Global Mapping International

Map-Related Web Sites

Mapping and GIS Sites of Interest to Missions

• Global Mapping International -- mapping software, geographical databases, overhead transparency map sets and wall maps for Christian ministry organizations at http://www.gmi.org
  
  
• Google Earth -- view satellite image of any area of the world. Basic Google Earth is free. It is necessary to have a fairly fast internet connection to get good results. You need to install the program on your computer.  http://earth.google.com/
  
  
• Encarta -- if you are looking for a town or village by name rather than just a satellite view of things, try this Encarta website http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/mapcenter/map.aspx. It allows you to search for a place in the world and then zooms into the area. It won't have every village, but it does have a good collection of towns. This can be bought as part of the Encarta Encyclopedia (see under Commercial Software)
  
  
• Environmental Systems Research Institute -- the world's leading GIS company, makers of ArcView mapping software systems at http://www.esri.com
  
  
• ESRI's ArcView -- learn about ESRI's powerful mapping software at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcview/index.html
  
  
• Maps.com -- digital maps, wall maps, atlases, mapping software, travel inforomation... this site's got it all!
  
  
• Digital Maps -- a virtual warehouse of easy-to-access maps. http://www.maps.com/FreeStuff.aspx?nav=FF
  
  
• Digital Vector Maps -- specializes in royalty-free & cartographically-accurate maps in Illustrator & PDF format for use in print, web and multimedia design projects. http://digital-vector-maps.com.
  
  
• The Map Store -- offers travel maps, wall maps, world maps, city maps, globes, atlases, and books. http://www.maps.com/Maps.aspx?nav=MS
  
  
• Omni Resources -- an on-line map store with a large selection of maps. You can see miniature versions of the maps.  http://www.omnimap.com
  
  
• Oddens's Bookmarks -- perhaps the best, most comprehensive, most up-to-date listing of mapping-related web sites at http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/
  
  
• Mission Atlas Project -- collection of maps related to missions along with interactive mapping capabilities at http://www.worldmap.org/
  
  
• The Mining Company's geography site has weekly articles about geography, annotated links to hundreds of the best sites for maps and geographical information for every country and US state, a weekly quiz, and a chat room for those interested in geography at http://geography.miningco.com/education/geography/
  
  
• The United Nations University: International Network on Water, Environment and Health has maps on every country and points to many other mapping and GIS web sites at http://www.inweh.unu.edu/unuinweh/mappage.htm
  
  
• National Geographic Society -- a dazzling array of digital maps and atlases at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/ including:
  • Map Machine Atlas -- an interactive on-line atlas of maps, flags, facts and profiles of the countries of the world. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/
  • View From Above -- satellite photographs of regions of the world http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/view/index.html
  • Virtual Earth -- rotating globes representing physical, political, and remote sensing views of the earth may be viewed in this animation. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/virtual.html
• Worldmapper -- library of cartograms. A cartogram is a map where the features such as countries as sized and reshaped according to a statistic.  http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper. A website that allows you to make you own cartograms is http://people.cas.sc.edu/hardistf/cartograms

Map Collections

• PCL World Map Collection -- maps of the world from the University of Texas at Austin -- http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
  
  
• Graphic Maps -- excellent assortment of U.S. & state maps, continents, countries, flags, globes, world and U.S. images. Custom maps available for a fee. -- http://www.graphicmaps.com/graphic_maps.html
  
  
• WorldAtlas.com -- an on-line atlas currently under development, which will feature an on-line map of every country, island, possession, province, state, territory and major city on planet earth. -- http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/world.htm
  
  
• Maps.com -- offers several easy-to-access digital maps. http://www.maps.com/FreeStuff.aspx?nav=FF
  
  
• MapArt -- "Maps for Graphic Design" from Map Resources, on CD-ROM. This includes world maps, regional maps and a few individual country maps with province borders. Detailed, high-quality, high-resolution maps available in Macintosh EPS and PICT formats and PC EPS. See their web site at http://www.mapresources.com
  
  
• The World Factbook -- includes a simple map of each country along with information about the country at http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
  
  
• University of Texas at Austin has great mapping resources as well as pointers to many more:
  • " Map-Related Web Sites" at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/map_sites/map_sites.html
  • "General Map Sites" at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/map_sites/map_sites.html#general
  • PCL World Map Collection at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
    
    
• Yahoo! points to lots of valuable web sites, including:
  • GIS Search Site which points to computer mapping resoures on the web at http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Geography/Geographic_Information_Systems__GIS_/
  • List of map sites at http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Geography/Cartography/Maps
    
    
• A Dictionary of GIS Terms -- from the Association for Geographic Information and the University Of Edinburgh Department of Geography can be found at: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/agidict/welcome.html
  
  
• MapQuest -- searchable, viewable maps of every city, town and village in the USA at http://www.mapquest.com/
  
  
• Mapedit -- a graphical editor for Web image maps (clickable imagemaps) at http://www.boutell.com/mapedit/
  
  
• Mapping Center for Evangelism -- software and data to help US churches map out their cities for Christian ministry at http://www.map4jesus.org/
  
  
• Summer Institute of Linguistics' Language Listing -- access global language information from a series of regional reference maps at http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/maps/
  

Free Mapping Software

• EpiInfo -- software developed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S. Simple, easy to use, but limited functionality.   http://www.cdc.gov/EpiInfo/

Commercial Mapping Software

• Encarta Interactive World Atlas -- a very similar interface and data set used in the Encarta website mentioned above is available in a product, Encarta Interactive World Atlas. This is available in Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007. The following website gives more information about it: http://www.microsoft.com/products/encarta/default.mspx Besides the world atlas you would get the whole encyclopedia. It may only be available on DVD or you may need to special order it to just get CDs. The software will not let you add your own data other than putting in push pins to show locations of some things (though you could map the locations of your missionaries this way)