41sevengeographical sources
Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads.
—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act 1, scene 1, line 19w
hen FaCed with a geographical question, a reference librarian may
more often be found peering at a computer screen rather than at a
map printed on paper. Nevertheless there are still a number of print sources
that, combined with online tools, will enable you to field any number of
geographical queries.
William A. Katz noted that “no matter what format, geographical titles
used in... reference may be subdivided into three large categories: maps
and atlases, gazetteers, and guidebooks.”^1 Joan M. Reitz defines a map as “any
two-dimensional representation of all or a portion of the earth’s surface...
normally done to scale on a flat medium but increasingly in digital form.”^2
She defines an atlas as “a bound or boxed collection of maps, usually related
in subject or theme, with an index of place names (gazetteer) usually printed
at the end.”^3
Maps and atlases are probably the most familiar kinds of geographical ref-
erence tools. From oversized volumes shelved in special atlas cases to the latest
in electronic formats flickering on a computer monitor, there are a number of