Introduction to reference: World atlases

Required reading
World Atlas and Dictionary Roundup
http://web.archive.org/web/20040515050103/http://www.ala.org/ala/booklist/speciallists/speciallistsandfeatures3/worldatlasdictionary.htm

Canadian maps and atlases
Required reading
“Atlases and maps of Canada”. School Libraries in Canada 2003 v. 27 no. 3 Available in pdf from Ebscohost Academic Search Premier.

Atlas of Manitoba. Winnipeg: Surveys and Mapping Branch, Dept. of Natural Resources, 1983.

The Atlas of Canada. Toporama. http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/index.html
Online Canadian topographical maps and orthoimages.

Yahoo! Canada Maps http://ca.maps.yahoo.com/
Use to find maps and directions to Canadian destinations. Enter address, intersection, city, province or postal code to find a location, or use driving directions.

Other maps and atlases
MRC Library Internet Subject Guides: Maps
http://web.archive.org/web/20051217165546/http://library.mtroyal.ca/subguides/map.htm
An extensive list of links compiled by Mount Royal College Library in Calgary.

National Atlas of the United States http://www.nationalatlas.gov/
This atlas updates a large bound collection of paper maps that was published in 1970. It delivers map-like views of America’s natural and sociocultural landscapes.

National Geographic Map Machine http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/map-machine#s=r&c=43.74999999999998,%20-99.71000000000001&z=4
Online atlas created by National Geographic. Maps. Charts everything from physical topography and political leanings to climate and population trends worldwide. You can find street maps for all of the United States, Canada and Europe. The “Flags and Facts” link leads you to detailed profiles of 191 countries, which includes a brief history of each locale, its demographics, economics and politics—and of course, maps. Follow the “World Themes” link to view time zones, transportation density and weather maps. Under “U.S. Themes,” you will find diversity, density and population maps based on Census 2000. The Web site even has a link to an interactive map of Mars.

Place names
Gazetteers: Descriptive

Cambridge World Gazetteer: A Geographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
First published as Chambers World Gazetteer. Fewer but more detailed entries than Webster’s.

Columbia Gazetteer of the World http://www.columbiagazetteer.org/main/Home.html
Updating of 1952 ed. Includes countries, towns, rivers, mountains, national parks, etc. Contains 165,000 entries in 3 volumes, some relatively lengthy.

The Columbia Gazetteer of the North America
50,000 entries. Covers every incorporated place and county in the United States, along with several thousand unincorporated places, special-purpose sites, and physical features, as well as Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names On Line http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/index.html
Contains nearly 1 million place names (including continents, rivers, mountains, empires, nations, states, districts, townships, cities, neighbourhoods, etc.). Global in scope. Provides information on place names related to art, art history and related subjects, such as history archeology, and geography.

Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. 1997.
A comprehensive source of geographical, economic, historical and political information. Over 54,000 entries and 250 maps. Information on continents, countries, regions, cities, historical sites and natural features with pronunciations and variant spelling.

World Gazetteer http://www.world-gazetteer.com/
Online resource. Contains current population figures for cities, towns and places of all countries largest cities of the world images of national flags. Personal site.

Gazetteer of Canada.
Published in parts with a separate volume for each province and territory except Quebec. Lists co-ordinates and provides references to National Topographic Series sheet numbers for both physical features and place names of cities, towns, etc. Concise edition published 1997.

Geographic Names Information System http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic
From U.S. government. Contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States. Also contains information on geographic names in Antarctica.

GEOnet Names Server (GNS) https://www1.nga.mil/ProductsServices/GeographicNames/Pages/default.aspx/html/index.html
Provides access to the National Imagery and Mapping Agency’s (NIMA) database of foreign geographic feature names. The database is the official repository of foreign place-name decisions approved by the U.S. board on Geographic Names. Currently, the GNS contains 3.97 million features with 5.5 million names (approximate).

U.S. Gazetteer http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer
Searchable database by name, state abbreviation or zip code. Contains geographic information, maps and census data.

U.K. Names (Ordnance Survey of Great Britain) http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/
Gazetteer of British place names. Links to OS maps.

Place Name Origins
BC Geographical Names http://www.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/bcnames/
Provides location and topographic map sheet showing the place or feature. Also has an option to do “sounds like” searches. Includes origin notes and history.

Geographical Names of Manitoba. Manitoba Conservation.

Place Names in the Canadian Rockies http://www.spiralroad.com/sr/pn/

Place Names of Manitoba. Penny Ham. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1980.

Place Names Database. Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. http://pwnhc.learnnet.nt.ca/databases/geodb.htm
Search for place names in the Northwest Territories. Provides location and topographic map sheet showing the place or feature. A map showing the feature’s location can also be displayed. Includes history/origin of name.

Place Name Sites http://www.asu.edu/lib/hayden/govdocs/maps/geoname.htm
Guide to place names sites on the Internet from Arizona State University Libraries Map collection.

Other Map/Atlas Resources
About.com – Geography http://geography.about.com/
Includes online maps arranged alphabetically. Includes links to additional geographic resources.

How Far Is It? http://www.indo.com/distance/
This service uses data from the US Census and a supplementary list of cities around the world to find the latitude and longitude of two places, and then calculates the distance between them (as the crow flies). It also provides a map showing the two places.

Map Collections: 1500-2003 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
From Library of Congress. Extensive collection of digitized maps (mainly historical).

MapQuest http://www.mapquest.com/
Best known for driving instructions for US and Canada.

Bing Maps http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?wip=2&v=2&style=r&rtp=~&msnurl=home.aspx?%26redirect%3dfalse&msnculture=en-US
Search for maps and directions for Canada, U.S. and other world destinations.

Multimap.com http://www.multimap.com/
Europe’s most popular mapping web site, offering a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and the US; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; and local information.
Odden’s Bookmarks http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.php
Comprehensive listing of cartographic sites. Provides links to over 9,500 map sites.

Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/map_sites.html
Excellent collection of online maps from the University of Texas. Contains about 2,400 maps.

Rand McNally Maps http://www.randmcnally.com/
City maps, driving directions for U.S. directions, etc.

Topozone http://www.topozone.com/
Sample topographical maps for the entire United States. The database is searchable by place name or by latitude and longitude. Complete downloadable USGS maps are available for a fee.

United Nations Cartographic Section Web Site http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm
Maps and geographic resources. Includes peacekeeping maps and country profiles.

Geographical handbooks
Country studies http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
This website contains the on-line versions of books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army. The original intent of the Series’ sponsor was to focus primarily on lesser known areas of the world or regions in which the U.S. forces might be deployed, so the series is not all–inclusive. At present, 102 countries and regions are covered. Notable omissions include Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and other Western nations, as well as a number of African nations.

World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Comprehensive, official CIA basic intelligence reference guide with reference maps.

Travel Guides
Required Reading
Roncevic, Mirela. “Staying Current with Travel.” Library Journal, 8/15/2003, Vol. 128 Issue 13, p114, 3p. Available fulltext on EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier. Updates articles listed below. Also available online from Library Journal http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA315927.html

Supplementary Reading
Roncevic, Mirela. “Have Book Will Travel.” Library Journal. Nov. 15, 2000 pp. 32-36 http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA140331.html and “Have Book Will Travel, Part II”. Library Journal Dec. 2000 pp. 78-81. Both are available fulltext on EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier. Rates guide book series.

Guides
Avalon http://www.travelmatters.com/
Publishes Moon Handbooks, Rick Steeves Guides, Foghorn Outdoors.

Dorling Kindersley http://www.dk.com/
Publishes DK’s Eyewitnesses Guides

Fodor’s http://www.fodors.com/

Frommer’s http://www.frommers.com/

Hunter http://www.hunterpublishing.com/

Langenscheidt http://www.langenscheidt.com/
Publishes the Insight Guides.

Let’s Go http://www.letsgo.com/

Lonely Planet http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

National Geographic Traveler http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/

Rough Guides http://www.roughguides.com/
Text of guidebooks available online at no cost.

Other useful Internet sites for the traveler includes:

About.com – Travel http://www.about.com/travel/
Includes sections on many areas of the world and lists relevant Internet sites.

Expedia.ca http://www.expedia.ca/
Travelocity http://www.travelocity.ca/
Competing sites for travel resources on the net, includes info about package destinations, prices, etc. Canadian versions of U.S. sites.