Using the Wayfinder
The Wayfinding Pathfinder has been created to aide with indoor mapping at the Beaty. It currently includes a map of the Beaty's indoor fixtures, including all display boxes, cabinets, and fossil excavations. It will automatically generate a path between two or more fixtures.
The purpose of having this tool available is to create custom narrative journeys through the Beaty. Interpreters and volunteers can customize a journey through the museum. For example, the following journey was created:
Museum Journey: Bears and Berries
Journey Description: Make connections with bears and biodiversity throughout the museum.
| Location Notes | Location ID | Specimen / Display | Short write-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04.08 | col_04_cab_08 | Bear Skulls | Polar bears, brown bears, black bears, and spirit bears can all be found in Western Canada. Can you find all three bear skulls in this row? |
| Burst of Biodiversity (by 8.01) | wp_020 | Tardigrade | Tardigrades are animals that can withstand extremes, like bears that hibernate! Their common name is water bear, can you see the similarities? |
| D099 (beside 28.24) | di_28_18_top | Fruits, flowers, roses | Many of bears’ favourite fruits come from the rose family, like rose hips and salmonberries. How do fruits form from flowers, and how many types of fruits are out there? |
| 38.14 (S109) | col_38_cab_14 | Insect duties | Insects are important berry pollinators, which means they are important for bears! What other jobs do insects have in our forests? |
| 41.09 | col_41_cab_09 | Salmon | Bears are known for eating salmon, and lots of them! There are five species of salmon in our province that provide abundant food for bears. |
| Row 52 | fossil_excavation_9 | Fossils | While we don’t have fruit or bears in our fossil displays, can you find an amazing berried (buried!) plant or animal fossil in this collection? |
Making Your Own Journey
Just like the above example, create a table with location notes, the location ID, which specimen to focus on, and a short write-up. You can figure out the Location IDs using the Wayfinding Pathfinder. It allows you to look up items by Column and Cabinet number. If you're not sure what the number would be, you can also hover over a location in the map to see the ID. Some points have been made that are just corridors, which will also have waypoint IDs. If something is close to a waypoint, like the Tardigrade in the above example, you can select that waypoint instead of a Cabinet. Or, for the whole of Row 52, you can choose an emblematic point like the fossil excavation in the middle of the column.
Adding to the Map
This is only the first version of the map, and we would like to add more features to it. If you'd like to help add to the map, see Adding to the Map on the sidebar for instructions.