My Geography

The My Geography allows you to find a specific location by:

• Clicking an area on the map
• Place name
• Address
• Defining a cross street
• Township
• BLM District
• Forest Service Region
• Latitude and longitude

My Geography is available to registered and non registered users; however, if you are a registered geodata.gov user, you have access to more advanced options, such as:

• Saving the maps you create in the geodata.gov Map Viewer
• Saving your metadata searches
• Managing your community ( if one is assigned to you)
• Publishing new metadata or updating your existing metadata
• Publishing your planned data collections or acquisitions
• Registering your data collection for harvesting and updating your harvesting information
• Reviewing summaries of your harvesting results

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Access My Geography

To access My Geography, do one of the following:

• Click the Search tab and My Geography is available on the Search page.
• Click the Marketplace tab and My Geography is available on the Marketplace page.

Note that the My Geography on the Search page and the My Geography on the Marketplace page are separate functions tied to their respective searches. .

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Click an area on the Map

You can find a location by simply clicking an area on the map.

You can click on any area in the map extent.

Every time you click on the map, the Zoom ladder (see Figure 1) moves up indicating that the map is zooming. You can also zoom in by clicking the Zoom In magnifying glass , or zoom out by clicking the Zoom Out magnifying glass .

To Zoom In to the smallest extent of the map, click the bar at the very top of the ladder (directly under the Zoom In magnifying glass). Similarly, if you want to Zoom Out to the full extent, click the bar at the very bottom of the ladder (directly above the Zoom Out magnifying glass).

There are eight (8) compass buttons that surround the map (see Figure 1). Click on the compass buttons to pan in the direction that you select.

Figure 1: My Geography

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Once you click on an area, the map refreshes and zooms to the location. For example, if you click on an area in Southern California, the map zooms to that area (see Figure 2). Now, you can click the area again (in the same area or a different location) and the map continues to zoom in (see Figure 3).

Figure 2: Zoomed into Southern California Figure

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Figure 3: Map Zoomed into a selected location

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Find a Place

To find a place:

1. Click the More link on the My Geography.
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop-down menu and select 'Find a Place'.
3. Enter a place name in the 'Find a Place' text box.
4. Click the Find link.
5. The page refreshes to display a list of candidate locations. If the system finds more than one candidate, the first ten (10) choices are listed.
6. Click the link that best matches your search criteria and the page refreshes to display your selection on the map.
7. Click the link that best matches your search criteria and the page refreshes to display your selection on the map.

   Click the Find link on My Geography to return to the Find options.

Figure 4: Find Options.

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Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text box.

Find an Address

To find an address:

1. Click the More link on My Geography.
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop down menu and select 'Find an Address'.
3. Enter the following information:

• Street address
• City
• State
• Zip code

To find an address, you must enter at least a Street name, a City and a State OR a Street name and a Zip code.

4. Click the Find link
5. The page refreshes to display your selection on the map.
6. If the system finds more than one candidate, the first ten (10) choices are listed.
7. Click the link that best matches your search criteria and the page refreshes to display your selection on the map.

   Click the Find link on My Geography to return to the Find options.

Figure 5: Find an Address

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Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text box (see Figure 5).

Find a Cross Street

To find a cross street:

1. Click the More link on the My Geography.
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop-down menu and select 'Find an Address' (see Figure 6).

Enter the following information:

• Two (2) Street names in the Street text box using the Ampersand (&) symbol. For example, New York & Redlands (see Figure 6).
• City.
• State.
• Zip code.

To find a cross street, you must enter at least two cross street names, City and State, OR the Street names and a Zip code.

3. Click the Find link.
4. The page refreshes to display your selection on the map.
5. If the system finds more than one candidate, the first ten (10) choices are listed.
6. Click the link that best matches your search criteria and the page refreshes to display your selection on the map.

Click the Find link on My Geography page to return to the Find options.

Figure 6: Find a cross street

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Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text boxes.

Find a Township

To find a township:

1. Click the More link on My Geography.
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop-down menu and select 'Find a Township'.
3. Click the 'State of the Township' drop-down menu and select a state from the list.
4. Click the 'Principal Meridian' drop-down menu and select from the list.
5. Enter a township in the Township text box.
6. Click the 'Township Direction' drop-down menu and select from the list.
7. Enter a Range in the 'Range' text box.
8. Click the 'Range Direction' drop-down menu and select from the list.
9. Click the Find link.
10. The page refreshes to display your selection on the map.
11. If the system finds more than one candidate, the first ten (10) choices are listed.
12. Click the link that best matches your search criteria and the page refreshes to display your selection on the map.

Click the Find link on My Geography to return to the Find options.

Figure 7: Find a Township

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Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text boxes.

Find a BLM District

To find a BLM District:

1. Click the More link on My Geography.
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop-down menu and select 'Find a BLM District'.
3. Click the 'Find a BLM District' drop-down menu and select from the list.
4. The page automatically refreshes to display your selection on the map.

Click the Find link on My Geography to return to the Find options.

Figure 8: Find a BLM District

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Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text boxes.

Find a Forest Service Region

To find a Forest Service Region:

1. Click the More link on My Geography.
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop-down menu and select 'Find a Forest Service Region'.
3. Click the 'Find a Forest Service Region' drop-down menu and select from the list.
4. The page automatically refreshes to display your selection on the map.

Click the Find link on My Geography to return to the Find options.

Figure 9: Find a Forest Service Region

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Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text boxes.

Find a Latitude and Longitude

To find a Latitude/Longitude:

1. Click the More link on My Geography. The page refreshes to display the find options
2. Click the 'What do you want to find?' drop down-menu and select Find a Latitude/Longitude
3. Enter a Latitude and a Longitude in the text boxes. The following formats are accepted:
   • Decimal Degrees (DD) e.g. Longitude = -45.55
   • Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS) e.g. Latitude = 45 30 30

   Formats can be used in mixed mode, i.e. Latitude can be given in DMS and Longitude can be given in DD.

4. Click the Find link
5. The Map Viewer opens to display your selection on the map

   Click the Find link on My Geography to return to the Find options.

Figure 10: Find Latitude and Longitude

Click the Return to Map button to go back to the map, or click Clear to clear the text boxes.

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About My Bookmarks

As a registered user, you can save or bookmark your searches for later use. To save a search and bookmark it for later use:

1. Locate the area that you want to save.
2. Enter a name for your search in the Saved Bookmarks text box.
3. Click Save.

Figure 11: Enter a name to save your searches

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You are only allowed to save up to ten (10) bookmarks. See the Delete a Bookmark section below.

To open a saved bookmark:

1. Click the My Bookmarks menu bar and select from the list.
2. The map refreshes and opens your previously saved bookmark.

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Delete a Bookmark

Since you can only save up to ten (10) bookmarks at a time, you may need to delete some periodically to add new bookmarks. If you meet the maximum number of bookmarks and try to save another one, you will receive an error message saying "you have saved your maximum number of bookmarks".

To delete a bookmark:

1. Click the Remove link next to each bookmark title.
2. The bookmark is removed and you are returned to the map.

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