In my first year of university at Carleton University, I found myself drawn to the Map Library. I would spend hours scouring maps. That Christmas my gift to my grandfather was a series of photocopied maps and town directories of Western Ukraine (Bukovina, Chernivtsi) for a 100 year period. We read through town names together. It is a beautiful memory of how much the maps and data can be so personal for us.
Today I hosted Max Richman on a Community Call to share his Open Maps talk which he previously presented at Open Data Day DC. (His slides). In our chatting, which spilled over to twitter, we started to collect a list of map books that we love and that we recommend. I have too many that I haven’t read, but some that I have.
Here are some of the ones suggested:
- On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World looks
- How to Lie with Maps
- No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control
- Mercator: the Man who Mapped the Planet
- Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
What’s in your Map Library?
In an effort to keep tracking, I created this open Hackpad to build a fun Map Library. Recommendations welcome.
