Database of the Month: A-Z Maps

Database of the Month: A-Z Maps

As promised, this blog will take a look at some of the lesser known databases subscribed to by Monmouth College.  So why not start at the beginning with A-Z Maps?  This contains exactly what the title suggests, over 145,000 maps.  You name it and this database has a map of it: it contains antique maps and modern maps of countries and states, maps of climate, earthquakes, the environment, the holy land, hurricanes, NASA maps, tree and bird distribution maps, volcano and weather maps and many other types of information presented in map format.  There are maps of both large and small geographic regions in the database.  There are even maps of imaginary places.  For instance, there are several antique maps of the holy land that depict imaginary images of the city of Jerusalem and of places like Solomon’s temple that no longer existed at the time the original maps were drawn. 

There are different views of maps; rectangular, oval, round and hand drawn.  The maps come in several format options and can be printed, saved or downloaded for further use.  If you are new to the collection a very useful feature is the online demo found at the top of the A-Z homepage.  The online demos are a voiced slide presentation that explains how to use the different map collections and gives instructions for importing the maps into Power Point presentations.

Some maps (especially those from NASA) require Google Earth images in order to view the map data.  If you are using any of the NASA maps please be patient as it takes some time to download Google Earth images and for the program to launch.  Many of the NASA maps have attached data sets and first time users would be wise to view the explanatory material before using these maps. 

There are also various glossaries which explain terms found on the different maps that are specific to the topic illustrated.  Many of these terms are ones you may be unfamiliar with such as “brontophobia” (weather) “hornito” (volcanology or volcanoes) and “moho” (earthquakes).  Most of the definitions have images illustrating the terms.

What should you use this database for?  If you need a map of a place or to illustrate climate, weather or some other geological/geographic topic for a paper or a presentation, use this database.  The maps are easily organized and it is not hard to find one that illustrates the information you wish to discuss.  For instance, the maps of Illinois section contains many outline maps both blank and those containing physical or political features (counties, voting districts, etc.) suitable for use in a paper or presentation.

Access to databases is limited to the current students, staff, and faculty of Monmouth College.