Open Hours

Until October 18th, 2009, the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education will be closed to the public, pending its formal reopening.

After October 18th, 2009, all of the library's facilities will be open to the public at the following times:

• Tuesday, 1-4pm
• Wednesday, 1-4pm
• Thursday, 1-4pm

With respect to holidays, etc., the map library follows the same schedule of operations as the USM Glickman Family Library.

Facilities

The expansion of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education was undertaken as the second stage of USM's University Commons project. The University Commons was made possible by a private fund-raising campaign, including a Kresge Challenge Grant, and a higher education bond. The overall project was designed by Koetter Kim & Associates of Boston; construction manager was Wright-Ryan Construction, Inc., of Portland, working with Dave Early and Carol Potter of USM’s facilities management. An account of the construction is provided via the link at the bottom of the page.

The public facilities comprise:

• the Cohen Education Center, a multipurpose instructional space seating up to 75 people, to be used for visiting K-12 classes, undergraduate courses, and conferences;
• a digital imaging center, with state of the art equipment, to capture the collections digitally;
• the Bernard and Barbro Osher Gallery, plus two permanent globe display cases inside the reading room, to showcase the collections;
• the Arthur M. Ryan Reference Room, with doubled seating and furniture donated by Thos. Moser Cabinet Makers; and
• a dedicated room for working with digital imagery
• the Patrick '67 and Vickie Miele Group Study Room

In addition, the new 7,500 sq. ft. vault on the upper floors features custom-designed, compact storage systems for atlases, globes, maps, and scientific instruments. These were funded by a Grant for Stabilizing Humanities Collections from the Division of Preservation and Access of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The new shelves and flat files together weigh 80,000 lbs.

The Façade

Because the addition forms the new gateway to USM’s Portland campus, 104 of the aluminum panels on its façade are etched with a repeating Dymaxion Map of the world. Measuring 156’ wide by 26’4” high, this is perhaps the largest such exterior map in the world. The Dymaxion Map was invented in 1946 by the noted futurist Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983). Fuller sought to make not only a map with minimal distortion, whether presented folded or flattened, but also a political statement about the interconnectedness of the continents and their inhabitants.