Geography

Purpose:  Guide to basic resources for research and information about geography.

Locating Books on geography

To locate books at PSU on a specific topic in your field, search the CAT using a keyword search. (Search geography in the CAT!)  Never used the CAT before? Stop by the reference desk or visit Getting Started with the CAT for more detailed instructions or quick tips and tricks!

Browsing: Interested in browsing areas in our collection related to your field? Some books in your field can be found in the following call number areas:

• Geographic Names Information System: Database contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States. 
• GEOnet Names Server: Provides access to database of foreign (Non-U.S.) geographic feature names. 
• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names: Contains more than one million names and other information about places, including continents, nations, historical places, physical features and cities. It emphasizes places that are important for art and architecture.
• Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer Server: Contains data from the NIMA Gazetteer and sets of countries, U.S. counties, U.S. topographic map quadrangle footprints, volcanoes, and earthquake epicenters. The GNIS data from the USGS has been partly added to the collection.
• Global Gazetteer Version 2.1
• GAZETTEERS - A gazetteer is a dictionary of place names. By searching the CAT, you can find a wide selection of gazetteers. General gazetteers have a call number of G103.

• CIA World Factbook provides political maps for countries around the world.
• United Nations Cartographic Section Web Site Maps and geographic information resources.
• Library of Congress Maps Collections online
• Perry-Castañeda Library: A large collection of online maps for locations worldwide.
• Geology.com - has satellite and other world maps
• Map Library of Catalonia - A collection of over 5000 antique maps from the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya.
• The 1970 National Atlas is also available at the Library of Congress.
• MapQuest: An online interactive world atlas with trip planning and routing information. 
• Yahoo Maps: Maps and driving directions. 
• National Geographic Society's MapMachine: Contains both a dynamic map interface (choose a theme) and scanned images from National Geographics's Atlas of the World (allows you to zoom in and out). 
• Online Map Creation: This resource creates maps showing topographic, political, and even tectonic features. 
• Envirofacts Maps: EPA's data mapping facility providing mapping applications that allow you to generate maps that display environmental information for the entire United States. 
• Geography Network : Visit ESRI World Shaded Relief and World Sat Satellite Imagery in the Featured Content section.
• Global Relief Data and Images from NOAA: See the Images of 2-minute global relief.
• NASA's Earth Observatory Global Land Cover Maps

The Maps Library collects topographic maps for all 50 states.  They also have sets of topo maps on CD-ROM.

Many topographic maps are also available online.

• TopoZone - Search by place name or latitude and longitude. Various scales provided.
• TerraServer - View topographic maps, relief maps, and aerial photographs.
• Maptech MapServer - Search by place name. Various scales provided.
• Maplink - Locate topographic maps (and map names) using map indexes.
• Topographic Map Symbols: This U.S.G.S. publication describes the meaning of symbols found on topographic maps. 
• USGS Topographic Maps Illustrating Physiographic Features
• TerraServer This site, hosted by Microsoft, contains aerial photos and satellite images of locations worldwide. 
• Terrafly By entering a U.S. address, an aerial photo is retrieved. U.S. Geological Survey satellite data are used for the aerial photo of your selected location.  Topos are also available.
  

National GIS data clearinghouses include:

• Geospatial One Stop
• Federal Geospatial Data Clearinghouse Search Engine
• GIS Data Depot

• Data.gov  – A catalog of datasets produced by agencies of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government
• Social Explorer – The U.S. Census Bureau has created this site with demographic data from 1940 to date.
• About.com's Geography Topic Site  – Extensive list of links to geography-related resources. 
• Oddens' bookmarks – the facinating world of maps and mapping.
• Worldmark Encyclopedia in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.
• Geo-Data  – The World Geographical Encyclopedia in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.