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| Map Collection > Finding Maps at Stony Brook > Types of Material: Aeronautical Charts, Atlases, City Maps |
| TYPES OF MATERIA: Aeronautical Charts, Atlases, City Maps |
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The primary use of aeronautical charts is for aerial navigation. These charts show communications and navigational facilities, limits of controlled airspace, hazardous obstructions, and special use or restricted airspace, along with generalized topographic relief of the area. The library has several series of aeronautical charts at different scales. The most detailed are the Tactical Pilotage Charts (TPC) at a scale of 1:500,000. For some areas of the world, these are the most detailed topographic maps in the collection. Aeronautical charts are filed in two places. Some are filed at the beginning of the foreign maps in series. Because most of the aeronautical chart series cover the entire world, they are found with other map series with world-wide coverage at the beginning of the maps in series. Other aeronautical charts (including the Tactical Pilotage Charts) are in the white file cabinets against the wall to the right of the map reference desk (see map of the map collection ). Look for an index at the beginning of each series. All atlases in the university libraries are cataloged by Library of Congress classification number, and can be located using the STARS computers (the location on the STARS screen display is MAPS COLLECTION, ATLAS SHELVES). The atlases in the map collection are shelved flat by LC class order at the back of the collection (see map of the map collection). Some current atlases are kept in the Reference Room downstairs, and specialized atlases can be found in other West Campus libraries. Atlases are particularly good sources for thematic and historical maps. City maps may be found in several places. Maps of some U.S. cities are filed by geographic area in the U.S. sheet maps section along with other small-scale U.S. maps. There is also a drawer of city maps arranged by state in the file cabinets to the right of the Map reference desk. Street maps of all towns and villages in the United States are available in electronic form through the program Map Expert (see digital maps). Maps of many major foreign cities are filed in the foreign sheet maps area. Maps of individual European cities can sometimes also be found among the atlases. Baedeker guidebooks, which are shelved with our gazetteers, are a good source of older maps of European cities. View our digital collections: The libraries have a substantial collection of maps and other cartographic information in digital form. Other materials can be viewed and printed at the Maps/GIS workstation at the Science/Engineering Reference Desk in the North Reading Room of the Melville Library. The types of digital maps available include outline maps, road maps, geological maps, topographic maps, historical maps, and demographic maps. Coverage is worldwide, with particular emphasis on Long Island and New York State. Many of these maps can be made with "user friendly" electronic atlases, such as ESRI Data and Maps,which can print detailed street maps of any place in the United States. This workstation can also be used to access the many cartographic resources available on the Internet. More specialized or complicated maps require the use of ArcGIS, which is our Geographic Information System (GIS) software package. ArcGIS has many capabilities, including the ability to integrate statistical data with maps, and to display different "layers" of geographic information on a map. These layers might be polygons, representing areas such as counties, census tracts, or municipal boundaries; lines, such as streets, rivers, or railroads; or points, such as hazardous waste disposal sites. A particularly powerful application of ArcGIS is the creation of detailed demographic maps using data from the federal census. ArcGIS requires some training to use, and new users should make an appointment for instruction before attempting to work with it. A digital bathymetric chart of the world and several other mapping programs are available at the Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Information Center on the South Campus. |
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Stony Brook University Libraries Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3300 631.632.7100 (t), 631.632.7116 (fax) Website Comments: Library Webmaster. Library-related questions: Ask a Librarian Copyright 2003. Last Update: August 2008 |