Sho’ah’s (שואה) Lasting Impact: Mapping Jewish Migration

Sho’ah’s (שואה) Lasting Impact: Mapping Jewish Migration: http://gis.uta.edu/maus/

As we did last year with Mapping the Afghan Population in the US ( see background), the Information Literacy Librarian and I teamed up to create a project that will integrate numeric and spatial resources into the freshman English Composition courses.

All sections of Freshman Composition I (app. 60) are reading Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman. As of this moment, 17 sections have signed up to bring their class in to use the interactive map we designed. This is a whole lot of students who will get exposed to detailed aspects of GIS and geography. I love it.

The Lesson: GIS & Information Literacy
The lesson, from which we hope to publish results, is measuring the ability of interactive GIS and multimedia to enhance students' ability to select a research topic/question. The students first read a bio from Holocaust survivor Madeline Deutsch and write a research topic. Then, we add two additional immersive layers of information. First we play a brief multimedia clip of Madeline describing her ordeal and its aftermath. Second, we lead them through an exercise where they explore Madeline's life before, during, and after the war using the interactive map we created.

We met with the first two classes this morning and our impression is that it was very successful. The instructor agreed and seemed very enthusiastic, which is always a good thing.

Other Uses?
Of course. I am currently working with numerous faculty on campus who teach or whose research interests include WW II or the Holocaust. However, it was the certainty of exposing so many freshman to these types of resources that made this project one of our highest priorities last summer. Perhaps researchers and/or educators outside of our fair university may have a use as well.

Data Sources
Jewish population figures were gathered from the American Jewish Society Yearbook. Big thanks to Texas Christian University Library for loaning them to us. The map features were gathered from historical maps available from the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Historical world shapefiles provided by ThinkQuest.org.

What's Under the Hood?
Technically, the GIS data is stored in an SDE database (Oracle) and is being published as a web service via ArcIMS. Using ASP.NET and the Google Maps API, we integrate the ArcIMS layers with Google Maps and voila...

(Same thanks as last year.)

Updates from the interface used last year with Mapping the Afghan Population:

1. Drop-down menu for all features selected to activate individual pins
2. Integrate HTML markup into Google info-windows
   
3. 'Loading' animation during ASP.NET postback
4. Restructured XML database to speed server-side processing
5. Added ability to zoom to a particular X,Y,Zoom level when a particular background map is selected

Ouch: ArcIMS 9.1 & ArcGIS Desktop 9.2

What a day I had a couple of days ago. Quite unproductive as I spent the entire day correcting a mistake. My mistake of course. The bottom line is ArcIMS 9.1 and ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 do not mix. Hear me now and believe me later.

This was one of those days that leave your head spinning and asking yourself what the heck is your place in this world. What the heck did I accomplish today? What the heck do I do every day?

Here is what happened.

Our campus really takes advantage of our ESRI site license, and over the last 3 years more and more departments requested ArcGIS be installed in their labs. Including the library, there are now 16 labs, all spread out over the campus, that maintain the ArcGIS software. We have made it a priority these labs alll run the same version over having the latest versions in some labs. Why? Because of compatibility and consistency. So, OIT (campus computing services) finally completed their testing of ArcGIS 9.2 on our license server, and I was first in line to (literally) to get my copy to install on my desktop and my staffs' as well.

Now, this will give away the ending to my little narrative, but bear in mind that our GIS server is running ArcSDE 9.1 & ArcIMS 9.1

• 9am : Begin uninstallation of 9.1 from my desktop
• 945am : Begin installation of 9.2 on my desktop
• 1030am : Success! Next on my to-do list is to tweak one of our ArcIMS services.
• 1035am : Fire up ArcMap 9.2 and connect to the MXD file running on the server. The ArcIMS service I needed to update is an MXD-based ArcMap Image Service.
• 1115am : Complete updates to MXD file
• 1120am : Launch ArcIMS Administrator on the server and restart service. ArcIMS Administrator does not crash, but hangs there longer than normal with that hourglass that never seems to run out of sand.
• 1130am : ArcIMS Administrator finally threw up an error message that told me (as hindsight knew it would) that the version of the MXD file is not compatible. Woops. Big woops. Should have seen that one coming. And, of course, the service was removed which means that our applications depending on that service are also down. That is no good.
  
• 1135am : Realize that all I need to do is to resave the MXD file as 9.1 compatible, restart the service, and all should be OK.
• 1136am : Remote into my laptop in the GIS lab, fire up ArcMap 9.1, and attempt to open the MXD file. Not going to happen as I last saved it using 9.2. No compatible.
• 12pm : Run upstairs for my 12-2pm reference desk duty, feeling a tad bit frustrated. Was told that the reference staff planned a meeting at 2pm and they would be so grateful if I could work at the ref desk from 2-4pm instead today. I race back downstairs at top speed.
  
• 1205pm : Scan ESRI Forums for methods to save a 9.1 compatible MXD file from 9.2. I found nothing. Explore the properties in ArcCatalog...nothing helpful. Explore the Save As dialog in ArcMap...nothing.
• 1230pm : Recreating the MXD file remotely using my laptop in the lab. Switching back and forth between ArcMap 9.2 and ArcMap 9.1 to recreate all 28 layers, symbology and all, on my laptop's version of 9.1.
• 1pm : Finish recreating MXD file.
• 105pm : Remote to server, launch ArcIMS Administrator and recreate the service. Success! Even completed my tweaks.
• 110pm : Notice that the automated geoprocessing scripts (most notably the script running the Friday Night Hangout processing) have been crashing. Good grief. They too are not compatible. I will need to trouble shoot to update the code to 9.2, but after the morning I had today was not going to be the day. This too, I should have foreseen. Ah well. The Friday Night Hangout site is one of the most popular services that students play around with even though it is not a course requirement, so I should still get that ironed out ASAP.
• 130pm : Begin unstallation of ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 from my desktop
• 2pm : Run upstairs for my 2-4pm reference desk duty
• 345pm : Leave ref desk early. Begin installation of ArcGIS Desktop 9.1
• 350pm : Run to business library for meeting with management faculty
• 430pm : Installation complete. Check the geoprocessingt scripts and all is well with my world again.

Went home and my wife asked me how my day was, and I told her.......