For detailed examples of citations with works from our own collection, please see our Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and GIS - Cartographic Citation Guide

These books can be found in our collection:

• Cartographic citations : a style guide / Christine Kollen, Wangyal Shawa, Mary Larsgaard

• Cartographic citations : a style guide / by Suzanne M. Clark, Mary Lynette Larsgaard and Cynthia M. Teague

Important elements:

• Author's last name, first initial, middle initial. (individual author names or organization)
• Year: Date of content creation/publication
• Title of content (italicized)
• Format [map, dataset, type of dataset] (include in brackets the format type)
• Publisher (include the publisher of the content) (Publisher may be included in place of author depending whether a specific author is referenced)
• URL for content

Map

Author. (Year). Title of map [format]. Edition. Scale. No. Place of Publication: Publisher. 

Ashmun, J. (1830). Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the Colony of Liberia. [map]. Philadelphia: Finley, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8882c.lm000002

Geospatial Data 

Author(s). (Year). Title of the Dataset (version #) [Data set]. Publisher. DOI or URL 

The bracketed [Data set] could also include unpublished raw dataset, or other description of the raw data.  

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. (2021). Pennsylvania county boundaries [Data set]. https://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=24 

Interactive map application 

Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information. (2017). State College change through time [ArcGIS Online]. http://psu-libs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=8b8e085ddc4746bb9dcac35c62bfd1f9 

ArcGIS Online layer 

View the item details for credits (attribution) information. 

Centre County Government GIS Department. (2020). Hydrography [ArcGIS Online Feature Layer]. https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c611558362d241ac9b5a1bf4bef3356f

Important elements:

• Author’s last name, first name, middle initial (if given, or person responsible for content)
• Title of document (in italics) [shorten to meaningful limits]
• Format (map, chart)
• Publisher city: publishing company, copyright date
• Source (From Library of Congress in normal font), Collection name with dates (in italics)
• Medium (software requirement needed to access source)
• URL (use bibliographic record URL or shorter digital id if available at bottom of bib record)
• Accessed date (in parentheses)

Last name, First name Middle initial. Title of Work. Format. City: Publishing Company, copyright date. Source, Collection. Medium, http://..., (accessed date).

Example:

Map

Ashmun, Jehudi. Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the Colony of Liberia. Map. Philadelphia: A. Finley, 1830. From Library of Congress, Map Collections. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8882c.lm000002 (accessed January 9, 2006).

Important elements:

• Author’s last name, first name, middle initial (if given, or person responsible for content) if listed
• Title of map (underlined or italicized)
• Descriptive label (e.g., Map, Graph, Photograph)
• City of publication: Publisher, date of publication (if available)
• Title of online collection (underlined or italicized)
• Date of posting or most recent update of collection
• Name of project or reference database (underlined or italicized)
• Name of sponsoring institution
• Date of access and electronic address

Title of map. Descriptive label. City of publication: Publisher, date. Title of Online Collection. Date of posting. Database. Sponsoring institution. Day Month Year of access <electronic address>.

Examples:

Map

Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the Colony of Liberia. Map. Philadelphia: Finley, 1830. Map Collections 1500-2004. 3 May 2005. American Memory. Lib. of Congress. 1 Aug. 2005 <http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8882c.lm000002>.

Geospatial Data 

Author(s). Title. Publisher, Year, DOI or URL 

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Pennsylvania county boundaries. PASDA, 2021, https://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=24. Accessed 13 April 2021.  

Interactive map application 

Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information. State College change through time. ArcGIS Online, 2017, http://psu-libs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=8b8e085ddc4746bb9dcac35c62bfd1f9. Accessed 13 April 2021.  

ArcGIS Online layer 

View the item details for credits (attribution) information. 

Centre County Government GIS Department. Hydrography. ArcGIS Online, 2020, https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c611558362d241ac9b5a1bf4bef3. Accessed 13 April 2021.