>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C.
>> John Hessler: Well,
everyone, thank you for coming
to the afternoon session.
I'm John Hessler.
I'm a specialist in
modern cartography
and GIS here at the library.
What we're going to see this
afternoon is a different twist
from what we saw this morning.
This morning, obviously, we
went down the policy road
and the Congressional
policy road
and the legislative process.
This afternoon, we're
switching over to the humanities
and really the digital
humanities.
And, what we're going to see is
we're going to see the results
from ten different presentations
across six divisions
of the library and the
Law Library of Congress
who have spent the last 10,
12 weeks working diligently
in a pilot project
here at the library
where the library
has presented to each
of them the Story Map cloud
based platform and asked them
to create a story map
around their collections.
What they think is important,
what they think hasn't
been highlighted.
And so, what we're going
to see today is the results
of that pilot project.
All of the presenters
are in the front row
and have done an amazing
job over the past ten weeks.
I just want to say a couple of
thank yous, just really two.
Most of the thank yous are
on the back of the program,
but all of us involved
in the project want
to thank Dr. Paulette
Haiser, who's the new Chief
of the Geography
and Map Division,
for basically driving
this forward.
She is affectionately known
to the story map
people as Shrek, and so.
We didn't put the Shrek video
up which she showed them all
the time in order to keep them
in line, but we're
going down that way.
I want to introduce first,
we're going to have
a little presentation
on the Story Map
platform by Owen Evans.
Owen is a product
engineer at ESRI,
part of the development team
for the Story Map platform,
and he's going to,
basically, give an introduction
to the Story Map platform, what
it can do, and then after that,
I'll come back, and
we'll begin the program
of presentation of
our LC story maps.
So, Owen.
[ Applause ]
>> Owen Evans: Thanks, John.
So, good afternoon, everybody.
I feel very lucky
to be here today
at such an esteemed
organization as the Library,
sharing in your GIS
day festivities.
So, thanks very much
for inviting me here
to talk about story maps.
As John said, I was just
going to give a little bit
of an introduction to story maps
and then show you some examples,
and you've actually
seen a lot of examples
if you were here this morning
of story maps already
which is great.
And, I'm just going to kind
of frame them a little bit,
kind of tell you a little
bit more about them.
And then, I really view
myself as the warm up act
for the real show which
are these folks in front.
I got a little preview
of their work before,
and it's incredible.
So, it's, you've got a really
great treat this afternoon,
I think.
So, I'm just going
to talk a little bit
about what story maps
are first, like I said.
So, I'm going to give my
presentation in the form
of a story map since I'm
on the Story Maps Team.
It only seems right.
So, what is a story map?
Well, a story map is essentially
a web application or a web page
that combines different things,
and it combines interactive
or static maps with
multimedia content.
So, this can be images, videos,
audio clips, interactive charts,
any other kind of visualizations
that you might find on the web.
You can combine all
these things with text
and your narrative content to
tell stories about the world.
And, when we say story maps can
tell stories about the world,
we mean anything from a story
about a street corner to a city
or a town, a state, a region,
or even the entire planet,
or even other planets as well.
And, story maps are
hosted in the cloud,
so there's no software you need
to run on your own machine.
You just kind of
go to a website.
And, you can use them, and we
work very hard to make sure
that they work on
different screen sizes.
So, it'll work on a nice big
monitor as well as a tablet
or a cell phone as well.
And, story maps are
open source applications
which means you can download
the code and customize it
and do whatever you
like with it.
Although, I like to say you
don't need to be a developer
or any kind of technical
person to create a story map,
and that's really, I think,
what the most powerful
thing about story maps is.
Story maps have builders that
allow you to go to a website
and drag in your photos,
type in your content,
connect to your maps, and
create a story map just
like you would create
a Word document
or a PowerPoint presentation.
You don't have to be
a technical person.
You don't have to be a GIS
specialist to create story maps,
and that's probably the most
powerful thing about them.
We have about half a
dozen different types
of story map application,
and like I said,
you've seen a few
of these already.
So, I'm going to go
through a few of them
and tell you a little bit
more about them individually
and what they are and kind
of give you some
examples of each one.
So, our latest one is
called Story Map Cascade,
and this was one of the
ones that you saw Tim,
Tim Petty show this morning.
This is one that's just like a
website that scrolls through,
and I'll give you
some examples of this.
Here's one that we
did in conjunction
with the World Food Program on
the food crisis that's looming
in a couple countries in Africa
right now, and you can see,
it starts off with a really
great video, immersive video.
You can also start with a
nice image on the cover,
but really kind of engage
people right away with a cover.
And then, you can see that you
just scroll through this story.
You can have images, text,
different types of sections,
different shapes of images.
You can have videos that auto
play as you're going through.
Really giving somebody a feel
for what your story is about,
and really evoking a lot
of different emotions
from somebody.
So, here, you can see food
being dropped in Africa.
You know, we always, kind
of, hear stories of this.
These are the kind of
things really happening.
Here's a little video
of those, of that.
You can see, there's
infographics and real, again,
really evocative images,
as you scroll through.
And, the Story Map Cascade app
has a couple different types
of sections.
The one I'm looking at
right now is what we call a
narrative section.
So, everything is scrolling.
I'm just scrolling through
with my mouse wheel,
just like I would in
a normal web page.
And then, there's
another kind of section
that we call an immersive
section.
So, here, you can see the
background's sort of locked
into place, and now,
these little caption panels are
scrolling across the screen.
Right? So, I've got
one background map here
with one caption, and then
I'll scroll a little bit more.
And, I'll see another caption,
and the background has
changed into a different map.
And, as an author, you can
create these different types
of sections, and you can
see, if I keep scrolling,
I go back into one of
those scrolling narrative
sections again.
And, you can combine these in
different ways to tell stories
in very, very different ways.
So, even though you have
just a few little tools,
you can combine them together
in lots of different ways,
and you'll see lots of different
Cascades this afternoon,
from what I hear.
And, let's see.
I've got a couple
of other examples
of how story maps can be
used as communication tools,
and this is also
another Cascade.
This one's about the two Koreas.
So, Korea's obviously
been in the news,
so our team produced a
story, historical story
about the tension and
conflict that's been present
in the Koreas over the
last several decades.
And, you can see,
there's lots of maps
and images in this one as well.
And, it sort of goes through in
one of these immersive sections
to sort of show you the story
of how the different
territories have been,
have changed over time.
Going through from 1945 to 1950,
and you can see how
things develop.
And, you can read the story
and see how, you know, again,
using the maps and
the text together,
how things have happened and how
things have developed over time.
And, again, I'm just
scrolling through.
I'm not clicking
layers on and off.
I'm not, you know, zooming
in or anything like that.
I'm just kind of
scrolling through the story,
and the story is unfolding
as I navigate through.
There's lots of great potential
for putting infographics
in Cascade as well because,
again, you're scrolling through.
Here's a little infographic that
shows you the different heads
of state that have been
present on these two countries
over the last 70 years.
And, you can see, on the right
side, South Korea, there's been
about a dozen leaders.
And, on the left side,
there's only been three.
So, you can see, again, really,
with really potent
visualizations,
you can really make
interesting points here.
And, this one goes through
with a lot more infographics
about demographics like
population, family size,
urban population, educational
attainment, years of schooling,
then goes through some industry
and economy numbers, as well.
Again, with some
more infographics
such as Gross Domestic
Product, right.
Really, kind of giving
you the story,
the picture of these
two different countries.
The DOD recently released a
whole bunch of data based on all
of the bombing missions
in the Vietnam war.
It's almost three
million bombing missions,
so it's incredible
amount of data.
So, there's, this is a story
that took all that data
and created a story
map out of it.
So, we mapped all of the
different missions, and then,
I wanted to show in
particular this section
of this story where, as
I scroll through, again,
the map is going to move around.
So, this is going to highlight
a couple different missions,
and as I scroll through
these different sections,
you can see the map moving
behind these caption panels
as I scroll through.
So, the author of this story
simply configured different
views of this map to appear at
different times in the story,
making it really easy for me,
the reader, to simply scroll
through and enjoy the content.
I don't have to work
hard to get at this.
I don't have to know anything
special about using maps
or mapping technology.
I'm simply reading a story,
and the story just shows
me what's most important
at that point.
So, that was Story Map Cascade.
One of our other apps is
called Story Map Journal,
and this one's got a little
bit of a different layout.
So, instead of the whole
screen scrolling, in this case,
we have an area on the right
which we call the main stage,
which is where our
media content goes.
Whether it's an image,
a map, or a video.
And then, on the left, in this
case, is our narrative panel.
And, that's the part
that scrolls.
So, as I scroll through my story
and I get to different sections,
the content in the
main stage will change.
Right? So, this is just going
through lots of different maps
and different information about
our planet, about the human
and natural systems
that are present here.
So, here's a section on land
cover, and it shows me a map.
And, it tells me a little
bit about what that is.
And, here's a section on
forests, and as an author,
I can also create links
within my narrative to change
that content in the main stage.
So, here, I'm looking at
forests, but as I read
through the description,
it's highlighting something
about forests which
is forest loss.
And, I click on a link here, and
my map will change to highlight
in magenta those
areas of forest loss.
So, again, the story can sort of
unfold for me as I go through,
telling me more and
more information
without presenting it
all to me right away.
And, again, this one goes
on with lots more maps
and images about, about
natural and human systems.
There's another one
that I wanted to show
which is also a map journal,
which was just published
on Dr. Martin Luther King.
And, this one's a historical.
You can see lots of historical
images in this, in this story.
And, it walks through a lot of
different events in his life
and different speeches
that he's given.
And, really gives you a
sense for a lot of the things
that he's accomplished
in his life.
You can see, there's nice, big
quotes that have been added
to this story, and there's some
audio clips in this one as well.
Right? So, taking historical
information and pouring it
into story maps really let's
people read through that story
and really gain an appreciation
for that media and the story.
The next one I wanted to talk
about is our Story Map Series.
This one's a very
simple template,
and I've been showing some
really heavy weight stories now,
so I figured I'd
show a lighter one.
This one's about, we decided
to map all of the locations
of a fast food restaurants
in the United States.
Subway's actually number one
with almost 27,000 stores,
and you just see the coverage
all across the country.
But, it's interesting
just to see.
We think, like, you know,
there must be a Starbucks
on every corner in the country,
but really, the focused only
in urban areas, for
the most part.
So, you can see a very
different map emerge
when I look at Starbucks.
Or, if I look at Dunkin
Donuts, for example,
all east coast, right?
So, really interesting to
kind of look at a set of maps
with a Map Series
story map like this
and see the different
patterns that might emerge.
And, in this case, all the
sections had maps in them,
but each section could
also have an image or video
or whatever type of
media you'd like.
Here's another interesting
one here that we did just
on great wetlands, just
because wetlands just look
so cool with aerial imagery.
So, we really just kind of
moved around the country,
moved around the
world, excuse me,
and just highlighted
different wetlands areas.
So, you can just see that
just the striking geography
in this imagery.
Just really interesting
areas of the world.
Just exposing them to somebody
who maybe hasn't thought
about wetlands before or really
didn't know what they were.
It's really nice
to be able to look
at images and overhead imagery.
You can have a little
inset maps and other things
on the side here to really kind
of educate somebody on a topic.
So, I actually forgot to
mention the North Korean map,
my son is in middle school.
And, they were talking
about North Korea,
and so I sent his
teacher this story map,
and they took a look
at it in class.
And, it's just a great
educational tool for people.
You know, middle school kids,
you know, really gained a lot
of information from this.
It was a really great
overview of that topic.
So, just as an educational tool,
story maps are really fantastic.
And then, I'll show one
more Map Series here.
This one was published ten
years after Hurricane Katrina.
So, it kind of went back and
looked at all of the events
that had happened
since that disaster.
So, this was the first
map, sort of showed
where all the people went that
were displaced from that event.
There were a couple
of other maps here
that show the physical
damage across the city
and also population
shift as well.
Right? And, many of these
maps are interactive, right?
I can zoom in.
I can click on the map
to get more information,
and that's obviously one of the
other strengths of story maps is
that they can contain not
only pictures of maps,
but also live maps
with dynamic data
that might be updated every
time I open the story map.
The World Health
Institute published a story
of Ebola every two
weeks, and they updated
that information
every two weeks.
And, every time you would
open that story map,
there would be new information
that was published there
that was following that crisis.
And then, the last
one I wanted to talk
about today was Story Map Tour,
and I wanted to show one example
of that which is another
historical story map.
Which was a story, that
is a story about the plot
to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
And, this one, you can see,
uses a nice historical base map,
and again, has really
great historical images.
And, kind of follows
the events that before
and after the successful plot
to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
And, it's very easy, again,
for me to interact
with these, right?
I'm not really thinking
too much.
I just have to kind
of click through,
and I can read the
descriptions of the photos.
If I want to jump around,
I certainly can do that.
In our Story Map
applications, we like to sort
of give somebody a
path to go through,
but many people just see
something interesting.
So, we also try to make it
easy for people to just kind
of go off script and just click
on something that they like.
Right? So, I could go into any
of these photos in the carrousel
and just click on one
that looks interesting.
So, I would go there.
Or, if I see something
interesting on the map,
I can click on that,
and I'm taken
to that photo and
that description.
So, really easy to
use from, you know,
from an end user perspective.
And then, lastly, I just wanted
to show two more examples
that weren't shown this morning
of how story maps are
being used on the Hill.
This one is for Congress
Tim Walz.
Story maps can be
embedded on websites
which is something
we see quite a lot.
They can kind of stand on
their own, and you see me kind
of open them up in my
browser window and just look
at them by themselves.
But, a lot of times, people
like to embed story
maps on their website.
So, this was a Story Map Tour
that this congressman did,
and it was similar to what
Congressman Takano showed
this morning.
Kind of, he had a tour
where he went around the,
around his district and
went to some events.
And, he's really just
showing what's going
on around his district and,
you know, this was sort of,
he called it a listening
tour where he's going around
and listening to
his constituents
and understanding the issues
that are important to them.
And, here's a record
of that showing
where those occurred
and what happened.
And, the last one I wanted
to show is also embedded
in a website.
This is on Senator
Wyden's website,
and this is a good example
of using story maps to kind
of communicate the
position on a policy.
So, again, in this case,
the story map was embedded
on a website, and you know,
I showed a lot of story maps
that have a lot of
narrative inside them.
In this case, the story
map's really just being used
to present a series
of maps very simply.
The story is present
hereon the website, right?
This is embedded in
a blog article here
on the Senator's website.
And so, they've got some text
and other things on the webpage,
and then they just embed
the story map right in here,
and they were very able
to show, sort of a series
of simple maps showing
how these conditions vary
across the country and how
that supported the policy
that they're talking
about in this blog.
So, story maps can be really
sophisticated and be very long
and very complex narratives,
or they can be very simple
like this and embedded
in websites
to communicate very
simple points.
And, if you're interested
in learning more,
we've got a website
you can go to
and just google ESRI Story
Maps, and you can take a look.
We've got a gallery on
the website with hundreds
of more examples on top of the
ones that you saw here today
and other ones that you'll see
this afternoon on every topic.
There's, you can
filter them by topic.
If you want to look at
history and culture or nature
and conservation, there's a lot
of different examples out here
of story maps that you can take
a look at if you're interested.
So, without further ado, I want
to turn it over to everyone else
so they can present their work
that they've been
working so hard on.
And, I thank you very much
for inviting me here today.
[ Applause ]
>> John Hessler: Okay, everyone.
So, I'm going to give just
a little bit of context
to what you're about to see.
Everyone knows that the
Library of Congress has some
of the greatest collections
on the planet.
The depth of the
collections here across all
of the special collections
divisions is huge.
It would take a lifetime for us
to place all of that on exhibit,
all of that on the web, and
to present it to the public
in a way that is
convenient and fast and easy.
It costs a lot to
design a digital exhibit.
It costs a lot to put
a big exhibition up.
So, what we wanted to
do was present a tool
to the various curatorial and
special collections divisions
in order that they could
present their collections
as they thought they
should be presented.
In other words, a tool
from the ground up.
Something that would be fast.
Something that would be
easy to do, and something
that would have a lot of
do it yourself application
and do it yourself part of it
that the divisions
could get behind.
And so, when we begin this
process, this is something
that is sitting on top of
what, a lot of what we talked
about this morning, this
geospatial hosting environment
that the library has which is
this large group of GIS portals.
Which allow CRS, Geography
and Map Division, and Congress
to move geospatial data
around and to make maps.
This is a part of that.
This is a part of it
that exists in the cloud,
and we developed
this just so each
of these divisions could
show their collections
in an easy way.
And, this is the end of a
10, 12 week pilot project,
and so what you're about to
see here is the fruits of that.
And so, I'm going to turn it
over to our first
presenter, and so.
Oh, yes. We are going to hold
the questions to the end.
So, each of the presenters
is going to come up,
introduce themselves, and
present their story maps.
And then, at the end, we
will have time for questions.
So, Stephanie.
>> Stephanie Stillo: All right.
Hello. So, my name
is Stephanie Stillo,
and I curate the Lessing
J. Rosenwald Graphic Arts
Collection here at the
Library of Congress
in the Rare Books Division.
So, first off, I would
like to thank GNM
and the Story Map Team.
They have been a total delight
to work with on this project
which has been really fun.
So, today, I want to talk
to you about incunabula
which I understand is
a notable departure
from congressional
policy from earlier today.
And, I'm going to go out on a
limb and say that perhaps most
of you have probably never
even heard this word before
which is fair.
So, simply put, incunabula are
books that are printed before
or in between 1450 and 1500.
So, explaining why
we should care
about 15th century printing
is a big part of my job
because they're a big
part of my collection
in the Rare Books Division.
So, the history of printing
is truly remarkable.
It begins with Gutenberg
printing a Bible
on this converted
winepress in the 1450s.
It begins with one book, right,
and it ends 50 years later
with 20 million books
circulating throughout Europe.
One to 20 million in 50 years
and pre-industrial period.
This is a remarkable
moment in history.
So, the term incunabula
translates, sort of,
loosely from the
Latin "to the cradle".
So, and it's a way for us
to demarcate this moment,
this experimental moment in
technological innovation.
Now, unfortunately, some
people find this moment
in history challenging.
They find it old, and heaven
forbid, they find it boring.
But, Story Map, I think, gave
us a way to challenge some
of those assumptions
about this 50-year period.
So, the first thing I
did to sort of get a grip
on this project was to
create an interactive map
of the Library's collection
of 15th century printed books
which is the largest in
the western hemisphere.
So, this represents
about 5000 data points
which I wrestled to the ground.
You can see that we have
extreme concentrations
in certain areas, in
Germany and Italy.
So, these became the
areas that I decided
to focus on in my story map.
So, you can see this on the
tabs that are above here.
So, I wanted to be able
to highlight this 15th century
moment, but also to be able
to highlight our collections
in the Rare Books Division.
And, sort of speak to that.
And, eventually, it's our hope
to expand this into thinking
about other key locations,
certainly, in the low countries
and France and England
and Spain.
Also, just a side note, this map
has been very useful thinking
about our collection strategy,
also in the Rare Books Division.
It helps us visualize our gaps
in the division, so you have,
you have this map informing
us on sort of several levels.
Sort of, outside for patrons,
and then, also, for us.
So, once I had my map, I wanted
to approximate the experience
of sitting someone down
with a 500-year-old book
which is a pretty exciting
moment when you get to do that.
So, you get to show
people things
like the first illustrated
Bible with movable metal type.
You can show people,
you can open the door
to natural histories
from the 15th century.
You can dive into
public festivals.
So, here, we have a fun jousting
match that you get to engage in.
You get to talk about deluxe
editions, and what does
that mean for people or talk
about complicated mnemonics
or memory tricks of
the 15th century.
Exciting stuff.
You also get to dive
into the stories
that helped shape the 15th
century consciousness.
So, the life of Saint
Martha and the Great Dragon.
The beheading of
John the Baptist.
These are always really fun when
you get to have a sort of head
on a platter for people.
[laughs] There's some
really good visualizations
in the 15th century.
Or, of course, the torments of
Saint Anthony and able to pair
that with text which
is really exciting.
So, this was, this was a
really fun way to be able
to get people, sort of,
involved in these books.
Now, even though my story is
very much about western Europe,
it necessitated a
global scope as well.
The genesis of all forms of
printing happened outside
of Europe, and that
is just the case.
So, for example, I was able
to use, when talking about,
sort of, the inception of early
printing on wood, we were able
to begin a story in China.
We were able to work
with the Asian Division
to get some material
from them to be able
to highlight this early moment
in printing far before
the European inception.
And then, move our story into
Europe and be able to sort
of talk about that early
printing moment there
and be able to have that
sort of fun geographic sweep
that helps people really
understand that moment.
And, I know that this is
just a very small example,
but I think it's
really exciting to think
about how we can
combine our collections
from various divisions
to create these sort
of digital stories, right?
This digital storytelling
moment about our collections.
So, perhaps one of the most
exciting parts, I think,
of my story map at least and
something that I would really
like to expand on in the future
is the idea of being able
to show people how
books are made.
So, we can start to talk about
books as objects as well.
And, the ability to show
people how a book is printed
and what does that look like.
How a book was colored, right,
and what does that mean?
What does a binding look
like from the 15th century?
And, these are all things
that really humanize, I think,
the 15th century, that
humanize this material in a way
that makes it more
understandable for people.
It also allows a fair amount of
sort of curatorial satisfaction
in that you create, you can
create bibliographies, right?
Where you are able to
have further resources,
your featured items,
significant bibliographies,
general reference works.
And then, also a place for
people to be curious, right,
and to ask more questions.
So, you can sort of direct
them with that as well.
So, just very, just very quickly
in conclusion, was thinking
about how to wrap this
up and in five minutes.
So, it's very difficult.
But, I think about Story Map,
and I find the idea of Story Map
to be a 21st century tool
for a 21st century
library is the way I
like to think about it.
For curators and for librarians,
I think Story Map gives us
this fun and user-friendly way
to mine deeper into
our collections
through mapping our data,
through creative visualization.
But, the more and more
people are reaching
out to the library
through our website.
I think it's important that
we're reaching back to them
with information that's
interactive, that's engaging,
and that has that
stamp of authority
from the Library of Congress.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Micah Messenheimer:
Thank you, Stephanie.
So, my name is Micah
Messenheimer,
and I'm an Assistant Curator
of Photography in the Prints
and Photographs Division
here at the Library.
And, I'm going to be
presenting my story map, "Camera
and Locomotive: Two Treks
Across the Continent".
In my map, I looked at
[inaudible] between two
of what can be considered
the defining technologies
of the 19th century, and that is
the photograph and the railroad.
In particular, looking at the
moment when the country was
in an endeavor to build a
rail line across the continent
in the years 1863 to 1869.
Both technologies
really changed the way
that humans perceived
time and space.
Railroads made it very easy
to travel great distances
in short periods of time.
Whereas, the photograph made it
easy for people to take images
of those far off places or
far off events and bring them
to life for a viewer
who is elsewhere.
The collections that we
have here at the library
of both photographs and
maps really make it easy
to visualize some of
these intersections
between the two technologies.
I look specifically at the
transcontinental railroad,
but also at some other materials
that we have in our collections.
Firstly, I was looking at the
three specific photographers
who were working for the
two railroad companies
that were largely responsible
for building the
transcontinental railroad
across the country.
That's the Central Pacific
and the Union Pacific.
These photographers included
John Carbutt who is identified
by the green dots here.
Carbutt was a photographer
who was essentially hired
on a promotional basis.
He worked for the Union Pacific
to photograph an event
celebrating the reaching
of the 100th Meridian.
That was an important point
because it was the symbolic
start of the arid west,
and the railroad line
was excited to celebrate
because they had reached
that point one year
ahead of schedule.
The second photographer
is Andrew Joseph Russell,
and Russell is a photographer.
He's noted by the
orange dots on the map.
He's a photographer who
got his start working
for the United States military
railroad during the Civil War,
and then was probably
hired by Union Pacific
after the war had ended.
Russell's work is really
notable for his ability
to incorporate the
context of the landscape
into his images of the railroad.
So, we often see scenes where
people or construction is placed
within the sublime,
sublime scenery.
And then, the final
photographer is Alfred Hart.
Hart was a photographer who
worked for the Central Pacific,
and he photographed the entirety
of that line form Sacramento,
California to Promontory
Summit, Utah.
I'm going to actually jump a
little bit back in time to look
at another important
figure in the construction
of the railroad, and this
really highlights some
of the supplementary collections
that we have here
at the library.
Looking at the photography
of John Plumbe.
Plumbe was the first
person to argue for the idea
of a transcontinental railroad
before congress in 1838.
While he never lived to
photograph the railroad himself,
he took up the early art
of daguerreotyping which,
a daguerreotype is a type of
photograph, a unique photograph
where an image sits atop
a polished silver plate.
Plumbe took up the
art of daguerreotyping
to basically fund his
railroad advocacy.
He become noted as a celebrity
portraitist of his day,
but also for a very important
series of daguerreotypes he made
of federal architecture.
And, he became the first
photographer to make a series
of images of federal
architecture
like the U.S. Capitol
picture here.
In the essence of time,
I'm actually going to jump
to my section on Alfred Hart.
As I mentioned, Hart
photographed the entirety
of the Central Pacific
line, and in doing so,
he really became among
the first photographers
to photograph a major work
of engineering from
start to finish.
Hart worked solely
in the stereo format.
So, stereo, to make
a stereo photograph,
he was using a camera that had
two lenses which enabled him
to take two photographs
side by side.
When those were printed and
placed in a special viewer,
the photographs would come
to life in three dimensions.
While we, we really relish all
of the mammoth plate photographs
that we have in our collection,
stereo cards were
how the majority
of people were seeing their
landscape for the first time.
And, Hart was really a
master of the stereo format.
He knew how to utilize
curving lines of railroad track
and sharp angles and layered
foregrounds and backgrounds
to really make those scenes pop.
So, the map that I have on
Hart actually goes into some
of the rationale that I had
for exploring the
transcontinental railroad
as a project.
First off, as you can
see on the map, you know,
the plotting photographs along
a line, along the railroad line,
really just shows the linear
and progressive nature
of the railroad.
But, we can also explore
some of the patterns
and repeated subject matter
that interested photographers.
Who, in the case of
Hart, there's a period
where he's taking an intense,
showing intense interest toward
wooden snow sheds and tunnels
that were created to cross the
Donner Summit in California.
We can also see the ways
that photographers
work on their projects.
Hart would often climb high up
on cliffs, up to mountain peaks,
to look down onto
the railroad line.
But, unlike Andrew Joseph
Russell, he rarely moved ahead
of the end of construction.
We can also see another
interest of Hart's which was
in the laborers who
toiled to build the line
across desolate areas of the
country like the Great Basin.
In the case of the
Central Pacific,
these workers were
largely Chinese.
Unfortunately, Hart was limited
by the technology of the time
which didn't allow
him to capture action.
So, most of the pictures
of labor are at a pause.
In conclusion, I look
forward to continuing
to utilize this story
mapping technology.
Most of Hart's photographs,
in particular, are only known
by the date range that he
released his stereo series.
And, having these photos
arranged in a geographic manner,
hopefully, will allow us to
make more specific dating
of the images.
Like to thank Geography
and Maps for allowing me
to be involved in
the pilot project.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Francisco Macias: Hello.
I'm Francisco Macias, and I'm
a Senior Legal Digital Project
Coordinator in the
Digital Resources Division
of the Law Library of Congress.
This story map titled, "A
Treasure Trove of Trials",
was created from a
digital collection known
as the piracy trials.
And, although many times you
think law can be a little dry,
this is certainly
not the case here.
So, this collection of piracy
trials comes from a collection
that predates 1923, so
everything's free of copyright.
The collection is important
for understanding how various
nations handled piracy before
the year 1900, and of course, if
we look at, yes, the golden age
of piracy which is centered
around the 17th and
18th centuries.
So many times, when you think
of pirates, it's possibly
in that sort of period attire
that you picture them in.
And, it's possibly because
we do associate a lot
of what happened
during that time period
to the 17th and 18th century.
And, just a little
bit of reading here.
So, the trials and reports
in this collection reflect
the storytelling conventions
of their day.
They feature imaginative,
even sensational narration
in a style akin to that
of a literary genre
known as a chronicle.
Those of you who have
heard of the chronicles
of Christopher Columbus are
probably familiar with that.
They're a little
bit sensational.
They were fraught
with colorful language
that evocatively
reconstitutes what transpired,
albeit with a touch
of creative zeal.
So, and we can go through
some of these images here,
and these images aren't
all from the law library.
Fortunately, the
people at Prints
and Photographs are very good
for providing us some of this,
but, like Stephanie said,
this is a great opportunity
for collaborating with other
people in the collections.
So, here, you have a sampling
of some of the trials.
This one in particular, because
it can be difficult finding some
of the illustrations which you
probably will see with a lot
of the colleagues that are
presenting today, are difficult.
So, one of the things that I
went ahead and selected this one
for was because there were
actual illustrations included
of the people who
were being tried here.
And, this is a set of
Spaniards that are being tried.
This gentleman is
from Catalonia,
and this other one
here is from Madrid.
And, of course, the
language, like we said,
is really quite sensational.
So, we can see here,
"The last sorrowful moans
and groans," sorry.
"Groans and lamentations of the
two seamen," and notice the size
of the font used with the
words "murder and piracy".
You know, it's really quite
bold there, and I'm certain
that these served as well
for entertainment purposes.
And, picture what
tabloids are today.
Most of the trials from this
period, even separate to those
of the piracy trials,
are really, you know,
loaded with this
sort of language.
We move on to this next one.
We'll see here, again, select
accounts of the behavior
and dying speeches of the
most remarkable convicts.
So, again, that superlative
language which is quite nice.
And, of course, we do
have notorious figures
like William Kidd for
murder and piracy.
And, no presentation would
be complete if we didn't ask,
"What about the women?"
You know? So, we do have
women in piracy, and although,
you know, this was certainly
a vocation that was dominated
by men, you know,
we will find that.
And, I was happy to find that
in this collection there was a
trial of one Mary Butler,
and we see that right here.
And, for this presentation,
I created a dataset including
the titles, dates of trials,
the location, and the
year of publication.
And, I've plotted these here,
and as was said earlier this
morning, some of the images,
the maps that you have,
this is part of a community.
And so, these were already
developed, this map itself.
And so, I was able to
look to what was provided
by the ESRI community.
Now, here, what you have are
some of these maroon dots,
and the paler ones represent
less saturation of trials
that took place there.
The greater saturation,
of course,
is going to be represented
by the darker dots.
And, this is interactive.
So, you can actually
click on these.
And, one of the things that
you'll find, say, for example,
here, is the dataset that has
been embedded on this map.
And, in addition to the titles,
then you also have a link here,
which will take you to
the actual trial itself.
So, you can have direct
access to the primary sources.
And, let me see if
I can get back.
Sure. And, to wrap up, I
created this bibliography,
which covers various sources
related to the presentation.
I also took the liberty of
compiling a sizable list
of women pirates, of resources
related to women pirates.
This is all I have for
today, but I want to say
that this is really a great way
to deliver an exhibition
online, of sorts.
And, if you have any questions
pertaining to this collection
or other materials in the
Law Library of Congress,
the world's largest law library.
[ Laughter ]
Look for us at law.gov.
thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
>> Todd Harvey: Thanks,
Francisco.
It's great to see the
pirate map, the treasure map
of locations of those things.
My name's Todd Harvey.
I am from the American
Folklife Center
at the Library of Congress.
I also would like to
think Geography and Maps
for running this pilot.
I think it's been a
great experience for me,
and to John Fenn for helping
coordinate AFC's efforts
in this.
The Folklife Center is,
has a congressional mandate
to preserve and present American
Folklife, and one of the ways
that we do this is
by maintaining
and creating a large
archive of expressive culture
from the United States
and around the world.
I coordinate acquisitions
for that archive, and so,
for my story map, I've taken
a slightly different approach
and created a presentation
that my supervisors could use
for an in-house, you
know, presentation
to library administration
or to our Board of Trustees
or something like that.
So, this is, it's
not forward facing,
as Stephanie gave great example
of, but it's inward facing.
And so, I have found that
the, this software is,
it's a nice departure, I think,
from PowerPoint which is kind
of my default and a
lot of our defaults
for doing presentations.
And, I would say that it is very
similar in terms of learning how
to use it and in terms of
building presentations.
You know, the learning
curve's about the same.
I haven't yet mastered the
software, but, you know,
mastery is a long process.
And, I would say that another
point of comparison would be
that you can embed
AV and photographs
and other multimedia, just
as other people have
said, with relative ease.
I wish that the text were
easier to manipulate.
The text in the presentation,
and some of the graphic design.
But, the mapping potential
more than compensates for that.
I think, in terms of
data visualization,
being able to map
your data, is amazing,
and I'm really thrilled
to use it.
So, what I thought I would
do is run my presentation.
Takes about three minutes,
and so I'm going to put
on my other hat and
do a presentation
within a presentation and
talk about what's cooking
at the American Folklife
Center fiscal '17 acquisitions.
The American Folklife center is
a special collections division
at the Library of
Congress, as we know.
We manage an archive of about
5.5 million original items.
And, they document
expressive culture, folklife,
from the United States
and around the world.
In fiscal year '17, and
this is the takeaway point,
the center acquired more
than a quarter million items
from every U.S. state
and territory
and from 18 different nations.
And so, what I've done is
talked about our priorities
for collecting materials, the
results of those priorities,
what we actually got, and
then how people can use
those materials.
Like all divisions at
the Library of Congress,
we're guided by collecting
policy
and by strategic
collecting areas.
Oral histories of veterans
and civil rights leaders
are mandated by Congress,
and this is a map of
all of the locations
where we acquire those
kinds of interviews.
There's a veterans'
history project,
veterans' history
project from Salt Lake.
And, in a few minutes,
you're going
to see [inaudible] presentation
on the civil rights project.
Other priorities, Latinx
materials, women's traditions,
and visual documentation,
as well as occupational
folklife and web cultures.
Those are our priorities.
The results are that
as in previous years,
we have contributed to the
library's diversity in terms
of geographic spread, and
linguistics in cultures.
The map here shows you
all of the locations
where the Folklife Center,
from which the Folklife
Center acquired materials
and then the collections.
So, here's the Martinez
Rivera collection
of Mexican wedding
traditions, as an example.
Some of the collections that we
acquired this year have a broad
geographic distribution.
StoryCorps collections
and storycorps.me
being two examples.
You can click and see
StoryCorps collection
from West Valley
City, Utah interview.
Some collections such as
Nevada Folklife Program,
a project that was
run during the 1980s,
have a narrow geographic
distribution.
In 2017, we acquired
multi-format materials,
as we do every year.
And, an incredible 59%,
almost 2/3, are born digital.
So, uses. Researchers
can access new materials
at the American Folklife
Center reading room.
This is our baseline for access.
New collections are processed
by a professional archivist
and stored in AFC stacks.
And, of course, we mean
both physical stacks here
and in Culpepper and Fort
Mead and the digital analogous
to that, the digital stacks.
And, the curatorial
staff use social media
to promote new collections.
And, in this example,
this is a blog post
about a veterans' history
project collection, I guess.
And, I would say that here's
where story mapping fits
in because as we have the
blogs in many divisions,
if this platform's
adopted, and I hope it is,
the curatorial staff
will be able
to create public story maps for,
in my case, new acquisitions
and older acquisitions.
So, I think that all
that's left now is to dig
in and enjoy ourselves.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Yul Sun [assumed
spelling]: Hello, everyone.
My is Yul Sun.
I am a Reference
Librarian at Asian Division.
Today, I'm going to talk
about the pre-1958 Chinese
local gazetteers collection.
As we have been developing
this project, we come to know
that the Story Map, too,
is a very powerful tool.
Visually appealing,
simple but not simplistic.
We created an application which
is a very good visualization
of data and is very good,
too, for digital humanities.
By definition, local
gazetteers are compilation
of local records compiled and
edited by scholar officials
at national, provincial,
prefectural,
and the county levels in China.
Here is the title pages
the local gazetteers.
They are in calligraphy, a
sort of art, if you will.
The prototype of Chinese local
gazetteers can be traced back
to the first century A.D.,
and in the Song Dynasty
in 11th century and 12th
century, there was an explosion
of production and circulation
of Chinese local gazetteers.
The year 1010 A.D.
saw the publication
of the first Chinese local
gazetteer at national level.
Generally speaking, the local
gazetteers include history,
geography, culture,
societies, local products,
and the local personalities.
I'll give you example.
For the local personalities,
they were usually people
who were outstanding in
terms of moral behavior.
For example, there was a special
section donated to widows.
Widows were supposed
not to get married
after the husbands passed
away in ancient China.
So, the widows, they wanted
to show their determination
not to get married.
They cut their noses.
So, these widows were recorded
in Chinese local gazetteers.
There is a particular
section donated to them,
devoted to them, sorry.
In Ming and in Qing
Dynasty, there were a lot
of local gazetteers
published and circulated.
What are in the local
gazetteers?
Here is a brave, simple glimpse
of what the local
gazetteer's all about.
It includes prefaces,
table of contents,
principles of organization,
maps, and illustration.
It has mountains,
rivers, villages, temples,
academies, schools, you name it.
Here is the details of
the academy schools.
Chinese paid a lot of
attention for learning,
so it occupies a very important
part in the local gazetteers.
There is a section celestial
and terrestrial regions,
changes in administrative
units, geography.
Local customs and
local products.
Constructions, administrative,
military matters, local figures,
personalities, like
as I mentioned.
Writings, poetry, prose,
treatises, memorials,
commemorative writings.
We have a very rich Chinese
local gazetteer collection,
close to 3000 of them.
They are very good primary
sources for the study
of Chinese history and culture.
Well, here is a story map of
the Chinese local gazetteers.
We created six, we created story
maps within story maps of three,
of six provinces
out of 30 provinces.
For example, if you
click on the hyperlinks
of [inaudible] province,
you're going to come
up with a map within
already map.
You can filter the records
by different time periods,
like 13th to 16th centuries.
You're going to see the
blue dots representing the
local gazetteers.
If you click on one of the
blue dots, you're going to come
up with a pop up box with
information about the title,
the editor, the publication
date,
the call number information
of that nature.
You can see the changes,
variations over time.
In the 13th and 16th centuries
there were fewer local
gazetteers, then you
have more and more.
In the 19th century,
you have a lot more.
Like I said, in Qing Dynasty,
there was an explosion
of production and circulation
of the local gazetteers.
>> Suppose you want
to know something
about the year First Opium War
between China and Great Britain,
you click on [foreign language].
You'll have some information
about the local gazetteers.
The documents the
geography, history,
and perhaps the history
of the war.
So, they are very useful sources
for scholars and
librarians alike.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
>> Guha Shankar: Hello.
I'm Guha Shankar.
I'm here for the American
Folklife Center along
with my colleague
Todd Harvey who has
so nicely told you a little bit
about our collecting efforts
in various areas of
Americana and world history.
I wanted to thank
all of my colleagues,
particularly my inspiring
ones in the Story Maps Project
who have done some amazing
work on all these projects.
And, also, of course, naturally
Paulette Hasier, John Hessler,
Tim St. Onge, and especially
Mike Bijou [assumed spelling]
for all of the assistance
they provided us.
Particularly me, I turned
out to be the problem
child of the whole bunch.
[ Laughter ]
On the presentations
from Geography and Maps.
And, I especially
want to thank them
for the opportunity
we all have to play
with some very cool
tools, and there's work
to be done in this area.
Hopefully, we can do a lot
more of this going forward.
"Freedom" is a delimited
project to tell, call attention
to key moments and themes in
the black freedom struggle
of the latter half
of the 20th century.
More commonly known as the
modern civil rights movement.
The principle collection
materials
that are drawn upon are from the
civil rights history project,
collection of video
recordings that were documented
between 2010 and 2014 to a joint
initiative between the library
and the Smithsonian's
National Museum
of African American
History and Culture.
And, this is a congressionally
mandated project,
as Todd had mentioned earlier.
Another AFC collection
I've drawn upon in this,
in the structure presentation
is the Glen Pearcy collection
of photographs which
featured, which focused
on the 1965 Alabama
voting rights campaign.
Notably, if you'll remember
your history, the famous marches
from Selma to Montgomery.
And, these are Glen's
images right on the top
of the welcome banner.
I'm going to be very brief
in terms of my presentation
because ultimately what I'm
more interested in as a curator
and a scholar is to let
the voices of those people
in our collections speak.
And, to that end, the bulk
of my presentation is going
to be given over to
one of those voices.
Let me briefly step you through
the sections which I have picked
for this particular topic.
So, in addition to
the welcome banner,
what you will see very first,
first of all, at the very top,
you'll see Emmett Till,
Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, the march on
Washington, and then conclusion.
I had about eight tabs with
all the different topics
that could possibly have been
used in terms of, you know,
leveraging resources, but it
sort of fell off the page,
and I said, "You know what?
Stick to the simple
things first."
So, for those people whom you
talk to who are activists,
they'll always immediately point
to the fact that Emmett Till
and the horrific
murder of Emmett Till
in 1955 was the flashpoint
for a number of them
to become activists
in the struggle.
Here, for instance, what
you will see are not only,
as I mentioned, materials
from the American Folklife
Center's video recordings,
the opportunity proved too
tempting to go spelunking.
That's a technical term, in
the collections of the Prints
and Photographs Division and
the Manuscripts Division.
So, these are, you know,
contextual materials
which add historical depth
to the video recordings
and the oral and the
personal oral testimonies.
But also give you texture, and
as I mentioned this before,
in terms of graphic materials
and pictorial materials
that go along with
those recordings.
So, this very first
interview, for instance,
is with Simeon Wright who
was a cousin of Emmett.
He was in the room the night
that Emmett Till was dragged
from his bed to be murdered.
Mr. Wright passed away
just a few months ago.
One of his recordings,
but his recording
of the particular
moment is on a file
at the American Folklife Center.
Then, another way in which I
thought about this was to think
about groups that were active,
civil rights organizations,
if you will.
And the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee leaps
out in many of our interviews.
And so, there are many of
those instances and occurrences
which we can also pull
in for future iterations
of this particular project.
This is my one attempt at a map,
and I will tell you that I had,
we had so many difficulties,
challenges, shall we say,
which Mike Bijou managed
to solve for us in terms
of using the feature of the map
to point outwards
towards YouTube in order
to find particular interviews.
One of the salutary features of
this particular map is that most
of the interviews in civil
rights history project
collection, for that matter
a lot of oral histories,
can be upwards of an hour
and a half, two hours.
We have four and a
half hour interviews.
And so, that requires
careful curatorial control
and some decision making on the
part of people who are trying
to make these materials
accessible as to
which particular
topic and which aspect
of the interview they
want to focus on.
And, for, again, sort
of being technical,
you can actually embed
start and stop codes,
time codes within the iFrame,
and I hope, knock on Formica,
that we can see an example
of that towards the end.
And so, finally, of
course, we come to one
of the other major themes.
It was a feature of an
exhibition here at the library,
and this is about the
march on Washington.
And, again, what you have are
ways in which you can flesh
out the context of the
march on Washington
through these oral
history interviews.
So, finally, what I want to
do, as I said, is to leave you
with the voice of an
activist who can tell you more
about what freedom means
than anybody ever could.
And, here's hoping.
And so, the question is posed
to her by Joe [inaudible],
what is the meaning
of freedom as opposed
to the civil rights movement.
And, there are ways in which
different people will come
to different answers
depending on where they were.
And, this is Ruby Sales' answer.
>> Ruby Sales: Yes.
I think that I prefer to
call it, in retrospect,
southern freedom movement
because it was not only a
movement for civil rights,
but it was also a
movement for human dignity.
It was also a movement
to abolish the violence
and terrorism that whites
executed against black people
for more than 100 years
during segregation.
It was also a movement that
where we wanted to move
from small spaces that
segregation pressed us
down into, into larger spaces
that gave us expression,
creative, political,
and social expression.
And, the reason why I say it
was a southern freedom movement,
on the other hand
is that the results
of this movement not only
humanized black people,
but it had the possibility
of opening up the world
for white people so that
they could lead a more
meaningful life.
And, I, the other part
about being movement is
that this was not an event.
This was a dynamic process that
was connected to many events
that have happened in
the black community,
like a student movement.
The Southern Negro Youth
Cooperative in the 1940s.
So, we just didn't
spring up out of nowhere.
And so, that the other part
about the southern
freedom movement is
that there was a direct
connection between the aims
of southern black education
and ultimate explosion
of southern freedom movement.
And, I think that if limited
to civil rights, you obscure,
first of all, the
horrors of segregation.
You do not have to come to
terms with the violence.
You do not have to come to terms
with the economic oppression.
You do not have to come to
terms with white people wanting
to turn black schools
into plantations.
You do not have to come
to terms with the fact
that no black girl was safe
from rape in that society.
No black girl was safe
from rape in that society.
You obscure all of that,
and at the same time,
you obscure the long, hard years
of black struggle and the blood
and the sacrifice that we had
poured into that struggle.
I think that it does not
do justice by limit it to.
It's really not accurate
to limit it to a movement.
And, one other.
>> Guha Shankar: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Julie Stoner: Good afternoon.
My name is Julie Stoner, and
I'm a Reference Librarian
with the Geography
and Maps Division.
>> Rodney Harding:
I'm Rodney Harding.
I'm a Cataloger in the
Geography and Maps Division.
>> Clay Bryant: Clay
Bryant, a Library Technician
in the Geography
and Map Division.
>> Julie Stoner: And,
we did a group project,
and we were really excited to
participate in this program
and to learn how
to use the software
to show off the collections of
the Geography and Maps Division.
We really wanted to showcase
some of the maps in Geography
and Maps, and so we decided
to focus our story map
on the changing nature of world
maps through the centuries.
And, how knowledge and
technology changed these maps,
but also how they were
affected by culture,
religion, and experiences.
How these shaped
how maps were made,
but also how maps were made
affected how we see the world
in return.
So, we would love to show
you our entire story map,
but we're just going to show
you the highlights due to time.
We started with Ptolemy here.
He, in 150 A.D., wrote a
textbook called "The Geography",
and so, if you scroll down,
we really enjoyed using some
of the functions in this
program such as being able
to use this map to highlight
where these maps were made
or the cartographers
that made them
and use this modern
mapping technology for that.
We put that at the
beginning of each section.
This is one of the copies
that the library has
of Ptolemy's world map,
how the world looked to him
in 150 A.D. There are
no original copies left.
In the 15th and 16th
centuries in Europe,
they were republished quite
frequently, and this is a copy
of a 1482 copy from,
published in Ulm.
And, the library holds 42
out of the 43 known existing
copies of Ptolemy's map.
We really like this program
because you can zoom in.
You can really focus on
the things that you want
to focus on with the maps.
We're going to jump, now, to
a few hundred years to 1507.
>> Rodney Harding: Yes, and
that's one of the great features
of the Story Map Project as
well that you can highlight.
You can just jump to certain
areas of your project,
and you can highlight
certain things
that you want to talk about.
So, right now, we're
going to speak on one
of the famous world maps,
and that's the Martin
Waldseemüller map of 1507.
And, this map was
actually a wall map made
out of 12 wood cuts, and if you
keep scrolling down, and one of.
So, get back on the
map for me please.
>> Clay Bryant: Yeah.
>> Rodney Harding: And,
one of the great things
about this map is it actually
shows the European side,
the European side of the world,
and it also shows the actually
the eastern hemisphere showing
the Pacific Ocean
as well as America
which is modern day
South America today,
as its own continent.
So, that was very,
that's a breakthrough.
You know, he changed the
game in terms of cartography
and where we viewed
maps in our world.
And, the. Scroll back up for me.
Yeah. And, next up,
another portion
that the Waldseemuller map
is that he named portion of,
he named the name America,
and that's the first time
on any world map that
we used the term America
on an actually world map.
And, it's actually
the last time.
Waldseemuller, he had some
reservations about naming,
using the name America
which he got
from Amerigo Vespucci's
understanding
that we had a new continent on
the other side of our planet.
So, we can continue
to scroll down here.
And, more just highlighting some
more of the intricate details
of the Waldseemuller map.
Of course, that we
have highlighted here,
the Library of Congress
in the Jefferson Building.
And, we can keep on
scrolling down there.
Scroll down.
That's more about certain
maps that we have, world maps,
and we're going to go to, I
believe, the 16th, right here.
Next map we want to highlight
is the Joan Cornelius Blaeu map.
Yes, Blaeu, not Blue, but Blaeu.
[ Laughter ]
And, he went back to the
conventional stance of mapmaking
where he showed the world
using two separate hemispheres.
So, what's great about that
is he was the first one
to actually, he named this one
the new and improved world map.
And, if you notice, and if you
notice, if you keep scrolling
down here one more
time for me, Craig,
he depicted California
as its own island.
[ Laughter ]
Go figure.
[ Laughter ]
>> Julie Stoner: there was
a bunch of different ways
of making world maps through,
as we saw with Waldseemuller,
with Blaeu, when we get to
the 1800s, the standard way
to depict the world was
using the Mercator projection
which was a way of showing
the world that was easy
for navigation, but it skewed
the way that land mass, really,
the size of it, the further
you got away from the equator.
So, the farther you got
away from the equator,
the larger it looked on the map.
So, though it was easy for
navigation, not so easy for,
not so great on showing
the actual size of things.
So, for example, you can see
if you keep going that the size
of Australia and Greenland here,
Australia's actually three
times larger than Greenland.
But, you can see on a
Mercator projection,
it doesn't quite look that way.
So, as we go, this was
the standard, as I said,
through the 18, through
the 1900s.
In recent decades, it's changing
to different types
of projections.
It's always a problem to try
and project a round globe
onto a flat surface.
So, many different
ways have been tried.
We have many more maps
in our collections today,
a lot of them made by
[inaudible] agencies here
in the Washington D.C. area
such as this one made
by the CIA in 2015.
And, it doesn't use the Mercator
projection, as you can see.
It shows the landmass a
little bit more accurately,
as accurately as I said
you can on a flat map.
We really enjoyed putting
the story map together.
We really enjoy the, we're very
excited about the possibility
that this software
represents in being able
to show off the Library's
collections,
not just our own division.
But, being able to bring
together across divisions items
that we can use to tell these
stories here at the library.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Adam Silvia: So, thank
you all for coming today,
and thank you Paulette for
organizing today's event
and for inviting me
to participate in
the pilot project.
My name is Adam Silvia, I'm
Assistant Curator of Photography
in the Prints and
Photographs Division.
And, my story map is
entitled "Holy Lands".
It follows photographer
Francis Frith on his journey
to the Middle East
in the mid-1800s.
Here it is.
And so, Francis Frith,
who you see pictured here
in Turkish garb was originally
born in Britain, and he began
as a grocery store owner.
And, he learned photography
in 1850.
He opened his own
photography studio,
and in '56, he began traveling.
And, he photographed
important landmarks in Egypt
and what is modern day
Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon.
And so, Frith, he took
some really great shots
like the one you see here.
This is of the Convent of Sinai,
once home to Christian monks.
He also photographed the
inscribed value which stretches
across the Sinai Peninsula.
And, upon returning
home to England,
he published these images
in photographically illustrated
books, one having the title
"Sinai and Palestine".
And so, these books which
have original photographs,
photographic prints glued
to the pages, these are some
of the real treasures of the
Prints and Photographs Division.
Once upon a time, it
was through these books
that people experienced the
outside world, and today,
they're really a
window into the past.
And so, the Prints and
Photographs Division,
what we're trying to do is make
these books more accessible,
especially to patrons who maybe
can't physically visit the
library and spend
time in the Prints
and Photographs reading room.
And so, my story map is a new
electronic edition of the book
"Sinai and Palestine"
by Francis Frith.
It shows how the library
can use story maps
to combine photographs and text
to create photographically
illustrated books
that are available
to everyone online.
And so, each chapter, which I
list at the top of the screen
over here, it explores a
location that was visited
by Francis Frith, and so
this chapter on Hebron,
which is about 20 miles
south of Jerusalem,
includes some really great
photographs of the city.
This one here showing
the stone architecture
and the great mosque
in the background.
And, on the right
side of the screen,
you see Francis Frith's
original commentary
which I transcribed using
optical character recognition,
OCR.
And so, OCR automatically
converts printed text
into machine encoded
text which you can, then,
copy and paste very easily
into Story Map, and so,
it's by combining
these two technologies
that you can very quickly
recreate photographically
illustrated books.
What's really great about story
maps, however, is that you can,
then, enhance the original
text by including maps.
And so, when Francis
Frith tells you
that he photographed the city
of Gaza at 31 degrees north
by 34 degrees east,
it's very easy to, then,
visualize that location
on a map.
And, when Frith takes
you to towns like Nablus
and [inaudible] and
Nazareth and Tiberias,
you no longer feel lost.
You can easily follow
where he's going on a map.
Also, with story
maps, it's possible
to locate different landmarks
within an individual city.
And so, in this chapter
over here on Jerusalem,
I was able to pinpoint
the actual landmarks
in the photographs
on a map of the city.
And so, when Frith's
commentary comes up on the side,
and he talks about the Mosque
of Aqsa and he talks about,
you know, the Pool of Hezekiah
and the Church of Ascension.
You know exactly where
each and every one
of these photographs was taken.
And so, my presentation, I'm
going to keep it pretty short,
but I just want to emphasize my
conclusions and my experience
with the story map pilot.
And so, Story Maps enables us to
very easily combine photographs,
text, and maps to
recreate photographically
illustrated books.
And, also enables us to
make these books accessible
to everyone online and not just
people who can visit the Library
of Congress in person.
All right.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Kristi Finefield:
Good afternoon.
My name is Kristi Finefield.
I am a Reference
Librarian in the Prints
and Photographs Division here
at the Library of Congress.
And, the, my Story Map is
called "Surveying the South",
and what I did was try to create
an interactive and visual tour
of a collection here in
Prints and Photographs known
as the Carnegie Survey of the
Architecture of the South.
One of the reasons I chose this
collection is that as a survey
of a region of the country,
it offers really compelling
geographic component,
that while we have
identified that information,
we didn't have a way of
presenting it in a map.
So, the map tools of Story
Map gave us a new opportunity
to make this collection
more interactive
and interesting to
browse through.
So, Frances Benjamin Johnston
was the first American
photographer, first female
American photographer
to achieve prominence in
the world of photography.
By the time she started
taking the photographs
that would become the foundation
of the Carnegie Survey,
she'd been a working
photographer for over 40 years.
She had run a portrait studio.
She had pioneered as
a news photographer.
As a woman, she was very unusual
to be a news photographer.
She had documented
the lives and families
of four American presidents,
and she'd become a very
well-known figure in the field
of garden and architectural
photography.
[ Whispering ]
So, the Library of
Congress has more
than just this one
collection of Johnston's work.
We have over 20,000
photographs by her coming
from all those different
parts of her career.
So, this is zooming in
on one particular project
that was actually the last
chapter of her career.
I've divided the
story into five parts,
starting with the project.
Which I've already given you
a little hint of the quality
of some of these photographs.
And then, we'll go
to the photographer,
who I've already talked
a little bit about,
the process of creating the
survey, the photos themselves,
and, of course, the
places she visited.
So, we start with the project.
The Carnegie Survey is composed
of over 7000 photographs
of about 1700 structures
scattered throughout the
American south.
She visited rural and urban
areas and didn't just focus
on the high style architecture.
She definitely went
into the rural areas
to get vernacular
architecture, and this was part
of her interest in the
historic preservation movement
that was just coming into
fruition in the 1930s.
So, she was looking to
capture those structures
that were falling away and not
being captured by anyone else,
you know, or people
were just starting
to understand and
appreciate them.
This actually came
out on the heels
of her garden and estate work.
The first project that
kind of set the foundation
for this survey was
when she was invited
to document an estate
known as Chatham.
It's located in Fredericksburg,
Virginia, and she was hired
by the woman who owned Chatham
to document it and also to go
around to the region
around Chatham.
And, this is partly what
got her more interested
in capturing these
houses and structures
that were in the area.
So, the fun thing about
the story map here is
that I was able to take these
black and white photographs
that she made and pair them
with another collection
we have of Johnston.
She created hand-colored glass
lantern slides to accompany some
of her black and
white photographs.
So, this immersive feature of
story map lets you pair those
on same screen and kind of
appreciate what color adds
to the photograph, and so forth.
So, she would use these
hand-colored lantern slides
of which we have over 1000
digitized on our website.
She would use these in her
lectures on garden history
and landscape architecture.
So, from here, we move
on to the photographer,
so you heard about here.
And, now you can meet her.
This is Frances Benjamin
Johnston.
So, because we have an
archive of Johnston's work,
we're able to get some behind
the scenes photographs as well.
So, you get a picture of
her posing with her camera.
Some of her, some
quotes I included
in the presentation
give you a feel
for her personality as well.
So, this is about her
laying flat on the floor
at 83 years old to get a perfect
view of a ceiling [laughs].
Because she was doing
this work from age 60
into her 70s and up to 80s.
So, we have a lot of
biographical information
about Johnston on our website,
so I touched on it here
but linked out to more of it.
So, these photographs show you
things like the car she traveled
in as well as what it took
to do this kind of survey.
This took over, well
over a decade to do.
So, she's traveling all
over the south, rural roads,
dirt roads, things like that.
Traveling with large equipment,
often taking 8 by
10 inch negatives.
So, big cameras.
So, this gives you some idea
of what it looks like to set
up a photo in the
field, and then what kind
of photograph results.
And, here, you get, you know,
this is an example on the right
of some of the road conditions
they were dealing with,
and this gentleman
here was her driver
and assistant Holly
Rough [assumed spelling].
He was with her for many years
of this project, and if you go
to her papers and correspondence
in the Manuscript Division here
at the library, excuse me, you
can read more about him and just
about the travels as well.
So, finally, we get
to the photos
which are beautiful photos
scanned at high resolution,
all available on our website.
They have extensive
subject cataloging.
So, thanks to the
Catalogers in the Prints
and Photographs Division,
you can search this collection
not just by tying in the name
of a place or the name
of a town or whatever.
You can actually browse
by types of buildings.
Excuse me.
Details of buildings.
So, if you're interested in iron
work, for example, or fences
or roof lines, that's the way
you can explore the collection.
So, I just really wanted
to expose the value
of those cataloging details.
So, I just look at one of the
eight sections that I featured.
The first one is
domestic dwellings.
So, you get some idea here,
and I find the images of ruins
and abandoned buildings
especially compelling
because they show, you know,
they show some of the urgency
that Johnston was looking,
facing when she was
doing this documentation.
These structures
are falling to ruin.
So, if we move on
through the photos,
and I hate to scroll so fast.
But, we'll get down to the map.
So, the last thing I did was
take the valuable location
information that already
existed with this collection.
So, sometimes, we knew the exact
town the photo was taken in.
Sometimes, just the area.
Sometimes just the county.
But, even with that
amount of information,
I was able to use the map tool
in Story Map to convert it all
to an interactive map.
So, this is a way that
you haven't been able
to easily browse the
collection before.
You can also see, at a glance,
kind of the concentrations
of where Johnston traveled.
She took the most photographs
in Virginia and North Carolina,
and you can see not so
many in Mississippi.
Just a handful.
So, when you hear "Survey of
the South", you get some idea,
but this map actually gives
you a much better idea
of what the collection contains.
So, if I zoom in, this is
a fully interactive map
that links to the collection.
It's mapped primarily
by county and city.
So, if I go to Richmond,
for example, and click,
I can find out that she
took 351 photos there.
You click it, and we go off
to the library's website,
and you can browse
through all 350.
And, you can also,
then, say "Well,
what about nearby Richmond
and the more rural area?"
Well, here's Chesterfield
County which happens
to be where I grew up.
[laughs] So, we can few the
17 photos she took there.
So, this gives you kind
of a new way to move
through the collection.
Kind of imagine the places that
Johnston traveled, the highways
and byways that she was
on more than 80 years ago,
capturing all these photos.
And, I leave you with a
photo of one of the grand
by collapsing estates in
Louisiana that she documented.
And, of course, I'm a
Reference Librarian,
so there are many
resources at the end
about letting you search
the collection yourself,
learn more about it, and details
of all the photos you just saw.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Chris: Hi.
Good afternoon.
We are Chris and
Heather from the Serials
and Government Publications
Division.
We created a story map called
the "Behind Barbed Wire"
to highlight a serialist
collection
that Japanese American
internment camp newspapers
and supplement it with
images from the Prints
and Photographs collection.
So, following the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor,
President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt signed Executive Order
9066 which allowed
the forceful removal
of nearly 120,000 U.S.
citizens and residents
of Japanese descent
from their homes
to federal assembly centers and
then inland internment camps.
So, we provide some context
for the situation
that people are in.
And, this created a
map of the evacuation.
This is the last known permanent
address of approximately 110,000
of the evacuated
Japanese Americans,
using data available from NARA.
The highest concentration of
people are the areas of white,
and the lowest is the
areas that are in blue.
We, then, did a map of
the assembly centers.
These are the locations the
Japanese Americans reported
to before being moved to
permanent internment camps.
If you click on one of the dots,
it provides some information
about the assembly center.
And then, we did the same for
the internment camp locations.
These are where the, they were
evacuated to in inland areas.
So, in the assembly centers
and internment camps,
the residents created newspapers
to create, to keep informed,
relay administrative
information,
and just other tidbits
concerning daily life,
daily camp life.
And, this helped
maintain order of normalcy
in a chaotic situation.
The newspapers contain
English and some Japanese.
They were handwritten and
then were either printed
or mimeographed.
The story maps allowed
us to immerse the user
in the collection, describing
information in an aspect
from the collection and
then illustrating it
with items available online with
links out to the collection.
So, the Japanese American
internment camp newspaper
collection consists
of 32 different titles
and more than 4600 pages.
The news, the pages were
digitized following the same
specifications used for the
library's Chronicling America
website and is full text
to allow greater access
to researchers and users.
So, then, we created a map of
the different newspaper titles.
Clicking on a dot provides
information about the title
or the titles published
in that camp and links
out to the collection.
So, now, Heather's
going to highlight some
of the great content you
can find in this collection.
>> Heather: Okay.
So, uprooted from their lives,
Japanese Americans had to adapt
to the new situation that they
were in, and that meant trying
to maintain some
sort of normalcy.
Communities started to grow
in the internment camps,
and they basically
operated like small town.
And, camp newspapers
kept a small-town feel.
So, when you, they read
like any small newspaper
that you would see in
anywhere in rural America.
So, it's within these newspapers
that we really get a unique
glimpse into the daily lives
of the people who lived in
these camps, and so, now,
I'll just show you a few
examples of the types
of information you
can find in them.
So, for example, sports
served as an escape
from the monotony
of life, camp life.
And, each camp had a
Recreation Department,
and they organized
competitive programs.
Leagues were started for
popular American sports
like baseball, football,
and tennis.
Alongside with traditional
Japanese sports
like judo, karate, and sumo.
So, most, actually, most
of the newspapers had
dedicated sports pages
where you could find sports
scores and coverage of games
and tournaments, and these
are some of those examples.
Other information that you
can find is vital statistics.
People who were living in
these camps, life continued on.
So, people lived and died.
They got married
and had children,
and camp newspapers
published vital statistics
to keep their residents informed
about the people
in their community.
So, in the newspapers, you'll
find who's getting married,
what babies were born,
who's sick in the community,
and who may have died.
And then, on the lighter side,
many of the newspapers
featured comic strips
and editorial cartoons,
and comics served as a form
of cheap entertainment
and relief from camp life.
And, editorial cartoons
were used to express some
of the sentiments found
in the camp communities.
Our story map, then,
wraps up, basically,
with the eventual closing
of the camps in 1946,
and we kind of touch
on some of the issues
that the people faced
once they were allowed
to return to their homes.
And then, at the very end, we
end with a list of resources
which links out to the digital
collection and other Library
of Congress digital
collections, our division page.
And, basically, creating
this story map allowed us
to collaborate across divisions,
like a lot of people
have mentioned.
And, ultimately, we were able
to incorporate and link 60 items
from the library's collection
in just this short story map.
And, also, it not only allowed
us to promote our collection
and the library, but
it also gave us, like,
a very visually creative
way to engage readers
to bring forward the human
stories that are found
in the newspaper pages.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> John Hessler: Well,
I would invite all
of our Story Map presenters
to stand up and turn
around because we have
plenty of time for questions
if there are questions to
them or to any of the people
who ran the program or
participated in the pilot.
We're happy to answer questions.
So, any questions?
>> We have microphones.
>> John Hessler: All right.
Well, Andrew.
>> I just have a question about,
I think there was some talk
about that the status of this
as a tool that other parts
of the library can use.
What, how, if we're
interested in this,
what's the future of this?
It looks really exciting.
>> Well, I'm glad you're exited
because we are extremely
excited.
I think if anything, I think all
of the pilot participants
are excited
to get rid of me, personally.
So, as you, you asked,
and I will continue.
The tools are available right
now to all the library staff.
So, you could get a count,
and you see we've talked
about our good OCIO
technician and good buddy
of the story maps, Mike Bijou.
You can send an email
to gag@loc.gov,
and you can get an account now.
Todd had mentioned earlier
that it was a little bit
like using PowerPoint, but
the learning curve isn't that.
Oh, I'm sorry.
The learning curve
isn't that hard.
Now, where the next
question comes.
A lot of this hard work that
was done for the story map was
because it was a pilot project,
and we wanted to have a proof
of concept of how
this would work,
how we could support
data visualization,
the digital humanities,
how we can get the word
out about our collections.
So, the next phase will be to
review some of the story maps
that came out of
the pilot project,
and we hope the final
phase will be to be able
to publish them online.
So, when I say online,
I don't mean in a blog,
although we talked about that
in Story Maps earlier today.
But, I'm actually saying
out on the worldwide web
because this is an actual
cloud based program.
So, the reach of the web would
be the ability to pick this
up in a Google search or
another other search engines.
There are tags built
in behind the scenes
into these, into the templates.
So, you know, we are working
with the web governments board
and other folks in the
library to make sure
that we're incorporating
those things that need
to be incorporated so that
we can make this successful.
>> Question.
>> Thanks.
I guess to continue on that
question about clearing for,
like, public-facing website to
our public-facing documents.
It's a little bit different
than a normal document
we might publish
that might just be static.
Are there any little
challenges about someone
that might be clearing it that
needs to understand how some
of the public might use it or
view it that you should be,
you should consider when
you're developing it?
>> John Hessler: Well,
everything that is
in these currently is
publicly available.
We were very careful with the
pilot project to select projects
and items that are available
on the library's website.
And, anything on the library's
website can be used free access
and free use.
So, there is no restrictions
there.
Obviously, once we
get down to the point
where we begin publishing these
on a regular basis internally
in the divisions,
there will have
to be an internal
division review process
where the division decides
whether it's capable
of sending this thing out.
And so, from those constraints,
this is where the
pilot project is.
We're very careful
with the pilot project
in order to keep it that way.
This is a cloud based system,
so this is outside the
library's firewall.
In other words, these accounts
aren't hosted by the library.
Everything is outside.
So, those people who
work in the library
and who get accounts can
work on these outside
of our firewall at
home, wherever.
They're accessible
from wherever.
So, it is outside
of the library's basic
security program.
So. So, we have to be careful.
>> Hi. Behind each of those maps
that you made was some data,
a dataset, and I was wondering.
Many of you referenced, sort of,
the work that was
involved in doing that.
I was wondering if you'd be
willing to share a little bit
about what you learned
in that work.
As, I think, Stephanie called
it wrestling it to the ground.
>> Well, Stephanie
had 5000 data points,
so I think we should
start with Stephanie.
I think she is our
A plus student on.
>> John Hessler: Wrestling.
>> Stephanie Stillo: Little
did you know [inaudible].
So, oh. Thank you.
So, I got the data from the
incunabula short title catalog.
So, we requested all the Library
of Congress information for all
of our 15th century books.
So, we, so we reached out.
And, I got incredibly
messy data from them.
I mean, it was horrifying.
I mean, it was there,
but it was horrifying.
And so, this took, this
was a huge part of this.
I know that it's just like a
small part of the story map,
but I mean, this took me a fair
amount of time just to be able
to get it to the point
that I could sort
of upload it into the map.
And so, the idea, eventually,
is to be able to have pop ups
that will facilitate you
being able to link back
to the ISDC data, to
be able to look at,
you know, each individual item.
But, right now, it's still
even a bare bones map.
When you click on
those data points,
really what you're looking at,
at this point, is just a city
and a date at this point.
So, again, it's, because
there's so much data clean
up that happens with
these large sets,
I think that you don't really.
You know, I spent a fair amount
of time with just open refine
and just digging in and
seeing what I could do.
You know, and in the end,
there were some limitations.
Now, I think eventually, you
know, we can expand on this.
But, it, you know, it's
that, it's eventually.
It takes time for
5000 data points.
So.
>> John Hessler: One of the
powers of the story map is the,
it gives you access to ESRI's
geocoding, and so, you have,
for each of the story maps, you
have batches of 1000 addresses.
So, if you don't have
latitudes and longitudes,
if you just have approximate
addresses or counties,
you can auto geocode from
just a regular database file
and produce those.
So, it shortcuts some of that.
But, again, you have
to clean that up.
Sometimes, you get data
that isn't exactly perfect,
but you do have 1000
shots each time.
So, it does shortcut
things a little bit.
>> Just got a quick,
two quick questions.
I'm curious if there's
any ability
to print what you're
seeing here displayed,
and if you've had any
exploration on that.
And, also, the second
question is I was wondering
if you guys went through
any 508 compliance.
>> [inaudible] Tim.
Tim, why don't you?
You get to address the 508 one.
So, this is Tim St. Onge.
He's in the, he's in the
GNM, and the reason I'm going
to have him address
it, he did, actually,
a lot of work with
508 compliance.
And, I'm going to say
this before we get
to Tim is the reason you saw,
you saw Owen showing
different templates,
but he specifically mentioned
two that we were using,
that's particularly
why we're using two.
So, Tim.
>> Tim St. Onge: Right.
So, we've done a lot of
ground work, a lot of leg work
in shoring up the 508
accessibility of this platform.
So, I know we've talked to
ESRI many different times
about what they're
doing for 508 as far
as the technical
structures of things.
And, we know that
they're constantly working
on improvements for making
things more 508 accessible
including, as we've just
learned, coming up very soon,
an alt text edition to a
number of the map template,
of the map templates, including
Cascade which we saw today.
We went around to a bunch of
different federal agencies
and talked about how
they're dealing with 508,
whether it's things within the
actual building of the story map
on their platform that
makes things more accessible
for people.
So, we basically looked at a lot
of different stands
across the agencies.
We talked with Zohair
Mahmoud here at the library
to have him go through
and experience looking
at a story map with
a screen reader.
And, sort of getting his
sense of how difficult it is,
where there's strengths
and weaknesses,
and where we can go back to ESRI
and talk about where, perhaps,
reading through text on a
Cascade story map is easy,
but dealing with map data
and getting into feature
by feature information.
That might be a little
more difficult.
And so, we need to work
through work arounds on our side
of how we develop these
things, and on the other as far
as what ESRI will be providing
as far as their regular updates.
>> John Hessler: Yeah, and
one of the flexibilities
of the ESRI platform,
as I heard this morning,
was that it's openly available.
So, our star developer,
Mike Bijou over there
wrote many lines
of code moving it towards
what the library thought 508
compliance would be, and sort
of stretching the
platform a little bit.
So, it is something
that we're worried about
and have been working on.
So.
>> So, I don't want to
dismiss your first question
because that question
came up a lot
when we were doing
our overview sessions
of what story maps
were and how we were.
Before we kicked off
the pilot project,
how we were engaging the library
services, collection services,
and the law library into
becoming part of the pilot.
This is not really
meant to be a print out.
It's a digital humanities.
It's a data visualization.
You can do screenshots, surely,
but it's a snapshot in time.
This is not, so, unlike
PowerPoint, this is not meant
for you to have the little
screenshots and bring with you.
This is actually meant
to be experienced online.
So, surely, yes, you can make
prints up, but it's not made
to because if you see all
the interactivity of some
of the maps, you're going
to lose that functionality
when you print it
out in one dimension.
So, I did, I wanted to
make sure I answered
that question for you.
>> So, I, one of the
things I've worked on here
at the library is
called "Today in History"
which was maybe an older
version of trying to expose
or tie a narrative
to the library's
individual library items.
And so, I was just wondering,
I feel like I saw two models
emerge, and one was more
like what I might
think was an exhibit.
And, one was more like what I
might think of as a resource.
But, I just wondered if anyone
who did this work right now,
if the process had you thinking
about your library items
in a different way
than you had before?
>> So, Guha's shaking
his head, so why don't?
>> Guha Shankar: Well, I
might answer that a little bit
at an angle from where the
question's coming from, Susan.
What I find, what I find best
about this particular
approach is that, as I said,
the context and the texture.
So that, what we have in the
Civilized History Project,
for instance, which is only,
not only, but 109 interviews.
They're all long form
interviews, and you have
to scroll through several tabs
to do something called
related items.
And, the related item
has a very direct bearing
on that particular
interview which you can't get
to in our standard way in which
we present collections materials
in the P1 template.
And, it's got great advantages,
but that's a distinct
disadvantage for me
because every one of these
folks presented items,
way in which items from across
the library can be brought
together and not just thought
about relationship
in an abstract sense.
But, in a very real sense in
that it's right in front of you.
You have a map.
You have a photograph.
You have graphic material.
You have narrative, and you
have an interview, in my case.
And, that can be done in ways
which, the platform leverages it
in ways which are
very different.
And, I think what it does is it
bring home to me the relatedness
of all those materials
across different domains
and different collecting
divisions.
I don't know if that's
a response [inaudible].
>> Anybody else?
Anybody?
>> Kristi Finefield: I
would say that in general,
with not so many
exceptions, maybe thinking
about portraiture photography
as being less that way.
Almost every photograph has
a place associated with it.
It was taken in a
place, documents a place.
So, the idea of combining
photographs with place
in the form of maps
is, of course, I feel,
relevant to many parts of
Prints and Photographs Division.
So, I hope to see it.
I just wanted to try it
with a relatively small
collection before we tackle
bigger ones, but I think it's
coming a long way that you want
to be able to search
photograph collections
by their place as well.
>> John Hessler: Yeah, and
I think part of the tool,
the whole point of its
flexibility is to try
and get curators,
librarians, reference staff.
You notice it just
wasn't curators.
We had reference librarians
and a whole mix of people
to reimagine the collections in
relation to other collections
in the library and to decide
what pedagogical outcome.
When someone looks
at an online scan,
sometimes they just
look at a picture.
But, in this case, one can
actually take the collection
and decide what pedagogical
outcome,
what story does this tell
about what history is,
what the humanities are.
What am I trying to draw out?
I think Guha, when he
showed that video showed
that he had an opinion of
what he was trying to draw
out of this collection, and I
think that's the strength of it.
>> Guha Shankar:
I would also say
that I think probably our
curators in the Prints
and Photographs Division can
answer and Todd could talk
about this from our
own collections,
increasingly born digital
objects come with GIS,
geopositioning and geolocation
data embedded into the actual,
you know, metadata that
comes with our collections.
And, I think that library
needs to get ahead of its,
get ahead of the game and try to
figure out how to leverage that.
And the creative ways
that all my colleagues
and friends here have done.
I think it really opens
up the possibility
for how we expose
our collections
and use different ways and
different methodologies.
I think whoever it was that
said that 21st century tool
for 21st century library.
I think that couldn't
be more apt.
>> So, I wanted to add one more
thing, and I think I'm going
to pick on poor Stephanie
because she did it so well.
You know, she said, "Why
do you care incunables?
Why?" You know, and
when you're in a room
and you're displaying these
items and you can talk one
on one with people, you can kind
of explain exactly what
Stephanie talked about,
the importance of it.
You know, how it started, where
it came from and all that.
When you're in, when you're
basically not facing the
audience anymore, you've got
to think of a way to engage
that audience without
being able to talk to them.
And, I think it is so powerful
that this tool allows you
to talk in different
ways to an audience
that you have never talked to
before and allows you to say,
"Come and see our collection."
I think one of the things I said
to Micah when he was practicing,
I said, "You're inviting us in."
I think all of the
presenters are inviting us
into their collection.
I could be sitting in my home,
but I feel like I'm invited
into the collections
through the way
that they're using this tool.
So, I think that's where
the leap for me was.
You know, you see a lot of
different things out there,
but this is kind of a
way to rethink, reshape,
and basically engage
with an audience
that we never had before.
>> Yeah, I had a question
on the legacy planning
for this kind of thing.
If this was implemented,
how would that?
You said it's hosted on the
cloud, so that's outside
of the library domain, or is
it the library having something
hosting outside of
the cloud now?
And, if something goes wrong,
can we pull back in-house
and still show the same thing?
>> John Hessler:
Nothing ever goes wrong
in the ESRI cloud, Ben.
It just doesn't ever happen.
>> Just [inaudible] 21st century
library, 21st century tools
for a 21st century library,
we're now reaching outside
of the library [inaudible].
>> John Hessler: Right.
>> What is that?
>> John Hessler: Well, I think
reaching outside the library is
necessary in a lot
of ways in order
to engage a broader audience
and to give curators tools
from the ground up
as opposed to the top
down which is typically the
way the library has presented
its materials.
This allows a curator
very quickly to say, "Wow,
we just got this collection in.
If I have to figure out a way
to put this in an exhibit,
it's going to take me
ten years or never.
I can do this right now during
the cataloging process."
During that kind of process.
These are not meant in any
way to be permanent records.
They're meant to be ephemeral
things that people will create
in order to attract
people to a collection.
We don't have a plan to archive
these in any profound way
or anything like that.
This is just a way to express
a momentary, a momentary thing.
ESRI, you know, had
invested a great deal
in the Story Map platform,
as you've all see,
both this morning.
It's not going away anytime
soon, but if you think
that you want to create an
exhibit or a presentation
that will last 100 years, well,
this is not the platform
for you.
It's time to start
grant writing and move
in some other direction.
So.
>> But, I think we don't
want to lose the point is
that the collections are
still our collections.
It's just, it's the container.
So, if you think about it this
way, it's just the container
that you're using
to do the story map,
and it is proprietary, so
it is going to be managed
and maintained by ESRI.
However, those collections
that you're pointing
to are still there, and
I think one of the things
that all the participants
learned
when we first started doing
this pilot project is we talked
about things like
storyboarding or wire framing,
depending on your background,
if you're in the web world.
You know, this is
a good way for you
to start approaching your
collection, and so that,
that lessons learned in
those ability to approach
that collection through
those kind of tools.
Those aren't going to go away,
so that collection is still
yours and still available
to be repurposed and put
to a different audience.
It's just the container
that will not last forever.
>> Just a really quick question.
I was wondering if there
were any costs involved
in getting a Story Map account.
>> No, no, no.
How about that.
>> Good answer.
>> And, no.
And, again, that's probably
something we should have said
up front.
We have an enterprise license to
ESRI software that is being used
in both the Congress
and [inaudible]
as well as the library.
So, see Mike over there.
He's, I think, two
down from you.
Just go say hi to Mike.
Tell him you want an account.
You can have one as
soon as tomorrow.
So, there is no cost associated.
There is no cost that we're
getting leveraged against.
I know some of you
may have come out of,
we'll call it the
cataloging or metadata field,
which ever you prefer.
Where you used to get charged
every time you were online,
and you would save pennies if
you did all the stuff offline.
And, you know, you
wanted to be, you know,
you wanted to be curious, but
you wanted to also be cautious.
That's not the case here,
so please use the tool.
Explore it.
Get to know it, and once you
do get an account, we are happy
to send you some of the
resources that we used
for the Story Map pilot to get
you up and running and started.
And, I think I would,
at this point,
I'll ask any of the
folks in the.
>> Tim St. Onge: One
more thing on there.
ghc@loc.gov is the email
address for library employees.
If you email ghc@loc.gov,
that's how you can get
RGS online accounts,
and you can start
playing with the tool.
>> So, I was just going to,
sense that was a great question,
by the way, so I think
before I leave that question,
I'm going to ask anybody on the,
in the Story Map pilot
participants if they want
to kind of talk a little bit
about their experience getting
up to speed on story maps.
We don't have to go through
the 5000 data points,
but just using the tool itself.
Micah, you want to?
Or Heather?
>> Heather: Okay.
I was just going to say
that I found this to be,
it's actually very fun
to create a story map.
It's very easy to use.
It's literally just
uploading a file
from your computer
most of the time.
And, it does all
the work for you.
So, you don't have to, I think
someone already said you don't
have to be an expert.
You don't have to be a
coder or anything like that.
It's very easy to compile,
and it's like a creative,
fun project to work on.
>> Micah Messenheimer: Yeah.
And, I would add
it's very intuitive
to use once you know the
limitations of the software,
and there are some limitations.
But, they're, you know, things
you work thorough very quickly,
and you know, I think
it's, the visual abilities
of it are something that
are really worth exploring.
>> Francisco?
>> Francisco Macias: Sure.
Well, I guess one of the things
that was really appealing to me,
oftentimes, you find
that throughout the
library, you have curators.
I'm not a curator, but I think
with this, I was able to feel
like I was able to give a
voice to a collection that,
and make it my own
to some extent,
still within the confines
of the institution.
But, I think many of us
who work in the library,
oftentimes we think, "Well,
why don't they do an
exhibition on this?"
So, I think this is
an opportunity for you
to find something and
carve out your little space
and bring the collections
to life.
>> Anybody else?
Any other questions?
>> Francisco Macias: A quick
thank you to Paulette, Tim,
Mike, and John because they
have been really, really great.
>> And Jackie.
>> Francisco Macias: Oh,
I'm sorry, and Jackie.
Yes, Jackie.
I'm sorry.
I'm kind of forgetful here.
But, they have been really,
really supportive
throughout this.
I was very new at this, and
I was a little intimidated,
but it was a wonderful
experience thanks
to these fine folks.
So, thank you.
>> John Hessler: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
And, I would just, if there's
any last questions, or are we?
Well, I would invite
everyone who's interested,
there is an open house down in
G and M. I think they've put
out some treasures, people
want to see some maps.
Otherwise, I want to thank you
all for coming, and big round
of applause for our
story mappers.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.