Home > Evans Map Room >

Dartmouth's Map Collection

Evans Map Room is located on Level 2 of Berry Library.

Our address, telephone number & e-mail are:
Evans Map Room
Baker/Berry Library
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755-3525
(603) 646-2579
Email: map.room@dartmouth.edu

The collection consists of over 189,000 sheet maps and 3000 atlases, books, journals, CD-ROMS, computer software, globes, and aerial photos. Although, the collection is international in scope, it is particularly strong for New Hampshire, the Upper Connecticut River Valley, and New England.

The Map Room receives maps through the US Federal and Canadian depository programs.

Introduction

"Outside of some supersaturated computer software there is no more concentrated form of data presentation than the map."1

Besides representing the shape of the land and sea on our planet, a map can show natural phenomena: rocks, soil, climate, ocean currents, wildlife, vegetation; or man-made/man-related features: roads, buildings, population, disease, agriculture, industry, religion, political boundaries, government. A map is similar to a graph — statistics and comparisons can be instantly visualized. Maps are not confined, however, to coverage of the earth; one can find charts or maps of the moon, Mars, Mercury, the heavens, the land of Oz, or Dante's hell.

Geographical Emphasis of the Collection

Within the United States, the emphasis of the collection is:

  • Hanover and environs
  • New Hampshire and Vermont
  • Rest of New England
  • Northeastern States
  • Polar Regions
  • Rest of the United States
  • Rest of the World

Outside of the United States the emphasis may change according to course demands and world events.

Classification Range in the Evans Map Room

The Evans Map Room houses resources that fall in the following Library of Congress classification:

  • G 1001 - G 3102     Atlases (atlas = a bound collection of maps)
  • G 3160 - G 9999     Maps (map = a representation usually on a flat surface of the whole or part of an area)

Some "out of scope" resources, that is those items that do not fall within the categories above but which are useful in the map room, are also found here. These "out-of-scope" items are mostly map reference materials, works on cartography and gazetteers.

All items in the map room have "Map Room" above their call number.

Researchers on cartography or the history of cartography will find that most books on these subjects are shelved in the Baker/Berry main stacks.

 

1 Spellman, Lawrence. "Value of Maps as Reference Tools," in Map Librarianship, Roman Drazniowski, ed., Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1975; p. 199.

A special thanks to the writer of A Guide to the Map Room (1978) who provided most of the text for this page.