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The Map Room has an excellent collection of geological, mineral and mining maps of the world. All of the Library's maps have been cataloged and can be accessed through the Library's on-line catalog, Catalyst.  WARNING: not all of the world does has not been mapped geologically.  Also, the Library does NOT own all maps produced.

To find a map, always start your search with the NARROWEST geographic focus; a search that is too geographically wide will yield many irrelevant items. If you are looking for a map of "Matterhorn," begin your search with that term. If that fails, expand to the next widest geographic term, in this case, "Zermatt." If this proves unsuccessful, try "Valais Canton." If that does not acquire requisite information, use the search term "Pennine Alps."  If this does not produce the information you need, try "Switzerland". If you cannot find any items in Catalyst, or if you find too many items (over 10,000), see a librarian for guidance. WARNING: as you widen the geographic area of your search, the amount of detail that a particular maps shows will decrease.

Look for items in following places. They are ranked in order of importance. ALWAYS start with #1.

1) The Colorado School of Mines Library's online catalog--Catalyst
2) Georef

1) The easiest way to search for a geological map is to do a CUSTOM SEARCH in the Library's online catalog, Catalyst. Use the name of the place you are looking for, like "Mount Kenya" or "New South Wales," and the words "map?" and "geolog?"; the "?" is the truncation character. It tells the system to search for all words that begin "geolog" and "map"--the words could be "geology" or "geologic" or "geological" and "map" or "maps". Doing a search of "Colorado" "geolog?" and "map?" is too broad; it will yield more than 10,000 items. By narrowing your search and using the "?" symbol, you will save time. If you cannot find any items in Catalyst, or if you find too many items (over 300), see a librarian for guidance.

2) Georef is a database which contains an index to geologic publications, including maps. It is a comprehensive database, and its contents' dates range from the 1700's to the present. Georef may only be used on the CSM campus. Georef is interconnected with Catalyst, therefore it is easy to check to see if the CSM Library owns a particular map or book.  To connect to Georef, click here. Type in Georef and click on the link in the results.