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Category: Geographic Information Science

Screenshot of View from Above web map with clusters of maps shown on basemap of US.

New Interactive Map Showcases the Panoramic Maps Collection

Posted by: Tim St. Onge

The Panoramic Maps Collection, one of our most popular collections, features more than a thousand beautifully illustrated “bird’s-eye-view” maps of towns and cities across the United States, Canada, and even some internationally. To celebrate this collection, we are excited to launch View from Above: Exploring the Panoramic Map Collection, an interactive map that makes browsing …

Image with GIS Day logo

GIS Day 2022: Exploring Humanitarian GIS

Posted by: Meagan Snow

Happy GIS Day from the Library of Congress!   Today the Library celebrates GIS Day with a virtual event exploring the role of GIS in addressing humanitarian disasters. Today’s event aims to highlight the role that geospatial data and GIS technologies can play in creating positive change in the face of global humanitarian challenges. Geography …

Map of Washington DC in various colors indicating the grade of the streets.

Visualizing DC’s Municipal Infrastructure,1890 to 2022

Posted by: Meagan Snow

Maps can tell us all kinds of things about how others have viewed and shaped the world – from the borders of ancient empires to the layout of your neighborhood street grid. Today, spatial data commonly powers the maps and applications we use to access basic information about the places we inhabit: opening an app …

1853 Pilot Chart showing wind speeds

From Telegrams to Weather Apps: A Brief History of Wind Mapping

Posted by: Meagan Snow

Today it’s easy to check the weather without even leaving the house: hourly predictions for rain, wind, temperature, and humidity are available to most of us through our phones at the touch of a button. Warnings for severe weather flash across our screens to help keep us safe – but how did we get here? …

Georeferencing: Moving Analog Maps into Modern-Day GIS

Posted by: Meagan Snow

Have you ever wondered how historic maps can be used with today’s modern mapping technologies? One of the ways in which analog maps can be used with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is through a process called georeferencing. Georeferencing is the process of adding digital spatial reference information to an otherwise non-spatial image. Adding spatial reference …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

GIS Day on November 18th: Mapping the Pandemic

Posted by: Julie Stoner

You are invited to join the Library of Congress in celebrating GIS Day on Wednesday, November 18th from 1-4pm EST, with an afternoon of engaging talks and discussions on the theme of “Mapping the Pandemic Cases, Traces, and Mutations.” This presentation will premiere with closed captions on both the Library’s YouTube site and on the Library …