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CHAPTER 16:
ATLASES, GAZETTEERS, AND
MAPS
This chapter describes gazetteers, atlases, and
the Library’s map collection.
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 Gazetteers:
A gazetteer (pronounced gaze-at-ear) is a dictionary of geographical features and places, including lakes, mountain ranges, cities, islands, rivers, dams, deserts, etc.
The most comprehensive world gazetteer in print is: THE COLUMBIA
GAZETTEER OF THE WORLD (ref G103.5 .C65 1998; 3 Vols). A smaller gazetteer based on the larger work is also available in the reference
stacks: THE COLUMBIA GAZETTEER OF NORTH AMERICA (ref E35 .C65 2000).
Less ambitious but still very useful is a one-volume gazetteer entitled:
CHAMBERS WORLD GAZETTEER (ref G103.5.C44 1988), which includes information about national parks, and national and international cultural regions throughout the world. In addition, it contains many simple line maps and a hundred pages of color maps.
Atlases: Atlases are books of maps. The Library has hundreds of
atlases, with the most popular stored in a large atlas case in the center of the
north wing of the first floor. Many of them include charts, graphs, lists
of names, and statistical data.
One of the more popular atlases is the RAND MCNALLY ROAD ATLAS: UNITED STATES, CANADA,
MEXICO. This atlas is published annually along with the RAND
MCNALLY COMMERCIAL ATLAS AND MARKETING GUIDE which contains detailed maps of urban areas
as well as economic and population characteristics of counties, urban areas, and states.
A comprehensive index/gazetteer is the TIMES ATLAS OF THE WORLD,
which
provides latitude and longitude coordinates of every town and city represented in the book,
including maps of stars and planets. The Library also owns several specialized atlases
which cover more than geographical areas and topics, such as historical
subjects, outer space, and the ocean floor; examples include
THE TIMES ATLAS AND ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE SEA, THE ATLAS OF THE MOON,
THE NATIONAL ATLAS OF JAPAN,
and THE CARTOGRAPHIC SATELLITE ATLAS OF THE WORLD, to name a
few.
 Map Department: The Library map collection
is quite diverse and contains about 100,000 maps and charts.
These maps come from many sources, including various federal government
agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Ocean Survey, the
Forest Service, and the Department of Defense.
The Library also has census maps, wilderness area maps, political and cultural maps, road maps, satellite maps, and historical maps. These vary greatly in size and scale, and many are
available on CD-ROM.
A good percentage of the map collection can be located using the online catalog
located on the Library's Home Page under Books, e-Books, Media but it is still necessary to use the map card catalog to find maps,
which is located in the northeast corner of the first floor in the Map
Department. Maps are indexed both by subject and by geographical area.
Topographical and geological maps and charts represent terrain,
topography, hydrology, public lands, transportation systems, roads, trails, and
land use. Quadrangle maps for every state also are available in the
Map Department. Large metal file cabinets contain the maps for every state arranged in alphabetical order. The Idaho topographical maps are on a larger scale than those of other states, so they are kept in a special rack in the northeast corner of the Map Department.
There are also several excellent Internet sources for maps, such as the
Perry-Castañeda Library Map
Collection from the University of Texas and the
Geographic Names Information
System (GNIS) from the U.S. Geological Survey. Useful Internet sources for planning trips in the U.S.
can be found in
Expedia,
Mapquest, and
Google Maps.
Click on link to go to the
Assignments page and print Assignment SIXTEEN
http://library.boisestate.edu/skills/locate/assignments.htm
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