LibGuides: Graham Resource Center Research Guide: Site Research

Climate Research

Sun Chart Program
Based at the University of Oregon, this site produces sun angle charts for: (1) "typical" dates of each month (i.e.; days receiving about the mean amount of solar radiation for a day in the given month); (2) dates spaced about 30 days apart, from one solstice to the next; or (3) a single date you specify. You can select whether hours are plotted using local standard time or solar time.
NCRS Water Supply Forceasting
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service hosts reports, maps, graphs, and information on how to interpret streamflow forecasts, as well as reservoir reports and graphs, as well as the Surface Water Supply Index, by state.
NRCS Wind Rose Data
A wind rose gives a very succinct, information-laden view of how wind speed and direction are typically distributed at a particular location. Presented in a circular format, the wind rose shows the frequency of winds blowing FROM particular directions. The directory is organized by State and Climate Station name. Within each Climate Station directory, there are images in both .emf and .gif formats for each of the twelve months.

Historical Research

Historic American Buildings Survey
Images from the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library Congress documenting architecture in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types. Materials include digitized images of measured drawings, black-and-white photographs, color transparencies, photo captions, written history pages, and supplemental materials.
Bodleian Map Room
Part of the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, the Bodleian Map Room has a world-renowned collection, and their website offers resources for sourcing, making, and studying maps, as well as digital content.
David Rumsey Map Collection
This historical map collection has over 44,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.
Library of Congress Map Collections
This category includes maps that typically portray the physical environment and a variety of cultural elements for a geographic area at a particular point in time. The maps in this category show a geographic area larger than a city or town and do not display a subject that is part of one of the thematic categories.

Demographic Research

U.S. Census Bureau Data Access
Includes various tools to extract data from the 2000 Census Dataset and the 2010 Census Interactive Population Map. Censtats includes applications such as Census Tract Street Locator, County Business Patterns, Zip Business Patterns, International Trade Data, and more.

Mapping Chicago

GIS Data Sets: City of Chicago
The City of Chicago provides free GIS data for download in compressed shapefile (ESRI) format. Available data sets include administrative and political boundaries, special incentive programs, points of interest and transportation features. Also, data sharing agreements for non-governmental and governmental entities.

A software such as WinZip is needed to uncompress the data.
Chicago Map of Community Areas
The City of Chicago's printable PDF map of community areas; 830 KB.
Census Maps: City of Chicago
Printable ready-made maps in downloadable PDFs, created from demographic profiles, based on the both the Census 2000 short-form (Summary File 1 data) and long-form (Summary File 3 data), adapted from the U.S. Census Bureau's release on May 14, 2002. Each profile includes four tables labeled DP-1 through DP-4 that provide various population, housing, social, and economic characteristics from the 2000 Census.
City of Chicago Ward Map
PDF file of the City of Chicago's Aldermanic Wards, 1.05 MB.
Green Infrastructure in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin
View and download more than 400 datasets of the green infrastructure assets in our region; a map showing opportunities for cross-border acquisition, restoration and management along the Wisconsin-Illinois and Illinois-Indiana borders; or green infrastructure maps of the 19 counties studied, and more. A joint project of The Center for Neighborhood Technology and Openlands, with funding from The Joyce Foundation.
Illinois Political Boundary Maps
Maps of the United States Congressional Districts, Illinois House Districts, and Illinois Senate Districts. Downloadable PDFs.
Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse
Great UIUC page for Illinois GIS data sets and documentation (metadata) for ArcIMS Interactive Map Services, USGS digital topographic maps, aerial photography, orthoimagery, orthophotography, geology, land use, natural resources, and infrastructure. Illinois data sets and map data layers are available for download free of charge.
Chicago in the 1890s
Access to scans of some of the sheet maps of Chicago in the 1890s that are held at the University of Chicago Library's Map Collection. Downloaded files are freely available for personal or scholarly use. If you use the images in a publication, we expect that you will mention that the original maps--and the files--are from the University of Chicago Library's Map Collection.
University of Illinois Historical Maps Online
he Historical Maps Online collection contains images of maps charting the last 400 years of historical development in Illinois and the Northwest Territory, including historic topographic maps of Illinois. The collection also contains early large-scale topographic quadrangles published by the United States Geological Survey in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Collection size: approximately 420 maps.
Encyclopedia of Chicago: Maps
A collection of digitized historical maps, from a collaboration between the Newberry Library, Northwestern University, and the Chicago History Museum.
Hull House Maps and Papers (1895) at Northwestern
The book Hull House Maps and Papers, published in 1895, is a series of essays and statistical information collected by Florence Kelley and her colleagues at Hull House, the settlement house at 335 South Halsted Street. The spectacular maps are modeled upon similar research on poverty and living conditions in London done by Charles Booth. The arresting beauty of these maps, and their economy of presentation of detailed information, have made them classics

Mapping + GIS

Geographic Information System
The US Geological Survey's site covers the fundamentals of GIS.

National Map Viewer
The National Map is a collaborative effort among Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information. It is easily accessible for display on the Web, as products and services, and as downloadable data. The geographic information available includes orthoimagery, elevation, geographic names, hydrography, boundaries, transportation, structures, and land cover. Other types of geographic information can be added within the viewer, as well.

The UC Atlas of Global Inequality
The UC Atlas of Global Inequality uses the Internet, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and new graphical capabilities of digital media to enhance learning in Geography, Sociology, Economics, Health, Technology and Environmental Studies. The Atlas integrates data, maps, and graphs to create an interactive website for accessing and analyzing information addressing global change and inequality.
Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970
Digital access to large-scale historical maps of Illinois; usage is restricted to IIT students, faculty, and staff.
National Geographic MapMachine
Satellite photos, street maps, and more are available in this online atlas.

Subject Guide

Kim Soss

Contact:

soss@iit.edu

312.567.3601

Subjects: Architecture, Design, Landscape Architecture