Final Project Update: Lab Assignment (Week 8)

Progress

Our first step that we have (mostly) completed is creating a spreadsheet that contains metadata and IIIF images of 150 photographs of student life in the Carleton Archives. We still need to include the local identifiers for the images, and we are considering gathering more information for the rest of the photographs tagged “Student Activities” in the Stork Photograph Collection. 

We met with Tom Lamb from Archives & Special Collections to get a better understanding of where we can find primary and secondary sources that complement the archive photograph collection. He directed us to The Carletonian collection, The Voice collection, and The Algol Yearbook collection. With his help, we have found newspaper articles that contextualize freshmen hazing events like “Bouncing Day”, May Fete, and the ties Carleton has with the KKK.

Problems

We’ve run into a lot of issues with exporting our ArcGIS map into a story map through the website, as we are consistently running into error messages. Because of this, we have struggled to format all of our data into a digestible format that displays all of the pictures individually. One of the main buildings that was represented in our data (Gridley Hall) also does not exist anymore, so we have run into the issue that our 2025 map does not showcase the same information that exists in our data. We addressed this problem by locating where the original location was and placed our data there for the time being. 

Tools and techniques

We started by sharing a group google spreadsheet so we could all input our data and organize it. Our main tool is ArcGIS where this data is imported to create our map. We also had to use outside sources like Google Maps to find the coordinates of each location on the map so it could be assigned correctly. We then tried to use the story maps tool on ArcGIS which has not worked yet but we are planning on it being a main component for our project. However, outside of that program we also visited the archives and did research on different events that the photographs cover. The Carletonian archives, Alumni Stories, and old yearbooks were all consulted to find information. 

Deliverables

We are almost on track with our previous timeline of deliverables of having our spreadsheet complete and data processed into ArcGIS by the end of week eight. However, we have been unable to import the map layer into ArcGIS’s story map feature. We have emailed about getting support with that so that we can continue keeping up with our deliverables for week nine of revising our map stylistically and organizing its information to be both easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. We will continue meeting outside of class throughout the week to stay accountable and work together. We will also explore our sources to contextualize our web map and create our final presentation for the class.

Personal Message 

Trixie: I have transferred data for 50 images into the spreadsheet. I am willing to continue transferring data for the rest of the digital collection. Once all of the images are put into the spreadsheet, we will categorize the images by the type of student activity it depicts, like May Fete, Homecoming, etc. We will then split up the categories amongst ourselves, and we will use the sources that we have gathered to write a paragraph or two that contextualizes these different student activities. Most of our responsibilities are shared, so we have all worked together to create the blog/lab posts associated with the final, and we will work together to create the map once we figure out how to utilize a timeline feature in ArcGIS.

Mya: I have transferred data for 50 images into the spreadsheet. I have experimented with the storyboard method on ArcGIS extensively, and while it does not work yet, I plan to continue trying and finding other solutions if necessary. I also looked into the Carleton Archives to search for specific Carletonian articles and how they may relate to our images. Almost all of the work for our group has been done collaboratively, but moving forward we hope to be able to divide up the work more individually so that we can get work done more efficiently. Once our map is set, we aim to all categorize the data we have and organize it through color. The articles we have researched will then be coupled with the categories to say something about the data. We also want to use the timeline feature to dictate the student life at Carleton overtime.

Sylvie: This week, I met with my team outside of class to work on drafting our project proposal, team charter, source documentation blog post, and final project update lab post. For our sources, I transferred data from 50 Carleton Archives images along with converting them to a IIIF URL into our google spreadsheet. I also met with my group and Tom Lamb to discuss sources related to the archives. For next week, I plan on exploring the sources from the Carletonian to better contextualize our web map and be more prepared for our final presentation.