and cross referenced... highly impressive. I was fully contented to watch what basically became a show and tell of "look what GIS can do" after a brief intro into what the project was about because it is something I am interested in, however I was slightly annoyed to be unable to locate the project online to further explore all that it has to offer.

PhilaPlace was the fourth project showcased. It is meant to be a digital experiment combined with community participation using the internet. PhilaPlace has an interesting origin as it was originally a series of trolley tours to bring residents together and view how their surroundings have changed. The concept was to provide an audience a glimpse at Philadelphia using a lens of place. The digital leap was born as a way to expand upon the trolley rides and allow those no longer in the area to experience the change in the neighborhoods. It will use a collections management system for peoples photos and stories, in addition certain things in these neighborhoods will be mapped so that viewers can find these places physically in whatever way they currently exist. The choice was made to use Google Maps instead of something along the lines of GIS because of its familiarity with a wide audience and its ease of use, a great choice for a project like this that many can utilize. One of the challenges of such a project is that neighborhood names have changed and not everyone agrees on where the boundaries for particular neighborhoods begin and end. This, however, comes with any co-constructed narrative that provides a place for participants to share their stories about places. Unfortunately it will not go live until 9/10/09 when it will be officially launched. Much progress has been made on the project, however, and I think it will be highly successful because it can be used by many different groups of people. Residents past and present, those interested in Philadelphia who have not lived there, tourists to the area, and those generally interested in these sorts of projects I feel will all be able to use PhilaPlace. I look forward to it's launch and will update on this as the date gets closer. For now information about the upcoming launch can be found here at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania website.

The Maine Memory Network, which can be found here at http://www.mainememory.net/ is Maine's digital museum. Begun in 1998 and online starting in 2001, Maine Memory is a collaborative effort between the groups that form the Cultural Affairs Council. It was started in order to fill a need, this need was the result of Maine's geography and climate. There are 250 historical societies in Maine most of which are staffed by volunteers during the summer when the weather is more stable. This clearly created a large gap between the times when societies were open for visitors to research anything. The Maine Memory Network is the solution to this limited access. With 200 contributing partners, over 15,000 items are now digitally stored and free to access. One of the more interesting elements is the ability to create one's own album and online exhibit using items in the collection. In albums you create the captions for your private viewing (unless you let others view it) and with online exhibits the credits for the photos and other elements are automatically placed, creating a smooth interaction between user and program. I always enjoy when something unexpected happens out of a project with an anticipated result. This project had it's expected result but an interesting thing also occurred. In Maine, students are given laptops when they hit the 7th grade and the Maine Memory Network became a useful teaching tool. That's not all, schools and historical societies partnered up and now students are helping the historical societies upload things into the digital collections, making even more things accessible to the public and Maine researchers.

Part 4 will start off with the Beyond Steel project from Lehigh University. Look for that tomorrow or Monday.

*Thank you to the Guide to Geographic Information Systems for this definition. For more in depth information please visit the website here at http://www.gis.com/index.html.

National Council on Public History Conference- Part 2

One of the main reasons why I registered for the NCPH Conference was because of the Digital Projects Showcase, a mega-conference session of sorts in which 10 projects were presented for a total of about 15 minutes each. It was sponsored by the Museums and the Web conference (which I really want to go to but can't). I made sure that I got there early so that I could get a seat up close and success! I was one of the first few people in the room so I grabbed a good seat. Unfortunately the room was so long and narrow, many people who did not get there so early ended up in the back, making hearing and seeing difficult. What made this session interesting in the conference managing sense was that because of its organization, people were able to come and go between sessions (and people in the back could move up to the front). I think the format was a resounding success and I hope that future conferences will continue to use it for at least some sessions.

The first project showcased was the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, capturing memories of those affected by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As Michael Nelson from the University of New Orleans put it, the Memory Bank is preserving the stories of people who fell between the media extremes (which were stories of heroes or of crimes from desperation). It follows the format of the 911 Archive structure, and was created in collaboration with the Center for History and New Media using Omeka, a digital collections program.* After these hurricanes, one will remember, people from New Orleans were scattered from the area, which created a dilemma for the project because without people and their photos and memories, the project cannot exist. The solution for this was obviously to get the word out, but I found the method of doing this to be quite creative. The first is the use of posters displaying Katrina Crosses to catch one's attention and the information of how to reach the project and contribute a personal story. The second is the use of mailer cards. Each of the session goers received an example of this. In a simple sense these are twice the size of a postcard so that they can be folded in half and secured shut. On the inside is space for someone to share their story. It can then be mailed off where the story will be collected with others and entered into the Memory Bank. I love how that method makes project participation so easy for people. That of course works best for those who have access to the cards in some way. The first Mardi Gras after the hurricanes saw an influx of people returning to the city of New Orleans for the first time (consisting of visiting but still displaced residents and tourists). The Memory Bank used this opportunity to reach people by printing their own Mardi Gras cups for people to use. I think that was brilliant and very original, using the history, heritage and culture of the area to aid in the project. They have even created a Skype account as another method in which people can tell their story. One of the interesting things I learned was that the money FEMA had for documentation after the hurricane went into building documentation and not oral history. Thankfully this project has helped to document the memories, photos, and blogs of the average person who witnessed and suffered from this devastation. These things most certainly would have gone undocumented and eventually would have been lost completely had the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank not been created. The website for it can be found here at http://www.hurricanearchive.org/. They are still collecting people's stories, and it currently contains over 25,000 items.

The second project was the Massachusetts Studies Network (I'll be calling it MASN). What started 5 years ago at UMass Boston as an attempt to collect photos that represented life in Massachusetts, blossomed into a collection consisting of 1,300 photos and stories, creating a digital portrait of Massachusetts. Using volunteers, freelancers and one part-time worker, MASN runs what is called the Massachusetts Memories Roadshow numerous times a year across MA. This is done in a format similar to the TV show Antiques Roadshow (which I love). In an event, people are allowed to bring in about 3 photos showing life in MA at some point in time. These photos are scanned into a computer and the stories that go with these photos are recorded. In return, oral history/photo scanning donors get a keepsake photo of them with their photos at the event and the satisfaction of having preserved local history. Held at local historical societies or community buildings, local residents past and present of all ages can interact and find common ground. One of the challenges this project faced was how to make it extend beyond a physical event? One way was to create a social network hosted on Ning, which allows people to connect with one another digitally and continue to share interests, photos and stories. There is also a Flickr group. Both of these sites brought up questions after the presentation about copyright issues that go way beyond what I understand at this point. I was excited by this project and it was amazing to see what could be accomplished without funding (especially when each Road Show costs $8,000 to $10,000 to run). The website for the social group is located here at http://mastudies.ning.com. The link to the Flickr group is http://www.flickr.com/groups/massmemories, it is newly live and I'm sure that more will be added to it as time goes by.

Part 3 will be comprised of more of the projects showcased during the session starting with GIS in Annapolis.

*This is probably the most general of definitions of Omeka and in no way does it justice from the little I know about it. I really hope to learn how to work with it at some point in the not too distant future (aka grad school).

National Council on Public History Conference- Part 1

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended the National Council on Public History Conference at the Biltmore in Providence, RI. For me it was great because I live only 1/2 hour away and could take the bus, which was doubly great because I get the bus for free because I am a student who goes to a school that worked a deal out with RIPTA for free statewide bus rides. So on Thursday I took the bus to Kennedy Plaza, which is literally across the street from the Biltmore. Unfortunately I missed the bus back home that I wanted to take and had to wait an hour for the next one in the drizzle, but it all worked out. I think beyond that stressful experience, the only lowlight of the conference was the weather. It rained, a lot. During one of the conference sessions, I could hear thunder and watch lightning. When it wasn't raining, it was drizzly and very foggy. I felt bad for those who went on tours and for those who wanted to explore the city.

Beyond that I think the conference was a resounding success, elsewhere* it has been reported that 603 people registered, the most so far for NCPH. It was great for me, a student, to mingle with others (including many other students, which speaks loudly for the future of public history). I also got to see the latest in public history related books and sit in on sessions showing the future of public history. There was so much offered that it made deciding on what to see difficult, but at I learned in an attempt to go to one session which was full, there was something else that I could go to without worrying if I would have an interest in it.

I had very much been looking forward to Session 8, called "Remembering Slavery," dealing with how different sites portray the history of slavery and how audience views of that history has changed over time. I took a class on the African American Diaspora my first semester at Salve Regina (technically my junior year after transferring) and found it fascinating. However, even with my arriving quite early for the session, which I figured would be crowded, there was no room and people were already sitting in the doorway. Disappointedly, I walked to Session 9, "Commemorating Times of Change: Innovative Approaches to Public History at the Presidential Libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan".

I've never given Presidential Libraries much thought beyond knowing that they are libraries which happen to contain the particular President's writings, papers and correspondence, while they do contain these things, they also feature exhibits on the specific President or about the time in which they held office. I found myself to be quite interested in the topics presented, which involved how do you keep the public involved with the particular past (something that most historiy museums face, if not all). What makes this so vital to the Presidential libraries, however, is that as time goes by people become increasingly separated from the events and the President himself, for example when school children come to view exhibits.

The first presentation was about FDR, entitled: "Action and Action Now" FDR's First 100 Days. In addition to giving a brief history on the events surrounding his election, we were presented with information regarding the challenges that were faced in creating the exhibit and how these were ultimately dealt with. In a sentence, it was the challenge of presenting the scale and scope of the crisis that was not a recitation of a history made stale by the cliches of Alphabet soup (brought on by the different things he created during his administration: WPA, CCC etc). In order to do this, they thought it best to create a narrative into five chapters of his administration, ranging from a room meant to give the feel of his radio "fireside chats" to installing scaffolding to bring about the effect that FDR was responsible for many building projects (and was often shown as a construction worker in cartoons that contained scaffolding on buildings). They also acknowledged that this era is a period of contested history and rather than promote or ignore one side, the decision was made to frame the debate and provoke a dialogue among the audience, a move I think is vital to have in a museum atmosphere. Initial comments of the exhibit were along the lines of how people had it rough during the Great Depression, but as we have entered our own economic crisis, many comments are about how the times are similar to today. It is because of this crisis that those at the library decided to leave this temporary exhibit on display until the end of this year.

The second presentation was on the JFK library, which gets an amazing 6 million visitors a year, many of whom are school children or foreign. This exhibit was created to look at events through the JFK's eyes and follows a chronological path of his administration. The exhibit even contains a replica of the stage used during the first televised Presidential debate. The goal of the exhibit was to strike a balance for those who witnessed the history with those who know relatively little about what took place so that all who go to the library have an engaging experience with history that is still meaningful today. The presentation also mentioned how size constraints have limited the amount of things that can be shown in the exhibit, and because of this events like the Vietnam War are left out of the story. They also mentioned how temporary special exhibits are highly successful and allow them to portray other facets of JFK's Presidency, for example they once displayed Jackie Kennedy's dresses. Things like this bring a whole new audience to the library (always important). There is also an extensive website for the library that can be found here. Interestingly, I learned that this library is also Kennedy's memorial, which is why there is not on in D.C.

The third Presidential Library is Ronald Regan's whose educational mission is to "Engage, Excite, Educate" a very good mission if you ask me. It houses 55 million papers of his and the exhibit is currently in a redesign where context is being added along with thematic presentations involving things like the Cold War. One of the interesting ideas the presentation was the Great Communicator Files, which shows the process of creating a speech. Another was the opening of the Air Force One Discovery Center which is geared to audiences at a fifth grade level and was created to provide room for debate among exhibit goers.

What I originally was disappointed in going to, I came out an hour and forty five minutes later being quite satisfied by this new information. If I'm ever in the area of one, I will totally go to a Presidential Library.



Other semi-conference related, but not so specific things I learned are: everyone has presentation troubles in some way, like verbal crutches (umm, uh, and um uh... unnecessary words that fill up empty space), going over time limits when not reading a script, and not having tested powerpoint images and movies prior to presentation time (sometimes your pictures are way too small to properly see in the audience). As a student, I see this a lot, and am glad it happens in the professional world as well. While certainly not desired by any means, it makes me feel better that it pretty much happens to everyone, as I am guilty for doing these on occasion as well. I continue to maintain that it is important to work on these elements (especially making sure that everything is working on powerpoint as that happens to be a pet peeve of mine).

* elsewhere is the homepage of the NCPH which is located at http://www.ncph.org