World War I Resources Available from Ball State University Libraries

Exhibit Marks Centennial Anniversary of “The War to End All Wars”

Monday, July 28 marks the centennial anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, mistakenly believed to be “The War to End All Wars.”  Ball State University Libraries has created a special exhibit to commemorate this epic event.

Visitors to Bracken Library can view a variety of resources about World War I in the lobby just outside the Schwartz Complex.  Books—nonfiction and fiction—about the war are displayed, including Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants and a book about the “Buffalo” division of Black soldiers fighting in the war.  DVD movies like “War Horse,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and “Sergeant York” are also exhibited and available from the Educational Resources Collections.

The GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created a poster (top above—click to enlarge) commemorating the centennial using maps and photographs from youth books in the Educational Resources Collections.  The maps show Europe before the war, the Western Front, the Eastern Front, and Europe after the war.  The poster is available for educational use from the Cardinal Scholar institutional repository and exhibited in the windows of the GRMC on the second floor of Bracken Library.

The GRMC also includes many maps and atlases depicting the events of World War I.  An original map published in 1918—The Literary Digest Liberty Map of the Western Front of the Great World War--details some of the battle lines and includes maps of the war areas showing Russian, Italian, Balkan, Palestine, and Mesopotamian campaigns and the zones of submarine blockades.

The Ball State University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository (DMR) includes several collections of resources related to the First World War, including photographs of soldiers and parades, letters, and original postcards (from the Archives and Special Collections).  The DMR also includes more than 2,000 World War I posters (above) from the Elisabeth Ball Collection from Italy, France, Belgium, England, Australia, Germany, the United States, and other countries.

The Archives and Special Collections also includes a map published by the Hungarian Geograph Institute in Budapest in 1919 showing the population by ethnicity, nationality, age, and language.  The text of the map is written in Hungarian, German, French, and English.  The map is believed to have been used for planning the division of countries and the peace agreement at the Treaty of Trianon at the end of World War I.

For more information about the Digital Media Repository or Cardinal Scholar, please contact the Archives and Special Collections at 765-285-5078.

John Dillinger Map Available from Ball State University Libraries

Public Enemies: Robberies of the John Dillinger Gang Map

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created a map about the life of 1930’s gangster John Dillinger in 2009 to correspond with the release of the Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies.  The map and movie are based on a book by Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.

Dillinger became known as America’s first “Public Enemy Number One” by the newly-formed Federal Bureau of Investigation following robberies across Indiana and the Midwest.  The map shows the location of robberies in bright yellow with other places of interest in gray—like Dillinger’s hometown and the Chicago theater where Dillinger was killed on this day (July 22) 80 years ago in 1934.

The map is available in PDF-format from the Ball State University Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar.  Two copies of the map are available for circulation from the GRMC on the second floor of Bracken Library.  (Maps circulate for two weeks or longer).

For more information about this map, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Map of Ukraine Airspace

Maps in the News:  Ukraine Airspace Map

From The Washington Post:  Real-time data from aviation reveals that many airlines are currently routing flights around the airspace of Ukraine.

Google Smarty Pins Online Game

Are You Smarter than a Geography Major?  Google Launches Online Trivia Game

Need to test your map skills?  Google has created an online geography quiz game using its Google Maps called Smarty Pins. 

Players are assigned 1,000 “miles,” which really serve as points.  Categories for the questions are arts and culture, science and geography, sports and games, entertainment, history and current events, and featured topics—which included sub-categories of March Madness and World Cup trivia.

Google asks trivia questions about a city, country, landmark, or other location, and players must drop the pin on the correct spot on the map.  (The game positions itself in the early questions in the region of the correct location and offers clues).  If players put the pin in the correct spot quickly, bonus miles are given.  But if a player guesses incorrectly, Google subtracts how many miles off from the correct spot using the total “miles.”

Encouragement is given:  “Even Columbus took a few years to find the right way.”  “Not bad!  Are your initials G.P.S.?”  But sometimes Google mocks answers:  “Maybe next time you don’t randomly throw a dart at your screen?”  “Wow!  Did you Google that?”  (See above images--click to enlarge)  When the miles are gone, the game ends but levels of badges are awarded.

Maps of Gaza Strip Available from Ball State University Libraries

Maps in the News:  The Gaza Strip

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research & Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library houses over 140,000 maps that can be used for research and learning.  Many of the maps can be used to interpret current events.  For example, the GRMC includes a variety of maps of the Gaza Strip.

The current “Maps in the News” exhibit in the windows of the GRMC features an aerial photograph of the Gaza Strip from 2005 (above, click to enlarge).  This view of the area identifies Israeli-developed areas, the Oslo-defined settlement zones and security perimeter, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees camps, Palestinian-populated areas, border crossings, and roads.

The GRMC also includes maps of the Gaza Strip produced by the Central Intelligence Agency and nautical charts of the Mediterranean area.  Maps of Israeli settlements in Gaza available from the GRMC date back to 1980.

The Atlas Collection, also located on the east side of the second floor of Bracken Library, includes an atlas called The Gaza Strip and West Bank: A Map Folio.  This atlas features maps showing natural resources, economic activity and land use, selected water resources, Israeli-controlled land, transportation routes and other maps.

An Atlas of Palestine: The West Bank and Gaza is also available from the Atlas Collection. This atlas includes maps depicting the history of the region, socioeconomic conditions, water resources, land use, and main Palestinian cities from the past and present. The map above from the atlas shows safe passage routes between the West Bank and Gaza and an inset map of Palestine before 1948.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer. Atlases circulate for 28 days or longer.

For more information about these maps, please contact the GRMC Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 765-285-1097.

Shark Attacks Map Available from Ball State University Libraries

Tigers, Bulls, and Great Whites:  Shark Attacks Map

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) presents a unique map exhibit for its “Map of the Month” exhibit in the windows on the second floor of Bracken Library.  The “Map of the Month” for July 2014 is Shark Attacks of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico (portion above, click to enlarge).

This map was published by Sealake Products in 2006.  The map includes descriptive and historical notes about shark attacks of the last century along the eastern coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico.  The types of sharks are shown for each incident with a date, and the map includes photographs of the sharks and actual-size examples of shark teeth.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer.  For more information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Iraqi Young Leaders Visit Ball State University

Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Scholars view a map of Iraq in the "Maps in the News" exhibit in the Ball State University Libraries' GIS Research and Map Collection in Bracken Library.  The group is visiting Ball State University from Iraq for a month to learn about social entrepreneurship attending workshops and civic meetings.

Ball State University Libraries' GIS Research and Map Collection Holiday Hours

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library will be closed on Friday, July 4 for Independence Day.  The GRMC will reopen on Monday, July 7 at 7:30 am.