Using maps to enhance research

Maps, globes and other cartographic materials are compelling objects. It is difficult to stroll past a map-any map-without stopping to look at it. From the ubiquitous road atlases we use to find our way around today, to the rare and lovely maps of earlier centuries, maps hold a special capacity to capture the attention and imagination of human beings. What is the allure of maps? Is it symptomatic of mankind's need to know where we have been and where we are going? Is it that a map from a decade or a century ago can provide a snapshot of a place in time, allowing us to visualize the way things used to be in our grandparents' day?

Maybe it is because maps can illuminate a page of dense descriptive text and give us clear insight into how and why the world around us is changing? Or perhaps it is simply that maps can serve as metaphors for other journeys in our lives.

The first thing to remember is that maps can be used in literally every subject under the sun. Think beyond the familiar maps of transportation systems, political divisions and geography, and consider how people use maps every day to do their jobs.

Doctors, veterinarians and biologists use mapping to show the origin and spread of disease in human, animal and plant populations. Geologists consult and create maps to measure how much glaciers have shrunk over the past hundred years or how volcanic islands have grown. Insurance companies use maps to analyze risk patterns. Linguists map the way accents and languages spread and influence one another, and where particular slang terms predominate. Corporations wishing to build new plants trace the U.S.

The beauty of the digital age is that anyone with access to a computer can locate maps online. Tax payer funded institutions are excellent free sources of maps and even satellite imagery. The U.S. Geological Survey is in the process of digitizing its entire collection. The Library of Congress has an extensive collection of historical maps available online. Many large academic and public libraries and museums with important map collections have digitization projects highlighting rare and noteworthy cartographic items. The American Geographical Society Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries (http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/AGSL) is just one example of a collection that has an extensive Global Information Systems (GIS) component in addition to its historical maps. Muhlenberg's own Trexler Library houses the Ray R. Brennan Map Collection that focuses on the growth and development of the Lehigh Valley area.

Maps that researchers commonly find helpful include fire insurance such as Sanborn maps, which are drawings of town and city blocks that describe features like what materials houses and buildings are constructed of. They also provide incredibly detailed drawings of industrial and commercial buildings and properties. Federal and state geological and geographical surveys document zoning, land use, land cover, vegetation and soil composition.

Topographical maps show contours of the land and hydrographic maps show depths of bodies of water. There are soil maps and geological maps. Political maps can provide insight into the ethnic and cultural makeup of various regions, and can go a long way toward explaining the national psyches of states and countries in a complex world.

In addition to regular maps, aerial and satellite imagery can be extremely useful. Many of these images are available online through federal and local government sites, or on CD-ROMs where the imagery not only can be viewed, but also manipulated and customized if one has the right software.

Should one decide to incorporate maps into one's research project, it is important to remember that maps are someone's intellectual property and one should observe the same citation guidelines that are in place for books, articles and sources of information one might use.

Consult a style manual to see how map citations are written for footnotes or end notes. One thing to consider is that a map, unlike a book or other text source, is often somewhat ambiguous about precisely who the author is, and one might have to cite the publisher as the party responsible for the intellectual content of the map.

Date of publication can also be somewhat tricky, since many large map companies, like Rand McNally, use date codes rather than an obvious date. If one comes across a map with a date code, there is a very helpful web site from the Western Association of Map Libraries that will allow one to decode it at http://www.waml.org/datecode.html.

The Trexler Library houses the Ray R. Brennan Map Collection in its Special Collections Department. Current maps produced by the USGS, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other government entities are kept in Government Documents. Road atlases and other maps of local interest can be found in the Reference Collection. Maps can also be made available through Inter Library Loan (ILL).

So go ahead and give in to the urge to pour over a map or globe. There is a lot to learn and enjoy from it. Even fantasy and science fiction writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien recognize and incorporate maps into their works, the better to visualize the fantastical journeys of their characters. Using maps, we can follow mankind's own fantastic journey through time and space, and bring life and vision to research projects that may otherwise blend in with the crowd.