Ready Reference Sources: Maps
Geography Databases
New York
United States
- American Memory Collection: Map Collections 1544-1999
- From the U.S. Library of Congress. Mostly historical maps on topics such as exploration, immigration, military battles, conservation, transportation.
- Charting North America: Maps from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection and Others
- "Over 1,000 maps of North America from the earliest printed portrayals to the close of the 19th century; multiple versions and editions allow for historical comparisons."
- The Electronic Map Library
- Links to US atlases including New York City and the US. From California State University, Northridge.
- gCensus
- U.S. Census tract data overlaid on Google maps allows clicking and dragging to focus and zoom in on the area of interest, then see population, land, water, and housing units.
- Historical Maps and Charts Project
- A database of over 21,000 digitized maps and charts from 1747 to 2001. Search by keyword, by state or region, type, year, or chart number. From NOAA.
- Google Maps Transparencies
- Google maps overlaid on satellite imagery, or vice versa. Click and drag, and zoom features
make these maps easy to use, and provide very detailed maps. Includes U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
- National Atlas of the United States
- Allows users to view all or part of the United States with layers of up-to-date information on topics such as population characteristics, environment, geology, and transportation. Much of the information is available by county. Not easy to use. Be sure to wait for the list of map layers to load completely.
The print version of the National Atlas of the United States (currently being updated) is available in Milne Library Reference REF Atlas Case G1200 N3 1970.
- National Geographic Map Machine
- Includes population, climate, country facts.
- Social Explorer
- Demographic information for the U.S. from 1940 to 2000. Interactively generate maps by population, occupation, age, sex, employments, etc. Generate statistical reports. Click on the Maps link on the top toolbar for the free parts of the web site.
World
- Atlapedia.com
- Atlapedia.com has physical and political maps of several world locations.
- CIA World Factbook
- Maps are provided with descriptions of each country. There is a separate section with Reference maps.
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
- Provides online maps in various formats (pdf format maps may cause problems on some computers). Also includes Maps on Other Web Sites and Country Map Sites.
- TerraServer
- Online aerial photographs and satellite images. Provides images of many large cities and famous places worldwide. Most of rural upstate New York is not yet available.
- World of Maps
- Especially good for maps of Europe. From the Map Curator Group of the Swiss Library Association.
Gazetteers
- Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- Search almost one million place names around the world. Contains latitude and longitude, place names and types,
and sources of information. Provides variant and historical names for places.
- US Gazetteer
- Searchable by place name or five-digit zip code. Places identified may be viewed with the Tiger Map Server and census
data may be obtained through the 1990 Census Lookup.
- USGS Geographic Names Information System:
United States and Territories
- Can be searched by feature name, state name, feature type, elevation, county name, population range, USGS 7.5 x 7.5 topographic map
name.
Travel
- Mapsonus.com
- A good resource for finding maps and directions.
- Maporama
- Street-level maps for many European countries as well as the US.
- MapQuest
- Includes an interactive street guide and city to city driving directions. Some international maps.
- Yahoo Maps
- Yahoo has maps as well as driving directions and locations of restaurants and tourist attractions.