"A high-tech introduction to heritages"
 
by Murray Dubin
 
in "The Philadelphia Inquirer" (Tuesday, October 8, 1991,
pp. 1B-2B)
 
	At first, Heather MacLean, 23, a tourist from Sitka, Alaska,
was just a tad sarcastic.
	"Oh, you get a heritage tour!  I'm so excited.  I can't
wait," she said yesterday.
	In other words, gimme a break.
	But then the computer screen filled with pictures.  And 60
seconds later, out came a two-page printout of facts and things
to do and see in the Philadelphia area if you're a Native
American.
	And her tone changed.  This was stuff she didn't know.
	"Oh, this is fun.  Look, oh, wow."
	"Oh, wow" is the hoped-for reaction as four interactive "Do
Your Own Heritage" computers are unveiled tomorrow as part of
"Neighbors in the New World" celebration, the city's
commemoration of the Columbus Quincentenary.
	The interactive computers, in kiosks carefully designed not
to look like MAC machines, are a way for the city to celebrate
America's history and deftly avoid any controversy about
Columbus.
	"Whatever Columbus was, or wasn't, what we think should be
celebrated is all the people who discovered America for
themselves in Philadelphia," said Meryl Levitz, the Columbus 500
project director and a tourism vice president for the city
Convention and Visitors Bureau.
	And if tourists see something that they like, they might
stay around an extra day.
	The four computers, inside their cherry and rosy-granite
colored kiosks, are in the Visitors Center, 16th Street and JFK
Boulevard; the Independence National Historical Park Visitor
Center, Third and Walnut Streets; the Balck Institute for Ethnic
Studies, 18 S. Seventh St., and the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, 13th and Locust Streets.  There is no cost to use
the computers.
	While interactive computers are becoming common, the
"Heritage" computers' fact sheets make them unique, said Mark W.
Beyerle, Visitors Center director.
	That you can walk away from the computer with one of 19 two-
page ethnic heritage listings of local museums, restaurants,
shopping, festivals, churches and historical data is new, Levitz
said.
	MacLean and her fiance, Rob Allen, a Tlinget Indian from
Alaska, did not know that there was a Delaware Valley Indian fall
festival in October or that Conshohocken was an Indian name that
means "the long, pleasant valley."
	John Gutzke, whose heritage is German and who lives in
Chicago, had been visiting relatives in New Jersey and on his way
to see more relatives in Washington, D.C.  He and his wife,
Peggy, and their children, Karla and Arthur, were just in
Philadelphia for a few hours when they stopped in the Visitors
Center and pressed the computer screen.
	He would not have time this trip to visit the German Society
of Philadelphia on Spring Garden Street or the Bavarian Charity
Society on Oxford Avenue, but he was pleased that such
information was available.
	"Now, I'll know where to look for German heritage in this
town," he said.
	Putting together the information for the "Heritage" computer
was like writing a new book of European or Soviet history.  The
world kept changing.  So instead of Baltic states or Baltic
nations, the computers make reference to Baltics.
	And there were initial problems on the African-American fact
sheet.  Too much about slavery and churches, not enough about
accomplishments.
	Would Japanese visitors want to know about Japanese
restaurants or a World War II detention camp?  (Both.)
	Can you write a fact sheet for Greeks without mentioning the
Greek art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art?  (Yes, you can.) 
Should Scottish be a separate designation?  (Nope, it's lumped in
with British Isles.)  How do you choose which Italian restaurants
to list?  (Name 12, and promise to update to rotate.)  How do you
choose just 19 ethnic heritages when the Philadelphia area is the
home for more than 100?  Which ethnic heritages should be
omitted?  (Hungarian and Swiss are out, Portuguese is in.)
	The ethnic-friendly computers cost $105,000 and were funded
by the state, the Knight Foundation, Philadelphia Columbus 500
Committee, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, The
Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
	The four computers will remain in their locations even after
the one-year-long Columbus celebration and will, no doubt,
attract the attention of people other than tourists.
	Yesterday, as the computer was going through a final trial
at the Visitors Center, Kevin McNally from Oreland stopped in to
find a leaflet on the Columbus Day Parade this weekend.
	He stopped at the kiosk, pressed Irish, and watched the
pictures pop on the screen and the printout slip out.  The whole
process took 100 seconds.  He read the information.
	He said: "I didn't know all these places were here."