A group of Northern Arizona University graduate students have joined with Cline Library to create a new digital exhibit showcasing some of the university’s historic gems on its north campus.
The project, called Louie’s Legacy, launches with a free public event from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 5, on the steps of Old Main (bldg. 10).
Louie’s Legacy is a self-guided digital walking tour using QR codes of specific objects—such as buildings, trees and memorials—that, when scanned by a smartphone or tablet, take the user to a website revealing the history of the object through photos, oral histories and related newspaper articles.
The project was created by students Amelia Swann, Christian Wright, Kevin Bertram, Skyler Coombs and Gerald Lamb in Michael Amundson’s public history class. Todd Welch, digital access librarian at Cline Library, also assisted the students in gathering research material to include on the site and was involved in the creation of the site itself. The students have begun with about 30 objects, and Amundson said the project could spread to other parts of campus in the future.
“It’s the cutting edge of what public history is,” he said. “The great thing about it is that you can start wherever you would like—just look for a QR code.”
For information on the project, scan the QR code at the right with your QR reader.