topography

Map Collection > Finding Maps at Stony Brook > Types of Material: Soil Surveys, Topographic Maps

TYPES OF MATERIAL: Soil Surveys, Topographic Maps

Soil Surveys

The library maintains an extensive collection of soil surveys of most U.S. counties. They are used by farmers, but also contain a wealth of information useful for environmental planners and others who need know about conditions in particular counties. Most modern soil surveys are overlaid over aerial photographs, which makes them a good source of high-altitude aerial photos for much of the nation. Older soil surveys often contain unique historical and archeological information.

Most soil surveys are arranged by state and county on shelves in the government Documents section in the North Reading Room. See the hyperlinked location map. Copies of the soil survey for Nassau and Suffolk counties are kept on the reserve shelf in the Science and Engineering Library. Older (pre-1950) soil maps of the Northeastern states have been removed from their accompanying booklets, and are filed in a locked map case.

Many county soil surveys are boxed. Others, enclosed in folders, are filed alphabetically by state and then by county. All may be found in the soil survey section. Please refer to our online Soil Survey Inventory to find our holdings by year of publication, and which, if any, box contains them.

Topographic Maps

The distinguishing feature of topographic maps is their portrayal of the shape and elevation of the terrain, usually by means of contour lines. Detailed (large-scale) topographic maps are usually the most detailed and accurate maps of any particular area. The map collection has nearly complete large-scale topographic coverage of the entire United States. (These are often referred to as "quadrangle maps," and are published by the United States Geological Survey.) The collection also includes small and medium-scale topographic maps of foreign areas, with large-scale coverage of some.

U.S. Topographic Maps: The United States Geological Survey publishes topographic maps at a number of scales. The most important of these are at 1:250,000, 1:100,000, and 1:24,000. The 1:24,000 scale maps (often known as 7.5 minute quadrangle maps) are the most detailed maps covering all of the United States, and it requires approximately 60,000 of them to cover the country. 1:24,000 maps are arranged in alphabetical order by state at the front of the Map Collection (see map of the map collection ). An index map is kept in the first drawer for each state. An older series known as "15 minute quadrangles" (at scales of 1:50,000 or 1:62,500) is filed separately after the 7.5 minute maps. The less detailed 1:250,000 and 1:100,000 scale maps are filed just before the 7.5 and 15 minute maps.

Foreign Topographic Maps: Foreign topographic maps are arranged by continent and country according to the Library of Congress classification schedule for maps (a summary of the Library of Congress map classification schedule is pasted on top of the foreign map cases). Topographic maps make up the bulk of the foreign maps in series . In looking for these maps, keep in mind that they are filed at the back of the Map Collection after the smaller-scale foreign sheet maps . If detailed topographic maps are not available for the area you are looking for, try using the 1:1,000,000 and 1:500,000 scale maps of the world. The 1:1,000,000 scale world maps are filed at the beginning of the foreign topographic maps. The 1:500,000 maps (Tactical Pilotage Charts) are in the white file cabinets against the wall (see map of the map collection).

Stony Brook University Libraries
Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3300
631.632.7100 (t), 631.632.7116 (fax)

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Copyright 2003. Last Update: August 2008