Introduction

Branner Library map collections hold several different series of geologic maps, many published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Along with these series, we also hold other miscellaneous geologic maps for locations around the world. 

For general searches, you can use the search strategies discussed in the Find maps at Stanford section to locate maps using our online catalog, SearchWorks. 

Search strategy for USGS maps

To locate specific maps published by the USGS, we suggest using an index map to identify the title of your desired quadrangle, if you're currently unsure of what that would be. If you do have the quadrangle title, you can use that as your keyword(s) in SearchWorks to locate the physical copy within our collections. We have physical copies of index maps for 7.5-minute and 15-minute quadrangle series at Branner Library, along with other indexes relevant to our holdings. 

Another great way to identify the title of your desired quadrangle, or any other USGS maps for your desired location, is by using the USGS MapView tool: 

With this tool, you can zoom to your desired location and the available maps for that area will populate in the panel on the left. From here, you can also select a desired scale. 

From the search results, you can click on a title to expand a number of options, one being that you can now click on the map image and be brought to page that allows you to download a digital copy of the map for free. If you desire a physical copy, use the title found in MapView as your keyword(s) in SearchWorks to identify if we have the map within our collections.

Related map series in Branner map collections

Below is a list of related map series we have in the Branner map collections with links to the general series search result in SearchWorks and suggested search strategies: