Summer Reading List: Cartography, Secret Cities, and the Power of
Maps
The Ball State University
Libraries provide the latest resources for research and learning. Anyone interested in learning more about
creating maps, human geography, or thematic atlases may wish to check out some
of the new materials available from Bracken Library.
Unruly
Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and
Other Inscrutable Geographies by
Alastair Bonnett is available in the General Collection on the third floor of
Bracken Library (Range 46). This book
was published in 2014 and provides a tour of the world’s hidden geographies—from
no man’s lands, secret and dead cities, breakaway nations and enclaves, even
the parking lot at LAX, and disappearing islands. For example, Bonnett describes Sandy Island
(reportedly off the coast of Australia), which appeared on National Geographic
maps and even Google Earth up until 2012 even though it does not exist.
Mapping
the Nation: History and Cartography in
Nineteenth-Century America by
Susan Schulten is also available in the General Collection on the third floor
of Bracken Library (Range 48). This book
provides a history of map-making in American history, including the mapping of
disease, slavery, and environmental issues.
The book includes maps from the Geography and Map Division of the
Library of Congress and other historic collections.
Mapping
in the Cloud by Michael
Peterson was published in 2014 and can also be found on the third floor of
Bracken Library (Range 48). This book
includes an introduction to maps and the Internet, a map gallery, online street
maps, map digitizing and GPS, map mashups, and animated mapping. Readers can learn about the technology of
modern cartography, GIS software, and Web-based mapping. The book includes a companion Web page providing
supplementary materials for instructors and students.
Maps
by Aleksandra
Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski was published in 2013. This atlas was published for children, but
the illustrations and maps (above, click to enlarge) may be interesting for
teachers, artists, and other interested in unique cartography. The maps depict geographical features and
political borders, places of interest, iconic personalities, native animals and
plants, and cultural events for each region of the world. The atlas even shows popular names in
different regions of the world. The book
is available in the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor
of Bracken Library.
World
Atlas of Birds by Peter
Scott was published in 2014 and includes color portraits of 500 specially
selected species, 270 line drawings, and 167 maps showing the realms of birds
around the world. The maps cover
virtually every habitat from polar regions to rainforests, mountains, and even
oceans. Fourteen of the world’s most
distinguished ornithologists provided information for the book. This resource can be found in the Atlas
Collection (Range 3) on the second floor of Bracken Library.
For more information about cartographic
resources available from Bracken Library, please contact the GRMC at
765-285-1097.
