About the project
German Traces NYC was one of the Goethe-Institut New York’s most expansive projects of the year. For this reason, marketing and evaluation are especially important.
In addition to announcements sent to the German and US press through the media channels of the Goethe-Institut and Pratt Institute, we also sent information to our primary target groups: all German teachers in New York City and surrounding states, and those librarians in New York and across in the United States who are part of Western European Studies received targeted announcements, as did organizations that deal with the history of New York. Besides this front-end information, we plan, in the coming months, to contact individual organizations and institutions in order to bring the project to their attention. Additionally, German Traces will be introduced at workshops and conferences. And, of course, we’ve come up with a few “cool” promotional materials:)
A further aspect of the project which, following its initial presentation, must be kept in mind is evaluation. Who is using the mobile website? Do users find this method of conveying information stimulating, interesting? To this end, our project partners Debbie Rabina and Anthony Cocciolo, professors at School for Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute, have initiated a usability study. One of the questions they wish to research is if students in the focus group, having used the mobile website to explore German Traces, have a better understanding of the history of German emigrants in New York. And generally, in addition to the concrete utilization of German Traces, they are generally interested in how this presentation of historical material will influence learning.
So next year as well, there will be news to report on this project…
Wednesday, 21. December 2011
Library Competences Go Beyond the Library -- German Traces NYC, Part 3
Monday, 19. December 2011
Library Competences Go Beyond the Library -- German Traces NYC, Part 2
The reason why the Goethe-Institut would be interested in a project on the German influence in New York is easy to explain. But why would this fall within the interest of the Goethe-Institut Library?
Briefly put: what we found exciting and interesting about this project was that it demonstrates the far-ranging extent of librarians’ skills today and how these skills are applicable to areas that extend beyond their traditional library work.
Core competences of librarians are specified as those within the methodological, research, social, cultural, economic and technological spheres (see the definition by the German Library Association). The ALA has also come up with similar definitions.
Among the methodological and research competences, a knowledge of research techniques plays a decisive role in locating, evaluating and properly employing appropriate sources. And this is also the basis for the contextual work done for “German Traces NYC”. A number of these traces are already familiar to many. There are websites and publications on the theme, one example being Thomas Fitschen’s and Ilona Stoelken’s New York’s German Past (not available in bookstores – those who are interested in this publication should send a comment). So for the German Traces project, it wasn’t a matter of carrying out original, historical research, but of evaluating and compiling the extant sources. The sole original addition to the material was an evaluation of the “gray literature” on the theme, the ephemera, that is, involving searching archives and libraries for documents and photographs that would illustrate the text.
The presentation of information plays an increasingly significant role in methodological skills. It is ever more important for librarians, but also for library-users, to be able to decide how to present the results of their work – as book or webpage, under copyright or as Open Source, as a blog entry or journal article, on Slideshare or YouTube. This decision is determined by the issue of which audience one wishes to reach, and the decision concerning information channels influences, in turn, how the information is presented. A lengthy scholarly article is not necessarily suited for reading on a Smartphone. A blog entry will not receive, in an academic discussion, the kind of attention that a journal article would. Methodological and technological skills have a mutual effect on one another.
In choosing the appropriate form of presentation, it is also important to keep in mind the target group’s attitude toward information. As German Traces speaks to a young and/or technologically-inclined audience, it seemed to us that a mobile website would be the best technical platform (the idea of developing an app wasn’t feasible due to a number of reasons). Further technological features, such as podcasts and image galleries accessible through the website or YouTube complete the German Traces project. An additional and rather playful element is a quiz connected to each German Traces location (the results of which may be put on Facebook). And for especially tech-savvy users, Augmented Reality was integrated into the project. (Those who don’t exactly know what that is can find out through the video offered by Layar [whose Augmented Reality app we also used]. If you download Layar and call up the German Traces app, you can time-travel through the streets of New York on your Smartphone: the actual German Traces locations of today are overlaid with historical images of the same, as on a camera display.)
As part of their training, librarians learn – as in no other professional field? – the basic principles of bringing together all of these elements necessary for such a project. They acquire methodological skills, scholarly skills and technological skills. Such skills enable them not only to carry through those projects that are outside the parameters of classical library work, but also help the library to present their collections and services in a way that addresses a target group that gets its information almost entirely from the Internet and that spends more time on computer games than on reading.
Briefly put: what we found exciting and interesting about this project was that it demonstrates the far-ranging extent of librarians’ skills today and how these skills are applicable to areas that extend beyond their traditional library work.
Core competences of librarians are specified as those within the methodological, research, social, cultural, economic and technological spheres (see the definition by the German Library Association). The ALA has also come up with similar definitions.
Among the methodological and research competences, a knowledge of research techniques plays a decisive role in locating, evaluating and properly employing appropriate sources. And this is also the basis for the contextual work done for “German Traces NYC”. A number of these traces are already familiar to many. There are websites and publications on the theme, one example being Thomas Fitschen’s and Ilona Stoelken’s New York’s German Past (not available in bookstores – those who are interested in this publication should send a comment). So for the German Traces project, it wasn’t a matter of carrying out original, historical research, but of evaluating and compiling the extant sources. The sole original addition to the material was an evaluation of the “gray literature” on the theme, the ephemera, that is, involving searching archives and libraries for documents and photographs that would illustrate the text.
The presentation of information plays an increasingly significant role in methodological skills. It is ever more important for librarians, but also for library-users, to be able to decide how to present the results of their work – as book or webpage, under copyright or as Open Source, as a blog entry or journal article, on Slideshare or YouTube. This decision is determined by the issue of which audience one wishes to reach, and the decision concerning information channels influences, in turn, how the information is presented. A lengthy scholarly article is not necessarily suited for reading on a Smartphone. A blog entry will not receive, in an academic discussion, the kind of attention that a journal article would. Methodological and technological skills have a mutual effect on one another.
In choosing the appropriate form of presentation, it is also important to keep in mind the target group’s attitude toward information. As German Traces speaks to a young and/or technologically-inclined audience, it seemed to us that a mobile website would be the best technical platform (the idea of developing an app wasn’t feasible due to a number of reasons). Further technological features, such as podcasts and image galleries accessible through the website or YouTube complete the German Traces project. An additional and rather playful element is a quiz connected to each German Traces location (the results of which may be put on Facebook). And for especially tech-savvy users, Augmented Reality was integrated into the project. (Those who don’t exactly know what that is can find out through the video offered by Layar [whose Augmented Reality app we also used]. If you download Layar and call up the German Traces app, you can time-travel through the streets of New York on your Smartphone: the actual German Traces locations of today are overlaid with historical images of the same, as on a camera display.)
As part of their training, librarians learn – as in no other professional field? – the basic principles of bringing together all of these elements necessary for such a project. They acquire methodological skills, scholarly skills and technological skills. Such skills enable them not only to carry through those projects that are outside the parameters of classical library work, but also help the library to present their collections and services in a way that addresses a target group that gets its information almost entirely from the Internet and that spends more time on computer games than on reading.
Thursday, 15. December 2011
Library Competences Go Beyond the Library –the German Traces Project, Part 1
There has already been a report on ARD Radio on a project of the Goethe-Institut New York Library – and yet there has been (almost) no mention of it here in the blog. It’s time for that to change!
On December 2, 2011, the Information & Library department of the Goethe-Institut New York presented, together with Pratt Institute, the project, “German Traces”. Why would the Goethe-Institut be involved in a project having to do with German traces in New York? Why the Information & Library department? And why in collaboration with Pratt Institute?
At the end of 2009, a colleague here at the Goethe-Institut New York commented that he was astounded by the signs of German influence in New York and by how little notice was taken of them. His phrase for it was “invisible heritage” and it struck a chord. After all, around 1840 roughly one-third of New York’s inhabitants (c. 400,000 people) claimed German heritage. Only Vienna and Berlin had more German-speaking citizens. And these German immigrants of course spread their culture; they founded clubs and associations, built hospitals and churches, established businesses and industries. Over the years, however, the traces left by this large number of German immigrants to New York became increasingly invisible. This was greatly influenced by the fact that across the span of the 20th Century many Americans with German roots preferred to distance themselves from their heritage, for understandable reasons. Business firms as well – from Germania Fire Insurance to Germania Bank - had decided already by the beginning of the century to remove the German connection from their names. Whereas practically any New Yorker could direct tourists to “Little Italy”, most were clueless when asked directions to “Kleindeutschland” (Little Germany) or “German Broadway”.
And though the Holocaust is, of course, “the elephant in the room”, in the years since reunification, Germany’s image has improved among many Americans, and a German-sounding name or having German ancestors is now met with curiosity – or a reason to travel to Berlin. For even New Yorkers find Berlin cool (and one of the few places in this world that can hold its own against New York). So this is right time to draw attention once again to the many fascinating stories of German immigrants and to the many traces of them still visible in the city. And with this to stimulate an interest in Germany today.
(To be continued…)
On December 2, 2011, the Information & Library department of the Goethe-Institut New York presented, together with Pratt Institute, the project, “German Traces”. Why would the Goethe-Institut be involved in a project having to do with German traces in New York? Why the Information & Library department? And why in collaboration with Pratt Institute?
At the end of 2009, a colleague here at the Goethe-Institut New York commented that he was astounded by the signs of German influence in New York and by how little notice was taken of them. His phrase for it was “invisible heritage” and it struck a chord. After all, around 1840 roughly one-third of New York’s inhabitants (c. 400,000 people) claimed German heritage. Only Vienna and Berlin had more German-speaking citizens. And these German immigrants of course spread their culture; they founded clubs and associations, built hospitals and churches, established businesses and industries. Over the years, however, the traces left by this large number of German immigrants to New York became increasingly invisible. This was greatly influenced by the fact that across the span of the 20th Century many Americans with German roots preferred to distance themselves from their heritage, for understandable reasons. Business firms as well – from Germania Fire Insurance to Germania Bank - had decided already by the beginning of the century to remove the German connection from their names. Whereas practically any New Yorker could direct tourists to “Little Italy”, most were clueless when asked directions to “Kleindeutschland” (Little Germany) or “German Broadway”.
And though the Holocaust is, of course, “the elephant in the room”, in the years since reunification, Germany’s image has improved among many Americans, and a German-sounding name or having German ancestors is now met with curiosity – or a reason to travel to Berlin. For even New Yorkers find Berlin cool (and one of the few places in this world that can hold its own against New York). So this is right time to draw attention once again to the many fascinating stories of German immigrants and to the many traces of them still visible in the city. And with this to stimulate an interest in Germany today.
(To be continued…)
(Page 1 of 2, totaling 4 entries)
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