Maps in Paley Library

Paley Library's Map Reference Collection is located at the east end of the library's first floor. The materials in the map reference area are worldwide in scope. They include topographic maps, thematic maps, road maps, physical maps, political maps, and atlases. Supplementary reference materials include gazetteers, handbooks, dictionaries, and indexes.

Specific items in the Map Reference collection can be identified by doing a Keyword search in Paley's Diamond Catalog and selecting Paley Map Reference under the Collections pull-down menu. Additional maps and atlases may be found in the stacks on the 2nd of Paley Library.

The Urban Archives, located on the ground floor of Paley, also collects maps and atlases. That collection focuses on historic Philadelphia.

Maps and Geospatial Resources

geodata.gov

The United States Government's official map and geospatial internet portal is dedicated to improving public access to geospatial information and data. Acess thousands of metadata records that have been submitted to the portal by government agencies, individuals, and companies. Link to live maps, features, and catalog services, downloadable data sets, images, clearinghouses, and map files, and more.

GeoMAC
The Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination Group or GeoMAC, is an internet-based mapping tool originally designed for fire managers to access online maps of current fire locations and perimeters in the conterminous 48 States and Alaska. With the growing concern of western wildland fires in the summer of 2000, this application also became available to the public.

The USGS National Geologic Map Database
The National Geologic Map Database's Image Library provides scanned images of geologic maps. from the NGMDB's Map Catalog. Search by state or level of detail.

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

Historical , thematic, regional, national and world maps, the majority of which can be downloaded without copyright restrictions.

European Cities
Links to street maps of European Cities. Arranged alphabetically.

The National Geographic Society Maps Subject Guide
Search historical and current maps by city, country, region, continent. Browse conservation maps, street maps, topographic maps, and country profiles.

Map Collections 1500-2004
American Memory's Digital Map Collection focuses on Americana and Cartographic Treasures of The Library of Congress. Search thematic, historical, topographical, city, transportation, and other maps by keyword ,location, subject, creator or title.

American Factfinder's Advanced Geography Search
Generate maps ranging in size from nation to block using data sets from the United States Census.

United States Gazetteer
Search the Census's Tiger Map Server for data from the United States Census by entering name and state or 5-digit zip code in the Census's online Gazetteer.

The National Map

The United States Geographical Survey's interactive topographic map service.

Maproom.org
Worldwide atlases and maps in the public domain with some specimen plates and reviews of materials still under copyright law.

Philadelphia Maps and Geospatial Resources

The Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System
Generate maps of Philadelphia nieghborhoods using datasets from the Census, The Center for Disease Control, the Philadelphia Police Department and other sources. From The Cartographic Modeling Lab of the Univeristy of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia City Maps

From the City of Philadelphia

Maps of Districts, Wards and Neighborhoods
Maps of Philadelphia showing city, state and national political districts and wards. Includes some suburban areas.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Maps
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania road maps, National Highway maps, Traffic Volume maps, Railroad maps, Airport maps and time and milage charts.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission Map Gallery
Download maps of Philadelphia and surrounding counties, or air, highway, rail or freight maps.

GIS Software and Datasets

GRASS

GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a free, open source Geographic Information System (GIS) with raster, topological vector, image processing, and graphics production functionality. It is used for data management, image processing, graphics production, spatial modelling, and visualization of data.

ArcExplorer

A free GIS data viewer from ESRI. This software performs basic GIS functions, including display, query, and data retrieval applications. It can be used on its own with local data sets or as a client to Internet data and map servers

TradeStats Express
Presented by the Office of Trade and Economic Analysis, TradeStats Express allows the latest state or national trade data to be retrieved, customized, analyzed, mapped and printed or downloaded.

National Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science Data Center
U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center' s Seamless Data Distribution System provide access to free downloads of national base layers, as well as other geospatial data layers and data. These layers are categorized by place, structures, transportation, boundaries, hydrography, orthoimagery, land cover, and elevation.

Google Earth

Software application from Google maps that allows the user to access maps, satellite images, point to point directions and some comercial and government datasets. Most satellite imagry is one to two years old.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Map

The E.P.A.'s Clean Air Mapping and Analysis Program offers maps and air pollution datasets.

Geography Network
ESRI, a geographic information system software manufacturer, sponsors the Geography Network website. Download datasets and spatial information to use with the company's ARCSOFT computer applications.

Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access

Pennsylvania's official public access geospatial information clearinghouse.

New Jersey Bureau of Geographic Information Systems

New Jersey's geospatial information clearinghouse offers interactive internet mapping applications and GIS data for download.

Historical Maps

IEG Maps
Historical European and German Maps from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. English language search function allows the user to search by area or theme.

The Great Britain Historical GIS Project
The University of Portsmouth's collection of geographical and spatial data about Britain's localities as they have changed over time. Information comes from census reports, historical gazetteers, travellers' tales and historic maps

Historical Maps of Paris
Prof. Barry Bergdoll's collection of historical maps.

Historical Cities of the World
Search historical cities alphabetically by city, by year or by mapmaker. Historic Cities of the world is a joint project of the Historic Cities Center of the Department of Geography, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish National and University Library.

Jewish Historical Maps and Atlases
Hebrew University's colleciton of digital maps from Biblical times to the year 2000.

Twentieth Century Conflict Map
World map with battles resulting in over 1,000 casualties through the 20th Century. From the Nobelprize.Org.

Digital Sanborn Maps

Provides digital access to more than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American towns and cities from 1867 to 1970 .

Geospatial Search Engines

Google Maps

Online mapping, location finder and point to point directions in the United States and Canada. Features draggable maps and satellite imagery.

ViaMichelin
Online mapping and point to point directions for Europe, the United States and Canada. Use of the options link under the destination pull down menu links to an advanced search that produces point to point directions for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Mapquest

Online mapping and point to point directions in the United States, Canada and over 150 different countries.

Yahoo Maps

features online mapping, point-to-point directions, and traffic updates in the United States and Canada.

Geographical Names

The Geographic Names Information System

The official United States database of geographic names offers information about almost two million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States and territories.

GEOnet Names Server

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's database of foreign geographic feature names. Worldwide Coverage excludes the United States and Antarctica. Updated monthly

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
The J. Paul Getty Museum's online Geographic Name Thesaurus emphasises significant places for the study of art and architecture in its database. Includes vernacular and historical names, coordinates, and places.

USGS Geologic Names Lexicon
The United States Geologic Service's GEOLEX is a search engine for lithologic and geochronologic unit names.

Get Help!

To get help with your research or to obtain assistance finding Government Documents, email Susan at susan@temple.edu, call her at 204-3842 or stop by the Government Documents Office on the ground floor of Paley Library in Room 18.

You can get help on literature searches at Temple University, chat online with a librarian, co-browse Web sites, or submit an e-mail reference question through the Reference Department at Paley Library.