The Alexandria Digital Library accesses digital geographic data collections and associated metadata information as well as metadata relating to analog collections with limited search capability.

Quick Placename Search

The Quick Placename Search is an easy way to find out where a named place or feature is located, for example “Los Angeles.”

Map Browser

The Map Browser provides a world map that you can use to focus a search on a particular location. The area included within the red box in the Map Browser is the search area. The Change location to menu provides a set of preset regions that can be used to quickly orient the coverage of the map.

You can set the search area by either using the Map Browser or by typing in the latitude and longitude coordinates directly into the Geographic Region portion of the Catalog Search window.

Searching Georeferenced Information

The Catalog Search window lets you select a collection, geographic region by coordinates, time period, object type, object format, keywords, originator, ranking method, and search result size before you submit a query. If you do not select from the pulldown menus, the choice that appears in each box will be selected.

IMPORTANT: You must change at least one of the search fields, such as Geographic Region or Time Period, before submitting the seach.

To submit a search:

1. Select the Collection you wish to search.
   
   Choose a collection from those available. For a descriptions of the collections, click here.
   
   
2. Select the Geographic Location.
   
   You set the Geographic Location of the search either by using the Map Browser or by typing in the latitude and longitude coordinates directly into the Geographic Region portion of the Catalog Search window.
3. Select the Time Period.
   
   
4. Select the Object Type.
   
   For more information on Object types, see the ADL Object Type Thesaurus.
   
   
5. Select the Object Format.
   
   For the ADL Catalog, the Object Format categories are based on MIME types with additional terms for offline holdings.
   
   
6. Select Keywords to Search.
   
   Words entered in this text box are matched against selected text in the metadata for the collection.
7. Select an Originator.
   
   The Originator is the publisher of library object.
8. Select Ranking Method, which sorts by date.
   
   
9. Specify Maximum results and Results Per Page.
   
   
10. Click the Start search button to begin the search.