September 30, 1999

LIBRARY / CD-ROM MAPS

Magic Carpets for Armchair Explorations

By SHELLY FREIERMAN
Maps do more than lead you from point A to point B. For the closet cartographer, a map's hieroglyphics reveal a portrait of the world's countries, cities, mountains, plains and oceans through a singular vocabulary of symbols, colors and typefaces.

Of course, maps are a two-way street: they not only depict the world for their readers but also say volumes about the people who made them by what they include and leave out, where the borders are and what a city is called -- whether Londonderry in Northern Ireland, for example, is rendered as Derry, the Irish nationalists' preference. A good map fires the imagination like a good novel. Here are three CD-ROM sets to curl up with on a rainy day.


Overview

• Magic Carpets for Armchair Explorations

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