A Guide to Digital Collections

A Guide to Digital Collections is project of the UNH Library Digital Collections Initiative. It is a list of full-text digital resources presented in blog form. Each entry is tagged by subject, so that researchers can focus on materials specific to their interest. This guide is largely the work of Graduate Assistant Siobhan Eaton, a Ph. D. Candidate in the UNH Department of History, but comes under the direction of Eleta Exline and Meredith Ricker, the UNH Digital Collections librarian and manager, respectively.

The guide includes brief descriptions of and links to digital collections created by libraries, archives, government agencies, and other institutions. Projects described cover a wide variety of subjects and digital formats. Digital collections that are searchable, easy to navigate, contain primary sources, and allow unrestricted use of materials are given first consideration for inclusion. This site is not meant to be exhaustive or comprehensive, but will grow to include additional digital collections over time.

Serial Set Maps, 1817-

Serial Set Maps

The folks at Readex have been digitally pulling historic maps from the nearly 14,000 volumes that make up the U.S. Congressional Serials Set. Currently, they have extracted thousands of maps through 1899 and the work continues.

But to this point, they have not made them very easy to find. I have discussed this with Jen Carroll, our electronic resources librarian, and we’ll be making a direct link to the Serial Set Maps on our databases pages. In the meantime, we have set up a link through our proxy server, so that you can have direct access to this resource: Serial Set Maps.

As with other parts of the Serials Set, this page allows you to search for maps by location, subject, personal name, issuing agency, and date. The other thing to keep in mind: even though the Serials Set had its origins in 19th Century , the Smithsonian and other agencies frequently reprinted historic maps dating back to the Age of Discovery. Hence, you can find maps on the extent of Portuguese colonization in the New World from 1520 or the earliest map to show the territory occupied by the Cherokee (1597). And, as with other parts of the Serials Set, you can save, print, and convert to pdf format. Have fun.