Cartographic Collection Overview
The Map and Data Centre has an extensive paper and digital cartographic collection. The online catalogue offers a search capability, and the collection is described by category on this page. To assist patrons in acquiring the right material, the Centre provides a colour photocopier, scanners and PC workstations. For more information, see the Services page.
- 222,000 sheet maps, providing global coverage at a variety of scales. This includes all current paper versions of Canadian federal topographic maps at 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 and all hydrographic charts for Canadian waters.
- 2,050 atlases (in paper or digital format) covering a wide range of themes and areas.
- 60,000 air photos, with a special emphasis on Southwestern Ontario.
- Extensive digital orthoimagery coverage for Southern Ontario, and satellite imagery spanning the entire world.
- Extensive digital resources, offering selective worldwide coverage with an emphasis on Southwestern Ontario. Significant geospatial data resources include Canadian National Topographic Data, access to the Ontario Geospatial Data Exchange (OGDE), DMTI data, digital elevation data, and much more.
- A large collection of Fire Insurance Plans for Canadian cities and towns. FIPs are one of the most detailed historical urban sources available to researchers.
Reference Books
- Specialized reference books for scholarly research are available for use within the Centre.
Research Specialties
The Centre holds many research related specialty items and rare and original material. For more information on such items, please contact the Centre. Specialty material includes:
- An extensive historical time-series collection of topographical coverage of Canada. This collection includes successive editions of map series: "1 mile" , "3 mile" and Chief Geographer's Series 1:250,000, 1:500,000. (more info)
- The Great Lakes special collection, which provides a valuable research resource and serves scholars from a variety of disciplines.
- Supporter of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives' Facsimile Series Project, with 150 historical maps and 14 nineteenth century Canadian city bird's eye views currently available.
