Gazetteers are dictionaries of places of geographic places.

If you are looking of a place in Colorado, try: Colorado Places by County.  This list is an unofficial list Colorado place names.  It was compiled for the Colorado Genealogy Web.

If you know the place you are looking for is in the USA, it is best and easiest to use Geographical Names Information Server (GNIS). This database is the OFFICIAL list of place names in the USA.  It is comprehensive, authoritative and easy to use. GNIS is available at http://geonames.usgs.gov.  GNIS has information on a place's location, and  topographic map.  The list also has links to digitized maps and aerial photographs of the area.

If you are looking for a place in another country, and do not know which country it is in, look in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World (call number "G103.5 .L7 1998", located in the Reference Room). Or try the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's GEOnet Names Server at http://164.214.2.59/gns/html/index.html.

If you do know the country that your place is located, use the gazetteers produced by the US Board on Geographic Names. These are filed by country name on the Map Room shelves with the call number "G105 .G3". Updates of some of the gazetteers are available on microfiche in the Government Publications section--call number "D 5.319:" .

Gazetteers on the Web:

• Colorado Places by County.

• National Information and Mapping Agency (NIMA) list of world placenames. 

• GNIS--a list of USA placenames maintained by USGS. 

• US Gazeeteer by the Census Bureau 

• Canadian placenames  

• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names  

• Terraserver