Wake County GIS provided census tracts and public school data. A sense of panic, however, developed when it occurred to students and facilitators that all of this data represented Raleigh in just one year, 1999. Information overload was as much of a stumbling block as were information gaps. A new action plan emerged that scaled back the original scope of the project. After gathering the relevant data layers, students conducted intensive historical research.
Students read transcripts of oral history interviews of alumni conducted by journalism classes.
They analyzed old school yearbooks and local history books. They generated a list of buildings that were important to Ligon's history. Graduate students from the local university gleaned data from the State Archives. New themes were added to the GIS for this researched information, color-coding was used to visually represent segregated areas, and hot links were created to pictures from the State of North Carolina Archives collection. GIS students also learned interview techniques that they used when speaking to elder alumni.