There are now TWO maps for the Mapping Black New York assignment: Manhattan and the Bronx and Brooklyn & Queens. Both are shared with all of you; check your Gmail for confirmation and contact me right away if you did not get the sharing message. Working in the appropriate map, follow these instructions for placing a pin to mark the location of the place you documented:

1. Go to the map site (Brooklyn & Queens; Manhattan and the Bronx) and sign in to Google
2. Search for the place by typing the name or address of the institution or site you chose into the search bar
3. Select the site or address and click “add to map”
4. Click the pencil icon to edit the text.Type the annotation in the text box or copy and paste it from a Word document (spell check and proofread first!)
5. Click the Camera icon to add a photo or video
6. Click the + icon to add more photos or videos
7. Click Save!

Take care not to create unnecessary layers in the map you’re working on. You can tell which layer you are working in because there is a blue vertical bar next to the active layer. You can drag your map point into another layer.

When you want to admire your work and that of your classmates, it’s best if you LOG OUT of Google; that way you will not accidentally overwrite someone’s work.

Questions, concerns, technical issues? Leave a comment or get in touch.

~Prof. Leonard

The Mapping Black New York assignment is designed to give AFR 3000 students an opportunity to share your journal entries in a digital format. More important, you will share the ways you have examined your chosen institution and neighborhood. Mapping Black New York centralizes the student perspective on a public digital map.

Before you upload any materials to the Google Map for AFR 3000, select one of your journal entries. The entry should focus upon the chosen item from the institution, your actual institution, or the neighborhood where the institution is located. When necessary, refer to the guidelines for the Final Research Presentation. Each selected entry must be a minimum of 250 words and a maximum of 300 words. Excerpts are encouraged. Check your grammar and spelling. Once you have selected your entry, add photographs or video to compliment your chosen entry. You may upload a maximum of five photographs and a maximum of a two minute video.

To participate in the Mapping Black New York assignment, you need to share your gmail address with Dr. Effinger-Crichlow. You may send your gmail address to her via Blackboard. Then you’ll be added to the Google map and shared Drive folder with editing privileges.

Here are instructions for creating a point on the Google map and adding your multimedia and text from the shared Google Drive folder:

1. Go to the map site and sign in to Google
2. Search for the place by typing the name or address of the institution or site you chose into the search bar
3. select the site or address, and click “add to map”
4. Click the pencil icon to edit the text.Type the annotation in the text box or copy and paste it from a Word document (spell check and proofread first!)
5. Click the Camera icon to add a photo or video (help with using images from Google Drive is below)
6. Click the + icon to add more photos or videos
7. Click Save!

Before you can add media, you will need to save your photos and videos to the shared Google Drive folder. Add photos or video to the shared folder directly from your phone or by uploading to a computer with a micro USB cable, then transfering files from that computer to the shared Google Drive folder. To upload from your phone, you will need Google Drive on your device, available from Google Play or iTunes. You’ll need the URL of the image you want to upload so that you can paste it into the map editor. Find the shared Drive folder, right click on the photo or video file, select get link, copy the link, and paste the image URL into the maps editor in steps 5 & 6 above.

More help:

• My Maps Help Center
• Google Drive Help for Android
• Google Drive Help for iOS
• Manage your Maps in Google Drive

More questions or technical issues? Ask Prof. Anne Leonard, Coordinator of Library Instruction, at aleonard@citytech.cuny.edu

Thanks for your questions and thoughts on the whirlwind tour through the library’s electronic resources and the myriad collections of digitized archival documents. If you find others you want to share, join this site and let us all know!

On Tuesday, we looked at a few digitized archival documents: the Heart of Harlem sheet music composed by Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington in 1928, and Jamel Shabazz’s photograph Downtown Brooklyn from 1984.

Class discussion centered around these questions:

• What is the point of view of the creator (writer, artist, performer, photographer, narrator)?
• Identify a question, contradiction, or tension suggested or embodied in this work. How does it contribute to, explain, or even complicate a viewpoint or perspective on the black experience in New York City?

As you select an institution for your research project, remember that your City Tech ID gives you free access to many museums and cultural institutions around New York City; see the entire list here.

Questions about library research? Ask in the comments, or visit the City Tech library in person or online.

~Prof. Leonard, Coordinator of Library Instruction & Information Literacy

Welcome to week six of the Fall semester! By now you’ve visited the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan, and later today you’ll visit the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn. Many of you have documented the experiences by taking photographs. Now it’s time to share your photos here on the OpenLab. First, choose images you want to share. Then, upload those images to the Media Library of this site. Crop and edit your photos as needed, and be sure to write a caption for each one. From the project dashboard, students go to Pages > All Pages > Images > Edit, and use the Add Media button to select photos to display on the Images page of the site. Get help adding images, or explore adding your images as a Gallery.

Let me know how it’s going in the comments below.

~Prof. Anne Leonard, City Tech Library

If you’ve found this site, you’re probably enrolled in AFR 3000: Black New York in Fall 2014. Welcome! This project is to support your research projects in this class. You will find links and information about a variety of research resources, including the following:

• City Tech Library resources
• Digital collections
• Research institutions you can visit
• Online tools for mapping and curating your projects

Remember, the purpose of this OpenLab project is to support your research success. Feedback and questions are most welcome. If you discover a great resource that you want to share with your classmates, leave a comment!

~Prof. Anne Leonard, Library