Art from maps

We all know and love art on maps, from monsters lounging in the sea to vignettes showing Roman gods and goddesses. But most of that art seems to exist on older maps, saved from a different time. Where is the art in maps today?

Matthew Cusick thought that maps today had their own kind of beauty, though they are often not illustrated like older maps are, and decided to turn the maps themselves into collages.

Here's a close-up of one of his collages:

Part of me admires his handiwork and the beauty of his final product; part of me mourns the cutting up of maps to make the art. Since maps started being mass-produced, I suppose it's not as much of a deal... And I guess you can't make a map omelet without breaking a few map eggs, right?

See more of Mr. Cusick's map art here.

New blog!

The Map Library here at the University of Michigan has fused with Government Documents and the Spacial and Numeric Data Labs to reveal their ultimate final form: the Stephen S. Clark Library.

We're excited about the new blog, all integrated and shiny! Please follow along!

Of course, we will still try to whet your appetite for pure map-related goodness here, but the Clark Library blog will have all sorts of data visualizations and the like that you might also find interesting.

http://clark-library.blogspot.com/

The salinity of Earth's oceans

In June of 2011, NASA launched a satellite named Aquarius, designed to monitor changes in the saltiness of the Earth's waters, rainfall and evaporation of Earth's waters, and climate and weather variations. Aquarius became operational in late August of 2011, and here is a map from its first two and a half weeks of data:

The red areas of the map have the highest surface salinity, and the purple areas the lowest.

By tracking changes in the salinity of the oceans, scientists will be better able to understand ocean currents and the movement of fresh water. For instance, the satellite captured images of the effects of tropical storm Lee as it hit Louisiana, causing the Mississippi River to discharge much more than it usually does, which led to a corresponding area of lowered salinity, pictured below.

 

The salinity of the area was only temporarily lowered, as can be seen in the middle image above. Read more about the data from this time period here: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/pia15185

You can see the current location of the satellite here: http://aquarius.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/whereis_aquarius

To read more about the first map, go here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aquarius/multimedia/gallery/pia14786.html

For more information about the Aquarius project, visit http://aquarius.nasa.gov/

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is the always great Turkey Day, a wonderful time for getting together with family and loved ones, counting your blessings, and eating until you pass out.

What's that? You don't have a recipe for the potluck picked out?

Well, luckily, in 2009 the New York Times compiled what people were searching for the day before Thanksgiving using AllRecipes.com, and made a series of maps showing where those recipes were most frequently searched. That should be a lovely place to get some inspiration and choose something to make for your family. By far, the most popular search was for "sweet potato casserole"-- and with good cause. Those things are delicious!

It's interesting to see which search terms were extremely localized, such as "corn pudding" or "broccoli casserole" (visible to the left of the main map in the image below):

Hopefully flipping through those maps should give you some ideas, or at least a little entertainment.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

LocalHarvest.org

Have you been hearing about the economic and environmental benefits of buying local produce, but are unsure of how to go about looking for the resources necessary to find what you need? Look no further! LocalHarvest.org, founded in 1998, is a very helpful website that shows you farmers' markets, grocery stores, and many other places where you can get sustainably-grown produce, grass-fed meats, and lots of other interesting goods.

Here's a screenshot of the map on the front page zoomed in on Ann Arbor.

And there's no reason to think that produce will be unavailable during the winter months, either-- some of these places offer frozen or preserved foods as well as fresh.

Common Census

The CommonCensus Map Project is an attempt to map the 'spheres of influence' present in the United States, as reported by people who visit the site. It's interesting to see how, in some cases, people feel more influenced by big cities in neighboring states than anything within their own state.

As you can see from the zoom-in feature, the two most influential cities in Michigan are listed as Detroit and Grand Rapids, and we lose a corner of the state to Chicago's influence.

The site is still collecting data, so feel free to go and add your voice!

We're moving!

If you've been to the Map Library recently, you may have noticed that some changes are afoot. Later this month, we'll be moving to the second floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library to form part of the new Stephen S. Clark Library for Maps, Government Information and Spatial and Numeric Data Services. All of our wooden map cases were moved downstairs earlier this week, and more cases are moving today.


Moving cases out of the Map Library

  

Clark Library entranceway and display cases

The new reference desk

West side of the library

 

East side, facing the connector to the Shapiro Library



We're planning to open to the public on Monday, November 14th. There will also be an official opening celebration on Friday, December 2nd at 4pm.