McKeldin Library Map Collection: an interactive story

Abstract

The Map Collection located on the fourth floor of the McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland Libraries holds over 350,000 print maps and hundreds of atlases, the majority of maps that were published by U.S. government agencies and came to the libraries through the Federal Depository Library program. The collection includes USGS Topographic maps, Soil maps, CIA, Aeronautical maps, Forest Service maps, Historical maps, and National Geographic maps, among others. Coverage includes all U.S. states, most of the U.S. territories and possessions, and some areas outside of the United States. The library's GIS and Data Service Center pioneered an effort to build a story-telling application using ArcGIS StoryMaps that will promote the print map collection and atlases in an interactive manner making the collections more visible to the campus community and beyond. As far as we know, it is one of a kind storytelling application ever built in HigherEd libraries to showcase the diversity of print map collections in an immersive fashion to experience the collection under the patron’s fingertips. The McKeldin Map Collection StoryMaps includes one collection guide and 14 categories of maps. Each category contains an introduction to the map type, some sample map displays, locations at the map collection, and some additional resources