Sixteen remarkable projects created during the Fall 2023 semester using Library collections, software, spaces, and equipment, or with assistance or instruction from our staff are now featured on the Library Showcase.
Every semester, the library puts out calls for submissions to the showcase to inspire the Georgetown community to take full advantage of the many resources provided by the library. For their site What We Learned From Evaluating Drinking Water Funding & Why It’s Currently Too Hard to Effectively Track, Ethan Rosenbaum MPP '23, and Nikhila Iyer, DSPP '23 learned how to design scripts to parse data using Python from courses on LinkedIn Learning, which the library provides for all Georgetown students, faculty, and staff. With help from Digital Scholarship’s Barrinton Baynes, Another team of students in SCS’s IT Management program learned to use Boords to storyboard their video Shaping Social Impact: Large Social Media Platforms and Their Ethical Effects on Misinformation, User Privacy, And Internet Addiction
The technology used most was ArcGIS StoryMaps, which is also taught by the library’s Digital Scholarship unit. ArcGIS StoryMaps is a web-based application that allows authors to build stories with maps, narrative text, images, videos, and other media. The nine StoryMaps in the showcase demonstrate the power of this medium for sharing impactful, important stories—which is the other reason the library puts a call out for projects every semester—to highlight the outstanding research and learning taking place in disciplines across our university.
For example, Priyasha Chakravarti’s Storymap site on the Sikh American Community provides an enlightening overview of the history, successes, challenges, and the concept of “seva” or selfless service at the heart of Sikhism. Another eye-opening Storymap by Bella Burns uncovers the dysfunctional “hidden foster care” system in DC and how it creates a pipeline to incarceration in DC. Other Storymaps added in Fall 2023 include:
- Asia in DC: SFS Seniors by Elli Ahn, SFS '25
- Bookstores as Vehicles for Activism by Logan Castellanos
- Carlos Romulo in DC: Journalist, soldier, author, diplomat...Carlos Romulo lived many lives by Rae Neville
- Female Rulers from Antiquity to Today by students in Professor Janet Gomez's course.
- Georgetown University School of Nursing: A Timeline by Bill Cessato
- Inequity and the Inaccessibility of Higher Education by Sagun Shrestha
- Mount Zion FUBS Cemetery: A Story of Black Displacement and Georgetown Gentrification displacement and erasure of Black Georgetown residents.
Other works made possible using the incredible tools and resources in the Maker Hub include Insider/Outsider: The Anatomy of Identity Poster Project, created by students in Professors Julia Langley and Toni-Lee Sangastiano’s course. Another fun project, the Mandalorian Foundling Costume, recreated an iconic uniform from the Star Wars universe. Two research papers, including a published article Interdisciplinary Examination of Landscape Architecture and Emergency Management in the Context of Climate Change Mitigation by Professor Erik Wood of the SCS MPS Emergency & Disaster Management Program, and a thesis Tradition Meets Transformation: AI-Enhanced Real Estate Finance by Justin J. Francisco, MPRE '23 are also included on the Showcase.
Over the summer, the library will hold a Showcase Showdown competition and ask people to select their favorite project for the Voters’ Choice Award. A Staff Pick Award will also be selected for the project that made the best use of library resources. More news about the Showcase Showdown awards will be announced in the June library newsletter.