The Alexandria Campus Library has over 1200 items in the map collection. Most are sheet maps, which are located in a map case along the window behind the rows of reference books. The wall maps are located along the same window in a stand. The road maps for all of the states are located in a file cabinet underneath the stairwell. Most maps may be checked out for one week.

The maps are divided into regions: Africa, Asia, Canada & North America, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, Middle East, Oceans, Poles & Islands, United States, and the World, Space & Misc. The United States is divided into two main sections: General and Regional. Maps of the whole country or of nationwide interest (i.e. Battlefields of the Civil War) are listed under "United States - General". Maps which cover more than one state (i.e. New England) are under "United States - Regional". Individual states are listed alphabetically by the name of the state under "States". Virginia is listed separately.

Each map is given an ID Number, Type and Source (if known). The ID Number will tell you where the map is stored. Maps with a "c" are located at the circulation desk. Maps with an "f" are located in the file cabinet under the stairwell. Maps with a "w" are wall maps located in the stand along the back window and maps with "mc" are located in the map case along the same window.

Type describes the format of the map. A map showing mainly political boundaries is marked "POLT", while one that shows mainly physical features is designated "GEOG". "HIST" maps present information of a historical nature. A poster is marked as "POST", a pamphlet is marked as "PAMS" and statistical information is listed as "STAT". A map that has biological characteristics is marked as "BIOL". "ECON" indicates that there is information relating to the population, land utilization or economic activity. A map relating to space or the planets is designated "ASTR". A map that does not fall under any of these categories is listed as "MISC". Some sheets have two maps, either side by side or back to back. These are listed with both titles and two Type codes (if different).

The Source indicates which company or magazine the map comes from. "N.G." is National Geographic, "P.P." is Penn Prints and "D-G" is Denoyer-Geppert Company. For example, N.G. 1/82 signifies that the map came from the January 1982 issue of the National Geographic magazine.

If you need any help locating these maps, a librarian will be glad to assist you.



This page is maintained by Clayton McGahee and was last updated on September 20, 2005 .