Wall Street Journal Cartography Article

The Elvis Atlas: A Journey through Elvis Presley's America, Atlas Collection, Ball State University Libraries

The Wall Street Journal this week featured an article about using paper maps in the digital era, including one showing Elvis' hometown.

Indiana Political History Map Available from Ball State University Libraries

Indiana Election Day Cartography:  Whigs, Willkie, and the White House

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) features a special “Map of the Month” for November 2014—a map of Indiana political history (above, click to enlarge).  The map, Whigs, Willkie, and the White House, was created by the GRMC and features the people and places of note in Indiana’s rich political history.  Many of the figures and events in Indiana politics also had national prominence and implications.

The map includes photographs from the Libraries’ Digital Media Repository and the Indiana Historical Society.

A copy of the map is available for use in research and learning from the Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar online repository.  The map may be printed for use in the classroom or other educational and research purposes.

The map exhibit is featured in the front windows of the GRMC on the second floor of Bracken Library. 

Native American Heritage Month Map Exhibit at Ball State University Libraries

Indiana History:  Native American Heritage Month Map Exhibit

November commemorates Native American Heritage Month.  Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library is celebrating the month with a special exhibit.

The Native American Heritage Month exhibit (above, click to enlarge) this year includes maps depicting the history of Native Americans in the area of modern-day Indiana.  Indiana’s Native American Tribes is a map showing the Native American groups that lived in area prior to statehood, including the Lenape (Delaware), the Miami, the Potawatomi, and the Shawnee.

A second map, Tecumseh’s War 1811, is from the Historical Atlas of Native Americans by Ian Barnes published in 2009 and available from the GRMC and the Atlas Collection.  The map shows the locations of Native American villages in the region, including Prophetstown.  This site on the Wabash River is where William Henry Harrison fought the Native Americans in the Battle of Tippecanoe.  The map also identifies the locations of American and British forts, Zane’s Trace, towns, and the probably birthplace of Tecumseh and the site of Tecumseh’s father’s death.

The map, Native American Resistance 1785-1842, identifies areas ceded by the Native Americans, Native American settlements, forts, and battle sites.  Northwest Territories 1800-1818 shows the borders of the original Indiana Territory and the subsequent Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan Territories.  Both of these maps and the photographs of Sitting Bull and other prominent figures are from the Historical Atlas of Native Americans.

Another map in the exhibit shows the location of Native American villages along the White River in Indiana.  Current county lines and towns are shown on the map as points of reference. 

A copy of the exhibit poster is available for use from the Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar repository.  Previous map exhibits are also available from the online repository for use in the classroom or research.

The GRMC has also created cartographic subject guides to assist researchers using geographic materials related to numerous academic fields, and a guide to Native American resources is available from the GRMC Web page.  The guide includes maps and other cartographic resources available from the GRMC and the Atlas Collection in Bracken Library.

For more information about these cartographic resources, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

The Map as Art: Halloween Cartography

Happy Halloween from Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection

The image above is from the book, The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, by Katharine Harmon.  Man Cutting Globe is a lithograph created by Vernon Fisher in 1995.  The book was published by the Princeton Architectural Press in 2009 and is available in the GIS Research and Map Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library.

GIS Story Maps for Halloween

Halloween Cartography:  ESRI Story Map Celebrity Cemetery Tour

ESRI, the international supplier of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and applications, created an interactive mapping tool called "Story Maps."  Story Maps “combine interactive maps and multimedia content into elegant user experiences…and make it easy to harness the power of maps to tell stories.”  The maps are created by a diverse community of authors, and one of the latest added to the Story Map Gallery just in time for Halloween is called Where Are the Bodies?

WhereAre the Bodies? Story Map provides locations of celebrity burial sites using Digital Globe satellite imagery.  The celebrities include historical figures, notorious criminals, and great authors like Ernest Hemingway (buried in Ketchum, Idaho), William Shakespeare (buried in Warwickshire, England) and Bram Stoker (London, England).  The Grimm Brothers, authors of spooky fairy tales, are buried in Berlin, Germany.

The map also includes legends of Hollywood:  Marilyn Monroe is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.  Bela Lugosi, best known for his role as “Dracula,” was buried in one of his Dracula capes in Culver City, California.  Actor Marlon Brando had his ashes scattered in Death Valley, California, and in Tahiti, while legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s ashes were spread over the Pacific Ocean.

Musician Janis Joplin’s ashes were also scattered over the Pacific Ocean.  John Lennon’s ashes were scattered over Central Park in New York, New York.  Buddy Holly is buried in Lubbock, Texas.  Jimi Hendrix is buried in Renton, Washington.  Freddie Mercury was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery in London, England, but his burial location is unknown.  And the grave site of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France, is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions and has attracted vandals since his death in 1971.

This Story Map also includes celebrities with connections to Indiana:  America’s first “Public Enemy Number One,” John Dillinger and author Kurt Vonnegut (both native Hoosiers) are buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Indiana native Michael Jackson’s gravesite in Glendale, California is also featured on the map.  And Indiana actor James Dean was buried in Fairmount, Indiana, following his fatal car crash in 1955.

For more information about using story maps, visit the ESRI Web page or contact Angela Gibson, GIS Specialist, in the Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection at 765-285-1097. 

Original World War I Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Historic World War I Maps Available Online from Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository (DMR) provides online access to a broad range of digitized primary source materials, including artwork, architectural drawings, films and video, oral histories, photographs, publications, and cartographic resources.  The GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) has provided more maps for a new collection available from the DMR—the New York Times War Maps Collection.

The New York Times War Maps are a set of five maps published periodically in the Sunday edition of the newspaper in early 1918.  Each map is newspaper-sized and connects to create a large map of the Western front in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium during World War I.  The maps cover an area just west of Calais, France, along the coast of the North Sea south to Orleans eastward to Freiburg, Germany, and crossing back northward to near Cologne, Germany.

The maps identify the locations of railways, principal highways, canals, aircraft depots, forts and fortified towns, and naval arsenals.  The battle line as of December 31, 1917, and the furthest advance of the German Army are shown with solid and dashed lines.

For more information about the Digital Media Repository, please contact the Archives and Special Collections at 765-285-5078.  For more information about these or other historic maps, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Maps of Volcanoes from Ball State University Libraries

Places in the News:  Maps of Hawaii Volcanoes Available from Ball State University Libraries

The latest eruption of the Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii is threatening residents of the small town of Pahoa.  Burning lava is traveling at rates as fast as 11 yards per hour according to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.  Many of the residents have voluntarily evacuated from their homes.

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) includes a number of maps of volcanoes around the world.  This Dynamic Planet map was published in 2006 by the U.S. Geological Survey.  The map includes locations of volcanoes around the world.  Earthquakes, impact craters, and plate tectonics are also depicted.  A color cross-section map is shown.

The GRMC also includes the World Atlas of Natural Hazards published in 2004.  The atlas includes a world seismicity map and relief maps of world volcanoes.  A section on volcano hazard mapping is included.

Hawaii’s Volcanoes Revealed map (above, click to enlarge) was also published by the U.S. Geological Survey.  The map identifies the locations of volcanoes throughout the state of Hawaii, and sea-floor relief is also shown.  Ancillary maps include the bathymetry of the northwest Pacific Ocean, a 3-D perspective view of Hawaii, and an interpretive map of Hawaii’s volcanoes.

The town of Pahoa is located in the southeast corner of the Big Island of Hawaii.  Pahoa’s location is shown on the Google map of Hawaii (above).

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer.  For more information about these resources, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

ESRI Creates Zip Code Profiles from Census Data

Profiling America with GIS Data

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) is a vital resource that provides comprehensive GIS support to the entire campus community.  The GRMC offers access to the leading GIS software and assistance from the GIS Specialist. Faculty and students have free access to the full suite of GIS software from the leading publisher, ESRI.  And now ESRI has created an online profile of Americans using zip codes to publish the Tapestry Segmentation Project.

ESRI combined U.S. Census demographic data with marketing data from different zip codes to analyze the percentages of population that can be categorized into different profile groups.  Tapestry classifies the population in 14 “LifeMode” categories from affluent to family-related to ethnic enclaves to a mode labelled “Scholars and Patriots.”  Then each residential neighborhood is divided into 67 distinct segments based on socioeconomic and demographic composition.

The Tapestry segment names offer a glimpse into the percentage of people who live in the neighborhood.  The segments include “Laptops and Lattes,” “Trendsetters,” “Soccer Moms,” “Urban Chic,” “Barrios Urbanos,” “Hardscrabble Road,” and “Diners and Miners.”

The Muncie, Indiana zip code 47304 resulted in 30% of the population described as “Midlife Constants.”  This group typically was married couples with no kids living in single family housing.  This group is described as “homebodies…happy to work on our houses and gardens, do scrapbooking, read, go fishing, play golf, and watch movies at home.”  The group is described as “outgoing seniors who belong to fraternal orders, veterans’ clubs, and charitable organization; attend church; volunteer; contribute to political…organizations.”  This zip code is also represented by 18% in the “In Style” segment and 14% as “College Towns.”

The well-known Beverly Hills zip code of 90210 resulted in a description of the population as 73% labelled “Top Tier.”  “Top Tier” neighborhoods include self-made entrepreneurs and business leaders.  Most are married couples with “lavish homes” who “can indulge…in personal services…and shop at high-end retailers.”  This zip code also includes 20% as “Trendsetters” and 8% as “Retirement Communities.”

The ESRI ArcGIS is available on computers in the GRMC, computers in the Educational Technology and Resources Collection in the lower level of Bracken Library, computers on the first, third, and fourth floor of Bracken Library, the Science-Health Science Library, and the Architecture Library.  Users can type “ESRI” in the Software Locator search box to see a map of computer availability.

For more information about using GIS software, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Earthquake Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

This Day in History:  Earthquake Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time, an earthquake struck a section of the San Andreas Fault System near the San Francisco Bay area.  This was the first earthquake ever to be broadcast live on national television since the San Francisco Giants were playing the Oakland A’s in Game 3 of the World Series at Candlestick Park.  The earthquake was later named the “Loma Prieta” earthquake for the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. 

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) includes a substantial collection of maps and other resources documenting earthquakes.  The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has published a number of maps showing global seismicity and more detailed maps of individual states like California, Utah, and Alaska.  Another map by the USGS shows three centuries of earthquakes in the central United States—from 1699 to 2002. 

The map above (top, click to enlarge) is a USGS LandSat image of earthquakes and faults in the San Francisco Bay area.  The yellow circles depict the size of earthquakes occurring in the region.  The Loma Prieta earthquake epicenter is the largest circle in the mountain area northeast of Santa Cruz.

Another map (above) of San Francisco published by the USGS shows the actual ground-shaking effects around the city.  Using remote-sensing, the map shows areas of the city built on either sand (gold color on map), bedrock (blue), serpentinite (green), or bay mud and fill (red).  According to the map, the same areas of the city were damaged in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes:  “These districts are repeatedly damaged because they are built on soft ground that amplifies the shaking in earthquakes.  Structures built on harder ground, such as bedrock, suffer less damage.” 

Earthquake digital data on CD-ROMs is also available from the GRMC and circulates just like maps in the collection.  Maps circulate for two weeks or longer.

For more information, please visit the GRMC Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00 p.m. or call 765-285-1097.

Map of the Cold War Available from Ball State University Libraries

This Day in History: Cuban Missile Crisis

On October 14, 1962, an American U-2 spy plane photographed a Soviet ballistic missile being assembled for installation in Cuba.  Thus began one of the biggest encounters of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Following a naval blockade, nuclear war was avoided when President Kennedy agreed to not invade Cuba in exchange for the Soviet removal of all missiles in Cuba.

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created a map of some of the most significant events of the Cold War.  The map (above, click to enlarge) shows the locations of events beginning with Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946 to the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972, and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

The Cold War map, Capitalism vs. Communism: Events of the Cold War, is available for use in education, research, and learning for teachers, students, and others from the Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar repository.  A large-format copy of the map may be printed in the GRMC. A worksheet requiring students to map the events of the Cold War is also available for teachers to use in the geography or history classroom.

The Atlas Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library also includes resources for studying the Cold War.  The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Cold War, The Canadian Military Atlas, and The Times Atlas of European History all include maps and other cartographic sources.

For more information about using maps from the GRMC or Cardinal Scholar, please call 765-285-1097.

Community Maps Class in Downtown Muncie

Ball State University Libraries' Maps Class at Cornerstone Center for the Arts

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will present a class on Tuesday, October 7 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm in the Founders’ Room of the Cornerstone Center for the Arts in Muncie.  The class, Using Maps in a Digital World, will feature maps from the GRMC in Bracken Library and is free and open to the public.

Participants will learn how to access maps and other resources from the University Libraries’ Digital MediaRepository and Cardinal Scholar.  The GRMC uses maps from the collection to explain current events happening around the globe.  Participants can also learn about using online maps to study genealogy and local history. 

Students and other speakers can learn how to use maps as visual aids for speeches, papers, and presentations.  The GRMC provides access to maps about women’s issues, the environment, education, health and disease, sports, and other social topics.  The GRMC also has large map and photograph posters for countries around the world available online.

Teachers can learn about how to create custom online maps for use in the classroom and learning.  And the GRMC also publishes K-12 lessons, games, tutorials, and other classroom resources online.

The Cornerstone Center for the Arts is located at 520 East Main Street in downtown Muncie.  Parking is free.  For more information, please contact the Cornerstone at 765-281-9503.

For more information about using maps for classroom lessons or as visual aids, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Interactive Map of College Football Fandom

The Geography of College Football

The New York Times published an interactive map that shows the most popular college football teams around the United States.  Click on a county or enter a zip code to see a breakdown of the fan percentage for the three most popular schools. 

The map was based on the number of “likes” and mentions on Facebook.  Most of the teams are close geographically, but the map offers some surprises:  The most popular team in Bronx County, New York and Plymouth County, Massachusetts (and most of Maine and New Hampshire) for example, is the University of Florida Gators.  And the second-most popular team in Washington, D.C. is the Ohio State University Buckeyes.

Syria Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Maps in the News:  Syria Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) has a significant collection of maps of Syria and the Middle East.  The maps include both historic and new, updated maps of the country and region.

Illustrated Syria map was published in 1943.  The map depicts agricultural and industrial products and places of interest, including parts of Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and then Palestine.  An inset map shows main roads, air routes, railroads, pipelines, and political divisions.  The text is written in English and Arabic.

The GRMC also includes road maps of Syria, maps of archaeological sites, tourist maps, economic maps, and land use and population maps.  A unique tectonic sketch map showing oil wells and petroleum exploration from 1978 was published by the Foreign Scouting Service.

Four sets of topographic maps of Syria (including historic maps) at varying scales are also available.  City maps of Syria are also available from the GRMC, including a reproduction of a bird’s-eye view map of Damascus from 1575.

The top map above (click to enlarge) was published by the Central Intelligence Agency and shows the area near Ar-Raqqah on the Euphrates River where American airstrikes are targeted.  This map includes railroads and expressways.

The second map, Syria Country Profile, was published by the CIA in 2011 when the civil war there began and shows the location of an airbase near Ar Raqqah.  Inset maps include a map of the Golan Heights, the oil and gas infrastructure, ethnoreligious distribution, and population density.  The relative size of Syria compared to the eastern United States is also shown.  This map includes information and statistics for a number of geographic features.

For more information about these maps, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097 Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00.

Ball Brothers Documentary Film Premiere

Ball Brothers Factory Band, Digital Media Repository

Gas Boom to Glass Jars: Ball Brothers Documentary Premieres This Week

A Legacy Etched in Glass: The Ball Brothers in Muncie, a documentary produced by the Ball State University Department of Telecommunications as part of an immersive learning project, premieres on Thursday, September 25 at 6:00 pm at Minnetrista in Muncie.  The documentary tells the story of the five Ball brothers—George, Lucius, Frank, Edmund, and William.

The Ball brothers moved their glass manufacturing business from Buffalo, New York, to Muncie during the Indiana gas boom of the 1890’s.  Locating the factories on the south side of Muncie, the Ball brothers expanded their operations enormously in the early 20^th century.  The film explores the lives of the brothers, their families, the ongoing Ball legacy in Muncie, and the core values that propelled them to success as industrialists and community leaders.

The story weaves motion graphic animation, beautiful cinematography, and archival materials with interviews and analyses from expert historians.  Sanborn Fire Insurance maps (above, click to enlarge) and maps showing the Trenton gas field are featured in the film.  Historic maps from the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) used for the film are available for viewing in the Ball State University Libraries’ Digital MediaRepository.  The map collections include:  Muncie Sanborn Insurance Maps, United States Transportation Maps, Ball State University Campus Maps, American Cities Historic Maps, Indiana Natural Resources Maps, International Historic Maps, Delaware County Aerial Plat Maps, Indiana Historic County Atlases, United States Soil Maps, and United States Topographic Maps.  The University Libraries’ YouTube channel allows users a different format for viewing some of the resources from the Digital Media Repository.

For questions about the documentary, please contact the executive producer and faculty advisor Chris Flook at 765-730-0841.  For more information about the Digital Media Repository, contact John Straw in the Archives and Special Collections at 765-285-5078.

Scotland Maps Available from Ball State University

Scot-Free:  Maps of Scotland Available from Ball State University Libraries

Since 1990 34 new countries have been created, and tomorrow residents of Scotland will vote to decide whether Scotland will join that list.  A referendum on September 18 will determine whether Scotland will become independent from the United Kingdom for the first time in more than 300 years.   The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) and Atlas Collection in Bracken Library include a large collection of maps of Scotland and the United Kingdom.

The Atlas Collection includes Scotland: The Complete Guide, which was published in 1999.  This book includes a road atlas and descriptive guides about food, genealogy, monuments, castles, and churches, festivals, music, and the history of Scotland.  A travel section lists addresses and phone numbers for tourist boards and car rental services and detailed maps of tours and places of interest.

The GRMC includes new travel maps of cities and regions of Scotland and a variety of historic and current thematic maps.  The Historical Map of Scotland (segment shown above, click to enlarge) includes colorful illustrations of places and events in Scottish history, including Sir William Wallace. 

The collection also includes the Tartan Map of Scotland and Clan Map of Scotland with graphics of the various plaids and surnames’ coats-of-arms.  The Tartan Map of Scotland map (above) shows the general location of the areas of the various clan names.

The Whisky Map of Scotland (inset above) was published in 1994 by the Scotch Whisky and Malt Whisky Association of Scotland.  The map includes information about the distilleries throughout Scotland, and the inset shows locations on the cultural “Whisky Trail.”

The GRMC also includes travel maps of regions and cities of Scotland, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Dundee, and Aberdeen.  The Rail Map of Britain includes the railways of Scotland.  Ordnance Survey maps of Scotland and maps detailing the oil fields of the Scottish highlands and islands are also available from the GRMC.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer.  Atlases from the Atlas Collection may be borrowed for 28 days or longer.

For more information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Hispanic Heritage Month Map Exhibit at Ball State University Libraries

Hispanic-American Cartographic Resources Exhibit at Bracken Library

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) is commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) with a special map exhibit.  The exhibit includes maps, charts, and photographs from The Atlas of Hispanic-American History from the Atlas Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library.  Included are maps of the attack on the Alamo, the California mission system, New Spain, and styles of Latin music.  Charts and photographs also describe Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Movement.

The exhibit is posted in the front window of the GRMC on the second floor of Bracken Library through October 15.  The Atlas of Hispanic-American History is available for circulation from the Atlas Collection.

A copy of the exhibit poster is available in the University Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar institutional repository and may be used for educational displays and research.

For more information about any cartographic resources, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Iraq, Jamaica, Somalia, Syria, the Ukraine, and Wales Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Maps in the News: Iraq, Jamaica, Somalia, Syria, the Ukraine, and Wales

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) provides cartographic resources for research and learning.  In fact the GRMC houses 140,000 maps and atlases of locations around the world, including global “hot spots” in the news.

The first map above (click to enlarge) is a portion of a road map of the United Kingdom available from the GRMC.  The map shows the locations of the NATO Summit in Newport and Cardiff, Wales.  President Obama is attending this meeting of world leaders—the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in Great Britain.

The second map was provided by the Institute for the Study of War.  The map shows the presence of the Islamic State (Isis) marked in red from Syria through Iraq.  The northwestern region of Syria is identified on the map as the region in which journalist James Foley was kidnapped in 2012.  U.S. airstrike targets are shown as of August 2014.

The next map is from the GRMC and was published by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency showing the regions of dispute in the country of Somalia.  Somaliland and Puntland are not recognized and are self-declared autonomous regions. 

The map of Ukraine was published on the ReliefWeb Web page.  The map shows the rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine.  The map identifies the number and locations of people displaced (IDP’s=internally displaced population) by the fighting in the country and the number of people seeking asylum as of September 1, 2014.

The last map is a Central Intelligence Agency map of Jamaica from the GRMC.  The map shows the parish boundaries, railroads, important roads, and cities.

The most updated Central Intelligence Agency maps are available from the Digital Media Repository from the Maps of the World collection.

For more information about cartographic resources from the GRMC, please call 765-285-1097.

Teachers' Resources Available from Ball State University Libraries

Back-to-School:  Educational Resources Available from Ball State University Libraries

Students, faculty, and other educators can access important classroom resources like maps, lessons, and learning games created by the Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) from the Cardinal Scholar institutional repository.  Cardinal Scholar allows users to access the valuable resources from any location around the world with Web availability.

Teachers and student-teachers can find numerous custom maps, games, posters, lesson plans, map worksheets and activities, cartographic tutorials, and other resources in Cardinal Scholar.  These classroom resources were developed specifically for K-12 teachers to use and share.

Teachers and students from around the world have used the GRMC teaching and learning resources accessible through Cardinal Scholar.  A student-teacher from Shenandoah Elementary School (Middletown, Indiana) used posters featuring maps and photographs from every modern war to create a Veterans Day exhibit at her school.  Student-teacher Kevin Ginder created a bulletin board at Mount Comfort Elementary School (Mount Comfort, Indiana) using maps from Cardinal Scholar.

Kate Sutter, social studies teacher at Lebanon (Missouri) High School, displayed the Black Diamonds: Negro League Baseball map in her classroom (above, click to enlarge).  A Black History Month maps presentation from the Cornerstone Center for the Arts class and Black History Month map posters are also available from Cardinal Scholar.

Danielle Boultinghouse accessed many of the GRMC resources for her lessons while teaching at an urban school in Indianapolis.  “I used map posters of Australia during a weeklong unit.  The students loved the maps and being able to learn about a faraway place.  I also used the Ball State Cardinal Life board game in a lesson about college and used maps to teach about using scale and determining distance for math class.”  Many of the games and lessons are adaptable to use with iPads and other classroom technology.

Chelsea Wappes used Cardinal Scholar while teaching in Fort Wayne and said “Map resources are a fabulous tool for teachers.”  A graduate student studying in England used some of the cartographic tutorials available from Cardinal Scholar to teach students about how to read topographic maps.

James Carson, County Wicklow, Ireland, learned about a Jane Austen literary map available from the GRMC after using the Guide to Cartographic Resources for English/Literature in Cardinal Scholar. A guide to cartographic resources about women’s history is also available, and the GRMC created a series of custom maps about women’s issues called Women in the World now available from Cardinal Scholar, including maps about female heads of state, breast cancer (above), and even Miss Universe winners.

Ball State University students volunteering with College Mentors for Kids use map games for after-school activities with elementary students.  Russia Clue and Canada Clue are a popular twist from the original Clue board game featuring famous people, cultural objects, and the provinces of Canada or the former nations of the Soviet Union instead of suspects, weapons, and rooms.

The Rinker Center for International Programs displays the country map posters (Russia, above) from Cardinal Scholar for the weekly Culture Exchange programs.  These posters include a map of the country with photographs from National Geographic magazine and atlases from the Bracken Library Atlas Collection.

To find all of the available resources from the GRMC, click on “Communities and Collections” on the left side of the main Cardinal Scholar page.  Scroll down to the Information Technology section, and the GRMC will be listed under University Libraries.  On the GRMC page, click on “browse by title” in the middle of the page.  This lists all the resources in the collection.  For a more specific search, type in a subject such as “Africa” or “map game.”  Users can click on the title of the resource and save it for use in papers, presentations, classroom activities, or other research or print any of the games and maps.  (The GRMC has two large-format printers available for the Ball State University community).  And check the repository frequently because the GRMC adds resources every week.

For more information about using Cardinal Scholar for research and learning, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Ball State University 2014 Football Opponents Map

Gridiron Geography:  Ball State University Football Opponents Map

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created a map showing the locations of the schools the university’s football team will play during the 2014 season.  The first football game is at home in Scheumann Stadium at 2:00 tomorrow versus Colgate University from Hamilton, New York.  The Cardinals will travel west to the University of Iowa next week and east to the University of Massachusetts in November.

A copy of the map is available from the University Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar.

GIS Research and Map Collection Closed for Labor Day

Census Atlas of the United States

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will be closed on Monday, September 1 for Labor Day.  The GRMC will reopen on Tuesday, September 2 at 8:00 a.m.