Beginning March 30, 2015 I will be starting a new position as the Map Curator in the Department of Geography at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). As Map Curator I will be responsible for managing a collection of historical maps, atlases, photographs, and reference materials related to maps, cartography, and geographic information systems. As part of my responsibilities, I will be applying library and archival principles and best practices of access, description, preservation, and discovery of a wide range of scholarly materials to students and faculty of CSUN.

The Geography Department Map Library is a designated USGS map depository and is one of the premier collections of historical topographic maps and Sanborn atlases in the western United States. The emphasis of the library is on California, Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley. The library’s Sanborn holdings include atlases from throughout the United States and a very small number of holdings from Mexico, as well. You can see the library’s holdings index here, and you can learn more about Sanborn atlases on Wikipedia or on this article I wrote in 2012.

More updates to come in the future…