Atlases compile maps, which may have political, cultural, ecological, temporal, or other ways of conveying geographic and cartographic information. They may include commentary.
Gazetteers are geographic dictionaries or directories. A gazetteer of the world could include a list of countries with standardized information about each. Contemporarily published historic gazetteers cover geographic divisions from a particular time period and give brief histories of each place covered, e.g. name and territorial changes.
Geographic information can appear within many other kinds of reference sources, for example guidebooks, walking guides or tourism books, statistical manuals and surveys, and yearbooks. Searching by place name may bring up many different types of sources, and being aware of the differences in material type can help you filter results.
Searching by place name may require research into changes to how a place has been referred to over time. The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online (TGN) is a powerful tool for researching place names, including political and geographic entities that no longer exist. Entries may contain a brief historical note and etymology of the place name, so it is also a good resource for collecting facts about a name itself.
Caption: Excerpt from the record of New York City from the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online (TGN). Lists Names, both historic and current, and the hierarchical position of the name within larger geographic contexts (state, nation, continent, and facet).
As you can see, place names are hierarchical. For a place such as New York City, you will find information at the city or even the neighborhood level. But for places that are less well represented in research and geographical surveys, you may need to begin your searches at a higher level (state, nation, region, or continent). Within these larger volumes, you can use the index or table of contents to find specific information on your more specific place.
Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada
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The Gay and Lesbian Atlas
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Historical Gazetteer of the United States
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This section is adapted from Kelly Janousek’s (2025) guide, "Maps and Geographical Information Systems," from the California State University Long Beach Library.
Atlases may be found in the Bobst Reference Collection (9th Floor), the Bobst 9th Floor Map Cases, or the general stacks (regular and oversized shelves). Use the catalog to find the call number and location for your item. If you want to browse the book shelves in Reference, general stacks, or oversized stacks, the call number sequence will repeat in each section: