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Web Site Review
Roy Rosenzweig Contributing Editor
The Journal of American History, in collaboration with the Web site History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web <http://historymatters.gmu.edu>, publishes regular reviews of Web sites. The reviews appear both in the printed journal (and its online companion at <http://www.historycooperative.org>) and at History Matters. History Matters provides an annotated guide to more than eight hundred Web sites for teaching U.S. history. The goal is to offer a gateway to the best Web sites and to summarize their strengths and weaknesses with particular attention to their utility for teachers.
The Web reviews are edited by Roy Rosenzweig; please contact him at <roy@gmu.edu> if you would like to suggest a site for review or write a review. We also welcome comments on our review guidelines, which are available at <http://chnm.gmu.edu/jah/>.
| Berkeley Digital Map Collection <http://lib.berkeley.edu/EART/browse.html>. Created and maintained by the Earth Sciences and Map Library, University of California, Berkeley. Reviewed Dec. 23–26, 2005.Osher Map Library <http://www.usm.maine.edu/maps/web_exhibit.html>. Created and maintained by the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine. Reviewed Dec. 23–26, 2005.Federal Township Plats of Illinois, 1804–1891 <http://landplats.ilsos.net>. Created and maintained by the Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Ill. Reviewed Dec. 23–26, 2006.
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| Maps have become ubiquitous on the Internet, with many Web sites providing items of interest to historians. The three sites featured in this review all have useful material, but they vary widely in their level of functionality. Significantly, none of these sites offer interactive mapping. |
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The University of California Earth Sciences and Map Library's site provides quick and easy access to a large number of digitized maps, making it one of the most useful map collections on the World Wide Web. The site offers seven categories of maps: general, topographic, nautical, transportation, thematic, facsimile, and aerial photos. Each category includes maps from a variety of geographical areas and time periods and drawn to different scales. |
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To locate maps one uses the University of California–Berkeley (UC) library's Pathfinder system. Users browse through either California (almost 2,150 maps) or non-California (over 7,000) digital maps. In addition, a search function allows users to search by subject. A significant number of the maps are from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection <http://www.davidrumsey.com>, an amazingly rich set of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century maps, all beautifully rendered. Links are available to a wide array of other topographic and aerial maps from around the world held by UC, although some resources (for example, Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867–1970) are restricted to UC patrons. Navigation is easy for anyone familiar with online library catalogs, but most browsers will need to disable their computers' pop-up blocker to access the maps. |
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