“The Yangtze Valley and Beyond” served as an example for a faculty member wishing to use Scalar to explore Isabella Bird’s travel book, The Yangtze Valley and Beyond. An English travel writer and photographer in the 19th century, Bird documented her exploration of the Yangtze river and mountain region of Northwest China using her writings and photographs. The creation of this Scalar site, as well as the exploration of its media and map features, served as a “proof of concept” site for the intended faculty member in order to help her determine whether Scalar would be a suitable tool to visualize Bird’s travels across China. Thus, the site featured a small sample of Bird’s images, as opposed to all of them, which were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, then Scalar. Originally, the map feature within Scalar was intended to fulfill the visualization aspect of the project, with each image pinpointed where it was taken on the map. Due to a hosting/development issue with Digital Parchment, the Scalar map could not completely execute this task and another method was used instead. By creating a separate presentation using StoryMap*, the map aspect could be maintained and viewed on a hosted Scalar instance.
In order to include a StoryMap presentation on Scalar, the Scalar features used include Scalar’s link to media files or the source code. The former can be accessed through the book’s dashboard, while the latter can be accessed by selecting “source” in the body settings of the page created for the StoryMap. The link and embed code for the StoryMap can be found in the “Share Settings” on StoryMap.
To upload a StoryMap as its own media file, the StoryMap’s link must be added to the book as a media file. Next, a page must be created where the StoryMap is intended to be viewed. Lastly, the media file must be inserted into the body of the page after which the page is saved, the StoryMap presentation can be viewed.
To embed a StoryMap, a page must be created where the StoryMap is intended to be viewed. Next, the “source” must be selected when editing the body of the page. Lastly, the embed code of the StoryMap must be copied and pasted into the source body of the Scalar page. As with uploading a StoryMap as media, the presentation can be viewed on Scalar once the page is saved. Unlike with uploading a StoryMap as media, the dimensions of the map can be adjusted within StoryMap’s share settings in the embed code.
Ultimately, both methods allow for the reader to be able to seamlessly view the StoryMap presentation in an almost identical way, save for the dimensions if the author of the Scalar book chooses to adjust them.
*Making a StoryMap
Create a new map and name it
Initial page is the title slide of your map
Add “slides” to the left of the window
Add image, media, text, title, image captions, source to each slide
Add image and media by uploading from computer or with web address
Supported media types: Youtube, Vimeo, Daily Motion, Vine, Twitter, Soundcloud, Google Maps, Google+, Flickr, Instagram, Google Docs, Wikipedia, iFrame, Storify
Add location by searching for city, country, region, etc.
GIS coordinates do not always work
Change order of slides by dragging up or down
Edit and Preview tabs
Use “Edit” to edit slides
Use “Preview” to see public facing side
Can choose to edit text in HTML
Can change background color or choose background image
Make sure to “Save” and “Publish Changes” after editing