MAP AND GEOGRAPHY LIBRARY
Map & Geography Library
• Founded in 1946 largely with cartographic
materials deposited by the Federal government
after the Second World War
• Geography materials integrated from Natural
History Library in 1950
• Located on the 4th Floor of the Main Library
• Limited hours (8:30a-7:00p, M; 8:30a-5:00p, T-F;
1:00p-5:00p, Sa)
• Small staff – librarian, 1 classified staff for daily
operations, 1 classified staff devoted to
cataloging maps, 7 student employees
Maps are a jealous mistress!
Most staff time, at all levels, goes to providing
access to maps through reference services and
cataloging or to putting maps and aerial
photographs away after use or processing.
Book-like objects and media come to M&G
already completely cataloged and marked. M&G
catalogs and marks all maps and aerial
photographs.
GEOGRAPHY
Geography is NOT
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“Capes and bays”
State capitals and product exports
Navigating from here to there
Map reading, map making, or GIS
Geography has been
• Collections of travellers’ tales describing far-off
and mysterious lands
• Navigational tools and locations of newly
discovered lands
• Descriptions of natural resources for extraction,
cultivation, and exploitation
• Qualitative inventories of resources, descriptions
of land uses, and definitions of regions by
identifying similar characteristics
• Quantitative and systemic
Geography a la Fenneman (1909)
Geography a la Johnson (2003) based on Fenneman
Overlapping Geographies
Human
Geography
Physical
Geography
Geography IS
• About connections
• About influences
• About the impacts of human activities on the
environment
• About the impacts of the environment on
human activities
Geographers
• Study the whys of where
• Investigate the interdependence of places at
many different levels or scales
• Search for and explain spatial patterns and
connections
• Explore topics studied by other disciplines
always asking about place, location, and
spatial connections
• See the world through the “prism of where”
Diversity in Specialties
AAG Speciality Groups (pick 6!)
Africa
Animal Geographies
Applied Geography
Asian Geography
Bible
Biogeography
Business Geography
Canadian Studies
Cartography
China
Climate
Coastal & Marine
Communication Geography
Cryosphere
Cultural & Political Ecology
Cultural Geography
Cyber Infrastructure
Development Geographies
Disability
Economic Geography
Energy & Environment
Environmental Perception &
Behavioral Geog.
Ethics, Justice, Human Rights
Ethnic Geography
European
Geog Info Science & Systems
Geog of Religions & Belief
Geog Perspectives on Women
Geography Education
Geomorphology
Hazards
Health and Medical Geography
Historical Geography
History of Geography
Human Dimensions of Global Change
Indigenous Peoples
Landscape
Latin America
Middle East
Military Geography
Mountain Geography
Paleoenvironmental Change
Political Geography
Population
Qualitative Research
Recreation, Tourism, & Sport
Regional Development & Planning
Remote Sensing
Rural
Russia, Central Eurasia, & East Europe
Sexuality & Space
Socialist Geography
Spatial Analysis & Modeling
Study of American South
Transportation Geography
Urban Geography
Viticulture & Oenology
Water Resources
GEOGRAPHY AT ILLINOIS
The Department
• Founded in 1945; graduate program in 1950
• Prior to 1945, part of the Department of
Geology
• Part of the School of Earth, Society, and
Environment (with Geology and Atmospheric
Sciences) since 2007
• 16 faculty
Faculty Research Interests
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African agrarian systems
History of cartography
Political ecology
Mechanics of sediment transport
Fluid dynamics of clastic sedimentary systems
Modeling of braided rivers
Intersection of democratic politics with environment and
development
Climate change vulnerability and adaptation
Economic and political geographies of transportation
Urban political ecology of green buildings
Cultural and economic geographies of food
Political geography and Geopolitics
Geography of war and peace
Just war theory
Ecological, economic, and energy systems
Resource utilization
Conservation and employment
Energy-economic input-output modeling
Regional science methods
Urban and regional economic analysis with a focus on the
design, implementation and application of regional
economic models
Medical geography
Population studies
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Demographic, health, environmental, and resource issues
in sub-Saharan Africa.
Geography of health and health care
Urban geography
Spatial analysis
Fluvial dynamics of stream confluences and river meanders
Stream naturalization and restoration
Human impacts on river systems
Philosophical and conceptual issues in geomorphology and
physical geography
Environmental policy
Rural representation
Social vulnerability
Catchment hydrology
Periglacial geomorphology
Geospatial Science & Technology and their application in
Environmental Monitoring and Modeling
Cyberinfrastructure and computational geography
GIScience
Political economy of the U.S. city
Undergraduate Tracks
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General Geography
Human Geography
Physical Geography
Geographic Information Science
Graduate Programs
• Geographic Information Science
-- GIScience methods and theory
-- Application of GIScience methods in economic or
environmental geography
• Society, Space and Environments
-- Development geography
-- Urban geography
-- Politics of the environment
-- Geographies of conflict
• River, Watershed and Landscape Dynamics
-- Fluvial geomorphology
-- Fluvial dynamics
-- Watershed hydrology
-- Landscape modeling
MERGING
Not a New Idea
With the creation of the School of Earth, Society, and
Environment, the Library began to explore forming a
unified library service point for the school
• Geology Library
• Atmospheric Sciences departmental collection
• Geography materials from Map & Geography
Idea fell apart when it was decided that there was not
sufficient space in Natural History Building for a library
facility.
Merging Materials
• Circulating Collection (monographs and
journals) – ca. 375 linear feet
• Quartos – 6-9 linear feet
• Reference – fewer than 12 volumes
• Microfilm (could actually go elsewhere?) – 1
cabinet
Merging Topics
A Casual List
• Geography (general) •
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• Geography –
Dictionaries
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• Geography –
Instruction & Teaching
• Population
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• Urban Geography
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• Human Geography
• Feminist Geography •
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• Geopolitics
• Political Geography •
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• Regional Science
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Planning
Economic Geography •
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Regional or
Descriptive
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Geographies
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Environmental Science•
Land Use
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Industrial Geography •
Military Geography
Natural Disasters
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Spatial Statistics
Physical Geography
Climate/Weather
Biogeography
Historical Geography
History of Geography
Quantitative Methods
Qualitative Methods
Geographers
Explorers and
Exploration
Medical Geography
Materials Staying Separate
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Maps
Aerial Photography
Atlases (octavos, quartos, folios)
Gazetteers
Most Microfiche
Most CDs and DVDs
Some monographs and journals
Topics Staying Separate
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Cartobibliography
Map Librarianship
Cartography
History of Cartography
Remote Sensing
Geographic Information Systems/Science
Spatial Data
Surveying
Modelling?
Staff Staying Separate
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Map and Geography Librarian/Unit Head
Senior Library Specialist/Daily Operations
Senior Library Specialist/Map Cataloger
Student Hourly Employees (ca. 45
hours/week)
Maps are a jealous mistress!
Merging Pros
• Expanded hours to access Geography materials
• Strengthen interdisciplinary connections between
Geography and other disciplines
• Vacated collection space could be used to move
some materials (aerial photography) in vertical
files out of office creating better work space
• Possibility of removing non-load bearing walls to
create public space that is more easily monitored
Questions
• What will signal “This space is for geography”?
• What kinds of communication and referral
mechanisms will be established to connect
users with subject specialists who do not
reside in the merged unit?