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 Using the GIS interface the projects could target multiple audiences with the same maps tied to other historical documents such as census records and city directories as well as house histories and photographs.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.