When IT analyst Lenore Ramm was considering applying for other jobs within Duke, she started by consulting a map.
"I needed to know: Is there an accessible route, so I can get there in a wheelchair? And where can I get to from that location?" asked Ramm, who has a congenital disorder characterized by extremely fragile bones.
Ramm, who transferred last year from Duke Libraries to the Office of Information Technology, found the information she needed in new Web-based maps. These maps allow Ramm and other users to view and interact with a vast amount of data about Duke, including the whereabouts of 558 buildings, 264 disabled-accessible entrances and 42 miles of campus sidewalks.
More and more, Duke staff, faculty and students are putting online technologies to use in mapping the campus and Duke's role in Durham and around the world. From virtual 3D buildings in Google Earth and a project to map Durham civil rights history to representing Duke's presence in other countries, multimedia-infused maps help share information in new ways and give employees a state-of-the-art view.
"Any map is a geographical information system - a way to visualize and understand a potentially overwhelming volume of data," said Greg Anspach, GIS manager with Facilities Management. "Mapping has come a long way since the paper maps of the 1930s. Everything is really starting to mash together, and different map layers can include everything you can possibly think of."
For example, with a few clicks, users can explore detailed views of campus including topological features, help phones, and physical accessibility information about classrooms and buildings according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
As these maps add more layers of information, they become an increasingly valuable tool and resource, whether helping engineering students study local stormwater for pollution or aiding engineers in analyzing utility usage on campus.
"It's one thing to look at information in a chart. It's another to see the map, and to quickly be able to make more informed decisions," said Adem Gusa, Facilities Management's assistant director of planning and design.
Connecting beyond campus
Duke mapping projects extend well beyond campus boundaries, to connect the university with the local community and dozens of international sites.
Last spring, students in a Duke Center for Documentary Studies course built an interactive Google map of historic civil and human rights sites around Durham as part of the Pauli Murray Project, which honors the late interracial lawyer, activist, poet and Episcopal priest from Durham.
The award-winning project aims to "activate history for social change" by engaging the community, acknowledging the past and working together for positive change. The online map pinpoints about a dozen locations, including the Allen Building, the site of a 1969 student protest, with links to brief written or audio histories.
Exploring the historic significance of everyday locations helps the campus community connect with history in more meaningful ways, said Barbara Lau, the project director and an instructor at the Duke Human Rights Center.
"Adding map markers is one way to spotlight lesser-known stories," Lau said. She hopes future classes and community members will contribute to the map.
"This technology enables us to share cultural information and really get to know the places we live and work," Lau said. "And it helps us connect history to contemporary issues. Why do we care what happened at the Allen Building? It helps us understand why things are the way they are today and pushes us to think about how they could be in the future."
Maps have an intuitive appeal, said Trudi Abel, a history professor who created a website of data, images and maps about Durham history called Digital Durham.
"Maps have a way of transporting people and giving them a way of anchoring their knowledge," said Abel, who worked this summer with a group of middle school students from Carter Community School on the Walltown Neighborhood History Project.
Students in the Duke-sponsored camp learned how to use tools such as census data, property records and GPS technology to create a digital representation of Walltown as it was 80 years ago. Walltown, a historically black neighborhood near East Campus, was established in the late 1800s by George Wall, an African-American staff member of Trinity College (now Duke University) who relocated to Durham after the college's move from Randolph County.
Maps provide a unique way to connect the Duke community across research disciplines - from sociology and environmental science to documentary studies and public health, Abel said. For instance, both she and Lau study the African-American experience in Durham, but online maps enable them to juxtapose and present their research in new ways.
"As 21st century citizens, we're more exposed to visual images. A map is really an old visual format, but it's evolving as these new Web applications help us visualize data and make it more accessible," Abel said. "It's an exciting time."
Multimedia maps also are helping highlight and connect Duke's growing international presence, beginning with the DukeEngage program, which places hundreds of undergraduates in civic engagement projects around the world every summer.
In collaboration with DukeEngage and the Duke Global Health Institute, Duke undergraduates this year constructed an online multimedia map to share narratives, photos, videos and research data depicting life in the rural fishing village of Muhuru Bay, Kenya.
Students in Victoria Szabo's Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS) class designed the map interface, focusing on key landmarks such as schools, churches and beaches.
Then, DukeEngage participants in Kenya - with help from community residents - collected video interviews, audio recordings and photos to annotate specific locations. Different map "layers" focus on themes such as daily life in Muhuru, health and disease and the Women's Institute for Secondary Education and Research (WISER) program, which opened a new boarding school for girls earlier this year.
The project illustrates how multimedia and geospatial technologies can help connect faculty, staff and students across global locations, said Szabo, an assistant research professor of visual studies and new media and director of Duke's ISIS program.
"We're all bonding around the possibilities of new media, and many times the undergraduates are leading the way," Szabo said. "Maps help create this culture of collaboration, where everyone can contribute their expertise to the larger whole. That's how new knowledge gets created."
As Duke extends its global efforts, maps also provide a point of connection in a complex, decentralized work environment, said L. Gregory Jones, vice president and vice provost in the new Office of Global Strategy and Programs at Duke.
His office developed a new global interactive map, which launched this summer, to provide "an inventory of who's doing what where," a resource that staff and faculty can use in planning, tracking and coordinating global initiatives. A staff assistant arranging travel itineraries for a research group, for instance, can search the map to identify Duke travelers visiting a particular country, as well as alumni living there.
"It's a high-definition version of the old globe you could spin around as a kid," Jones said. "In addition to offering a better way to track, update and coordinate faculty, staff and student activities in different locations, it's also celebratory: It shows how widespread Duke's presence is around the world."
Mapping the future - in 3D
As new technology-enhanced maps bring data together in new ways, those information "mashups" may yield new benefits not just in research but in day-to-day work, said Anspach, the GIS manager with Facilities Management.
In the future, for example, campus police could analyze particular streets to see how many car accidents occur at a particular intersection - information that could be used to determine whether a stop sign is needed.
Facilities workers could look for new efficiencies in everything from utility usage to snow removal and emergency planning. Campus officials are now in the process of redesigning Duke's online maps to incorporate assembly points and evacuation zones, so building managers and emergency personnel can quickly and easily access the data.
GPS-enabled mobile devices make map data available for users on the go. The latest version of DukeMobile, for instance, allows iPhone users to call up a map and take a do-it-yourself tour of campus (complete with audio guides and videos of significant locations) and navigate campus bus routes, in addition to locating nearby campus eateries and events.
"The popularity of GPS-enabled devices allows us to offer a customized, personalized tour to visitors, as well as other services that will be of great value to students, faculty and staff," said Michael Schoenfeld, Duke vice president for public affairs and government relations.
And in the not-too-distant future, Duke maps will venture into an entirely new dimension. Last spring, students in another of Szabo's classes used Google software to create 3D models of campus buildings as part of a "Virtual Duke" tour, now available online through the popular Google Earth application.
The students wrote how-to documentation so other campus users can submit their own 3D buildings and are now working to integrate the 3D buildings into Google Earth, which allows users to submit photos and other multimedia content.
Geospatial technology tools - from GPS-enabled mobile devices to new location-based social networks like Foursquare - are making it easier for individuals to "make their mark" in customized maps that can create an immersive virtual environment, Szabo said.
"You can envision massively multi-player maps, where the whole world becomes a place you can explore on multiple levels, from the comfort of your own home or office," she said.