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How to Cite Maps

July 10th, 2007 by JTJ

From the Directions Magazine “All Points Blog” …..

Monday, July 9. 2007

How to Cite Maps Used in School/Journalism

Village Soup/Knox County (ME) Times has an article about a proposed plan for Rockland Harbor. The article includes a map, apparently taken from MapQuest, and enhanced (it's a screen capture; it does not use the API). Below is this caption:

A map of O'Hara Corporation's proposed project site in Rockland. (Photo by MapQuest.com)

I'm sure that was a cut and paste error, but I do have a point. As more citizen journalism and more students use the Web to search for and use content, they (and others) need guidance in how to cite such references. Let's assume the map was used under “fair use” (I'm not sure it was). How is it to be cited? Must it include the copyright info for the data? (It does not.) Must it include a link? What do Manuals of Style say? What does MapQuest say?

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Oops at 06:00 | Comment (1)

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Fortunately, numerous online sources provide guidance concerning citing web-generated maps. Per the Ohio Wesleyan University webpage and the Chicago Manual of Style, the basic information to include is:

Author or statement of responsibility. Map Title [map]. Data date if known. Scale; Name of person who generated map; Name of software used to generate the map or “Title of the Complete Document or Site”. (date generated).

Delaware, Ohio [map]. 2001. Scale undetermined; generated by Deb Peoples; using “MapQuest.com, Inc”.

(2 May 2005)

The following website offers additional examples:

http://library.owu.edu/citing222.html, and a websearch for the phrase “citing maps” yields numerous results.

Concerning copyright, the United States authority has many useful papers demystifying the topic: http://www.copyright.gov/. Another serious examination comes from J.B. Post of the New York Map Society, who has collected map copyright case law from 1789-1998; see: http://www.nymapsociety.org/FEATURES/POST.HTM

#1 Alan Glennon (Link) on 2007-07-09 11:39 (Reply)