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Web by Topic: Geography

Heartland's knowledgeable librarians have assembled a list of some of the more reliable Web sites.

What are some credible sites about geography?

  • Atlapedia Maps

    A great resource for individual country and world maps. Presented in either physical or political formats, these maps are full-color, printable and downloadable. General information and statistics also are provided for each country.

  • CIA World Factbook

    Provides national level information updated bi-weekly for approximately 270 countries, territories, dependencies, etc. Contains detailed information concerning geography, people, government, economy, transportation, military and more.

  • Colombia Gazetteer of North America

    The full text of the 2000 Columbia Gazetteer of North America. You can search all 50,000 entries at once or browse alphabetically. Great source for quickly finding basic statistics and info. No photos or maps.

  • Federal Township Plats of Illinois

    Digitally reproduced hand-drawn plats of over 3,400 townships in Illinois.

  • Geodata.gov

    Generate maps based on a wide range of data including agriculture, health, demographics, environment, geology, etc.

  • Geographic Names Information System

    Simple search-by-name database. Enter the name of a city, airport, lake, beach, major building, etc. and get county, state, elevation, longitude, latitude and more.

  • Lonely Planet

    After choosing a location, information such as a general introduction, history, culture, environment, attractions, transportation, money and events of the country are available.

  • Map Quest

    Leading site for maps, driving directions, trip planning and destination information.

  • National Atlas

    Excellent for maps of North America. There are simple printable maps as well as customizable maps that let you display particular types of data by interest.

  • Sperling’s Best Places

    Provides information for comparisons between hundreds of U.S. cities on such categories as tax rates, job growth, home purchase costs, public schools and crime. It is useful for general quick profiles of demographic and cost-of-living information for U.S. cities.

  • U.S. State Department Background Notes

    The U.S. Department of State's Background Notes site provides facts and narrative entries on 198 "independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty."

  • U.S. County Information

    Easily accessible U.S. county information. Click on the map to bring up the county you want or search by name of county. Provides the user with size of county, population, names of elected officials, county seat, and a nice link to Census Bureau Quick Facts.

Always remember to evaluate your sources.