BTAA-GIN Collection Stories

By Catherine Hodge What’s in this collection? The Hixson Plat Map Atlases of Iowa digital collection contains the 1930 editions of Hixson plat books for 95 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Plat books are atlases showing rural land ownership and property boundaries, or real property. A plat atlas generally has a map of the featured county showing the townships and sections as laid out by surveyors. Each page of the atlas is plat of the individual townships (36 square miles) within the county, identifying who owns individual parcels of land and the number of acres in each parcel. The plat shows township sections, roads, railroads, boundaries of towns and urban areas, and bodies of water. Local schools, churches and cemeteries are also noted on each map. Since plat maps can be used to trace property ownership over time, they are often sought out by genealogists or people interested in family histories, as well as by historians. What BTAA Library submitted the collection? The University of Iowa In...

  MHAPO is an application hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Libraries that provides access to over 121,000 digital copies of Minnesota air photos. The photos come from both the University of Minnesota’s John R. Borchert Library collection and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource’s Landview application. Users can find photos by selecting a point along a flight path that links to a downloadable image. The earliest photos in the collection are from the 1920s and it spans forward to the 1990s. MHAPO was first built in 2008, and now receives over 1000 visitors per week. This user-friendly application won the Minnesota Governor's Geospatial Commendation Award in 2018 , which honors organizations that exemplify a commitment to "coordinated, affordable, reliable and effective" use of GIS to improve services within Minnesota.

 By  Kathleen Weessies Project Task Force Members: Kathleen Weessies, Social Sciences Coordinator and Head, MSU Map Library and Amanda Tickner, GIS Librarian Michigan State University’s contributions to the BTAA Geoportal are split between keeping an eye on GIS datasets made available around the state of Michigan and contributing items from its own collection of antique and modern maps. We are proud to draw attention to the State of Michigan’s rich array of GIS datasets which are available to use in computer modeling and GIS research projects. Designated Snowmobile Trails           Michigan is one of the few states that issues a shapefile of designated snowmobile routes. Glacial Landsystems: Michigan Michigan also maintains models of natural features such as glacial landsystems, which are so critical to the availability of fresh water. George Boynton’s 1842 map of Michigan From the MSU Map Library antique map collection, we have a rare 1842 map th...