Civil War Program and Exhibit at Ball State University Libraries

Frank A. Bracken Civil War Collection Presentation at Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University community is invited to attend the opening of the Frank A. Bracken U.S. Civil War Collection on Monday, December 1 in Bracken Library.  A reception will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Digital Complex on the first floor of the library.  A tour of the exhibit will follow on the second floor in Archives and Special Collection.

A Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library program will be presented at 6:30 p.m. in Room 104 of the library.  Nicole Etcheson, Alexander M. Bracken Professor of History, will present “The Goodly Land of Hoosier: How the Civil War Changed Indiana.”  Etcheson is the author of Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era, A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community, and many other history books and journal articles.

The Frank A. Bracken U.S. Civil War Collection is comprised of a vast assortment of Civil War artifacts donated by Bracken, a former trustee with deep family ties to the University.  It focuses on battlefield preservation and showcases artifacts, photographs, weapons, maps, re-enactment uniforms, personal papers, and more than 300 academic and rare books about the War and President Abraham Lincoln.

The exhibit will be displayed on the second floor of Bracken Library outside the Archives and Special Collections through January 31, 2015.  To see the materials from the exhibit online, visit the University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository.

For more information about the exhibit or the program, contact John Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, at 765-285-5078.

Mapping Thanksgiving Dinner

Geography of Thanksgiving: Mapping What’s for Dinner

The leading GIS software producer, ESRI, has created a story map showing the locations of where the staples of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner are produced in the United States.  (Click on the dinner plate to see the different maps).  The four individual maps detail the locations of turkey production and where sweet potatoes, green beans, and cranberries are grown.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2007 data), Minnesota is the leader in raising live turkeys with 46.5 million birds.  The total number for the entire United States is 248 million.

Wisconsin produces the most green beans with 258,320 tons and is also the highest producer of cranberries with 430 million pounds.  North Carolina produces the most sweet potatoes with 972 million pounds.

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library includes a 28-station computer lab featuring the full suite of ESRI software for teaching, research, and learning.  For more information about using GIS software, please contact Angela Gibson, GIS Specialist, in the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Ball State University Immersive Learning Project Showcase

Save the Date:  Ball State University Freedom Bus Immersive Learning Project Showcase

The Freedom Bus project began when the Muncie Indiana Transit System (MITS) provided the Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream Team with a retired bus to transform into a mobile civil rights museum.  The mission of the project is to educate and celebrate the civil rights history of East Central Indiana.  The bus is now moving into the next phase of its journey.

The Freedom Bus was given to a group of Ball State University students for an immersive learning project for the fall semester.  The students were responsible for researching the civil rights history of East Central Indiana and creating, building, and installing exhibit prototypes within the bus.  This showcase will allow the community to examine the prototypes and learn about the students’ work.

The Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, the City of Muncie, the Muncie Human Rights Commission, and the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies are sponsoring the showcase at the Muncie Boys and Girls Club (1710 South Madison Street) on December 4.  Bus tours will be presented from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, and the presentation runs from 8:00 to 9:00 pm.

For more information about the showcase, please contact the Virginia Ball Center at 765-285-0117 or email the Center.  To attend, please RSVP before November 26.

Ball State University Libraries GIS Day Events

GIS Day Mapping Workshops at Ball State University Libraries

Next week is Geography Awareness Week, and Wednesday, November 19 is National GIS Day.  The Ball State University Libraries and the Ball State University GIS Knowledge Group are hosting GIS mapping workshops to mark the occasion.

The workshops will be held in the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library (BL 224).  The workshops are open to students, faculty, and staff, and all levels of GIS knowledge—from beginning to advanced—are welcome. 

ArcGIS Online mapping workshop will be from 11:00 to 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday.  Angela Gibson, Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Specialist, will explain the mapping features and how to access them.  Attendees will learn to set up a BSU ArcGIS Online account or class group; add and search for content; use analysis tools; and discover available apps like Business Analyst Online, ArcGIS Pro, or Community Analyst.

Joel Bump, Data Systems manager and Developer for the State of Indiana, will present ArcPad Basics from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. in the GRMC.  This high-level demonstration explains using ArcPad for field inventory.  This class will define an item users can inventory; explain setting up a data file and related form; setting up a basic map for ArcPad; and detail collecting data points and using the data in ArcMap.

Bump will present Advanced ArcPad from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.  This workshop will be more interactive with participants discussing topics and asking questions about alternative data sources, the integration of photographs or related tables, or the use of various hardware options.

For more information about GIS Day, please contact Angela Gibson in the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Native American Heritage Maps Class at Cornerstone Center for the Arts

Celebrating Native American Heritage with Maps

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will be presenting a class for the community to commemorate Native American Heritage Month.  The class will be held at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts in the second-floor Founders Room on Tuesday, November 11 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The presentation, Native American Heritage Month:  A Celebration in Maps, will feature maps detailing the history of Native Americans near Muncie, around present-day Indiana, and the United States.  The maps cover topics like the shrinking range of the buffalo, Lenape villages on the White River, and Native American resistance and feature prominent Native Americans like Tecumseh, Sitting Bull, and Sarah Winnemucca.

The Cornerstone Center for the Arts is located at 520 East Main Street in downtown Muncie.  The class is free and open to the public, and free parking is available. 

For more information about the class, visit the Cornerstone Web page or call Carly Acree King, Director of Education and Communication, at 765-281-9503.  Contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Wall Street Journal Cartography Article

The Elvis Atlas: A Journey through Elvis Presley's America, Atlas Collection, Ball State University Libraries

The Wall Street Journal this week featured an article about using paper maps in the digital era, including one showing Elvis' hometown.

Indiana Political History Map Available from Ball State University Libraries

Indiana Election Day Cartography:  Whigs, Willkie, and the White House

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) features a special “Map of the Month” for November 2014—a map of Indiana political history (above, click to enlarge).  The map, Whigs, Willkie, and the White House, was created by the GRMC and features the people and places of note in Indiana’s rich political history.  Many of the figures and events in Indiana politics also had national prominence and implications.

The map includes photographs from the Libraries’ Digital Media Repository and the Indiana Historical Society.

A copy of the map is available for use in research and learning from the Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar online repository.  The map may be printed for use in the classroom or other educational and research purposes.

The map exhibit is featured in the front windows of the GRMC on the second floor of Bracken Library. 

Native American Heritage Month Map Exhibit at Ball State University Libraries

Indiana History:  Native American Heritage Month Map Exhibit

November commemorates Native American Heritage Month.  Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library is celebrating the month with a special exhibit.

The Native American Heritage Month exhibit (above, click to enlarge) this year includes maps depicting the history of Native Americans in the area of modern-day Indiana.  Indiana’s Native American Tribes is a map showing the Native American groups that lived in area prior to statehood, including the Lenape (Delaware), the Miami, the Potawatomi, and the Shawnee.

A second map, Tecumseh’s War 1811, is from the Historical Atlas of Native Americans by Ian Barnes published in 2009 and available from the GRMC and the Atlas Collection.  The map shows the locations of Native American villages in the region, including Prophetstown.  This site on the Wabash River is where William Henry Harrison fought the Native Americans in the Battle of Tippecanoe.  The map also identifies the locations of American and British forts, Zane’s Trace, towns, and the probably birthplace of Tecumseh and the site of Tecumseh’s father’s death.

The map, Native American Resistance 1785-1842, identifies areas ceded by the Native Americans, Native American settlements, forts, and battle sites.  Northwest Territories 1800-1818 shows the borders of the original Indiana Territory and the subsequent Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan Territories.  Both of these maps and the photographs of Sitting Bull and other prominent figures are from the Historical Atlas of Native Americans.

Another map in the exhibit shows the location of Native American villages along the White River in Indiana.  Current county lines and towns are shown on the map as points of reference. 

A copy of the exhibit poster is available for use from the Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar repository.  Previous map exhibits are also available from the online repository for use in the classroom or research.

The GRMC has also created cartographic subject guides to assist researchers using geographic materials related to numerous academic fields, and a guide to Native American resources is available from the GRMC Web page.  The guide includes maps and other cartographic resources available from the GRMC and the Atlas Collection in Bracken Library.

For more information about these cartographic resources, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.