The Geospatial Collection includes several material types, including maps, aerial photography, satellite imagery and other spatial data. UCSB Library has been ranked as the number one spatial data collection in the top 100 members of the Association of Research Libraries. According to the 2006 Guide to US Map Sources, the UCSB Library's collection is the third largest academic map collection in the country, with over five million information objects.
Aerial Photography
The aerial photography collection is composed of 2.5 million physical aerial photographs and almost 250,000 digital images.
- Use FrameFinder to find and download digital air photos
- Aerial Photography Tools
- Identify flights covering your area of interest
- Learn to read indexes
- Significant collections
Maps
With about 450,000 sheets, the map collection is one of the largest in the state. In addition to a comprehensive collection of materials for Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties, we also specialize in foreign medium- and large- scale topographic maps.
Spatial Data
The spatial data collection is growing at about one terabyte per year and is composed predominantly of physical sciences datasets, satellite imagery, and digital mapping data of the United States and other Earth locations.
- ADL Gazetteer
- A global placename dictionary created in the mid-1990's and recently revived with assistance from the Space and Time for Knowledge Organization Lab.
Atlases and Books
The Geospatial Collection also contains atlases, gazetteers, reference materials, and other books. Many of these materials can be found in the general collection and can be checked out. Some materials, however, are only accessible by request for in-person viewing; these materials cannot be checked out. All of these materials are listed in UC Library Search. See Finding and Accessing Materials for more information on accessing this part of the collection.
