Here is a list of our favorite links. The links listed here do not represent an endorsement by any government agency; they're here for information purposes only, and because this is a web site, and web sites are supposed to have cool links on them. So chill out and surf like a mapper.

For links to county websites, please download our directory of cadastral mappers from the Contacts page.

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS): A software and consulting company based in Dallas, Texas that provides business process and information technology solutions. In January 2006, ACS acquired the NovaLIS Land Records Management suite, including an ArcGIS extension called Parcel Editor, which continues to be developed by the ACS Government Solutions unit.

Antiquated Subdivision Maps: The text of the court decision for Jack A. Gardner v. County of Sonoma, filed October 11, 2001 in the Court of Appeal of the State of California, First Appellate District.

Autodesk: Software company that makes AutoCAD, Map, and MapGuide.

Bay Area Automated Mapping Association (BAAMA): A chapter of URISA encompassing the San Francisco Bay Region that organizes educational forums and technical tours on GIS and automated mapping topics.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in California: Federal agency that manages public lands. Check out the Geographic Services page for access to the Geographic Coordinate Database (GCDB) and a few historical cadastral survey photos.
(Warning: This website does not work very well in Microsoft Internet Explorer.)

CADalyst: A popular CAD magazine. Includes downloadable AutoLISP code from the well-known "Hot-Tip Harry" column. Cadalyst bought out Cadence (another popular CAD magazine) in 2003, and merged its most popular columns with the existing publication.

CADD/GIS Technology Center for Facilities, Infrastructure, and Environment: A quasi-governmental agency chartered for the purpose of coordinating CADD and GIS technologies throughout all levels of government and the private sector. Check out their Products page for Spatial Data Standards (SDS), A/E/C CADD Standards, and Facility Management Standards. These are quite extensive standards, and have become the de facto standards used in the federal government.

CalGIS: The official website for the annual GIS conference in California, hosted by a different city each year.

California: State of California home page.

California Assessors Association (CAA): The CCMA's sponsoring organization.

California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors: The California Department of Consumer Affairs' information on professional engineers and land surveyors. Includes the ability to lookup an engineer or surveyor and the status of their license.

California GIS Council (CGC): An organization chartered on behalf of the State of California for the purpose of facilitating collaboration on the planning, implementation and maintenance of a California GIS infrastructure.

California Geographic Information Association (CGIA): An organization formed in 1994 by the participants who worked on the 1993 Governor's Geographic Information Task Force Report. Its mission is to "Promote the Effective Use of Geographic Information in the State of California."

California Land Surveyors Association (CLSA): A non-profit association of public and private land surveyors in California.

California Legislative Information: The official site for access to the California State Legislature, individual legislators as well as proposed and chaptered legislation. Full searchable text of all 29 law codes, the State Constitution, and Statutes (back to 1993).

California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL): The State's GIS web portal.

California Society of Professional Engineers (CSPA): The California charter of a national professional association for engineers.

California State Board of Equalization: The State authority that administers tax programs, including property taxes.

CartoBlog: A blog site devoted to maps and mapping.

CartoTalk: A public forum for cartographic professionals. Read and post discussions about maps, mapmaking or related topics such as GIS, remote sensing and photogrammetry.

County Direct Data (CD-Data): A real estate data marketing and software company based in Folsom, California. They are the creators of ParcelQuest, an application for providing easy access to standardized property data and assessment maps, either from a CD-ROM or an online version. The company is also offering GIS data for the entire state of California.

Crest Software Corp.: A software company based in Redding, California that specializes in county government systems. They are the creators of a property tax processing system called OPTIM® (On-line Property Tax Information Management), which is currently being used by 11 counties in California.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: The largest private collection of historical cartography, shared with the world online.

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI): A software company based in Redlands, California that makes ArcGIS (ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo). Their web site is vast, and provides customers with highly useful specialty areas such as the Support Center (which includes downloads, knowledge base, and user forums), Mapping Center (which includes a blog, map examples, and other tips and resources for cartography), Developer Network (for programmers), and Training and Education (for information on courses, seminars, books, conference proceedings, and a searchable bibliography) .

ET SpatialTechniques: A software company based in Pretoria, South Africa that specializes in editing and productivity tools for ArcGIS 8-9 and ArcView 3. They are the creators of ET GeoTools, ET GeoWizards, and EditTools. They have some free tools, and others are for a fee. Check out the free Easy Calculate for ArcGIS.

Extract Systems: Formerly UCLID Software, a software and consulting company that specializes in automated data entry and indexing of land records and other unstructured documents. They are the creators of a parcel mapping program called IcoMap, which is an ArcGIS extension.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC): A federal committee that is developing the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, which encompasses policies, standards, and procedures for organizations to cooperatively produce and share geographic data. Check out the Cadastral Data Content Standard on the Standards Publications page, and the Metadata Workbook (CSDGM Workbook) on the Geospatial Metadata Standards page.

GeoCommunity: An online GIS portal.

GeoData.gov: U.S. Maps and Data; part of the Geospatial One-Stop E-Gov initiative providing access to geospatial data and information. Provides access to The National Map.

GeoPlace.com: An online GIS magazine and portal.

GIS Certification Institute: An independent non-profit organization that provides the GIS community with a complete certification program, based on work done by a URISA committee formed in 1999.

GIS Lounge: An online GIS portal.

GIS Monitor: An online GIS magazine and directory.

Hastings Law Library: Contains a searchable database of ballot propositions from 1911 to the present.

Interdisciplinary Spatial Information Systems (ISIS) Center: A non-profit GIS organization at the University of Fresno.

International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO): An educational and research association of individuals in the assessment profession.

Land Development Today: An online magazine for surveyors, civil engineers, and landscape architects.

Megabyte Systems Inc.: A software company based in Fresno, California. They are the creators of a property tax processing system called MPTS2000+ (Megabyte Property Tax System), which is currently being used by 18 counties in California.

Munsys: A software and consulting company based in Clearwater Florida that specializes in infrastructure asset management for utilities and government. They are the creators of a set of applications called Munsys, which adds on to Autodesk's AutoCAD or Map software. The applications work exclusively with Oracle Spatial or Locator as the back-end DBMS, but spatial data storage standards are fully OpenGIS compliant.

National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA): An independent GIS research consortium. Take the links to Education / Core Curriculum Projects / Core Curriculum in GIScience. You will find an extensive outline of GIS fundamentals, technologies and issues, and how it's applied to cadastral systems.

Open Data Consortium Project: A non-profit public policy think-tank and advocacy project organized by Bruce Joffe, founder of GIS Consultants, located in Oakland, California. They advocate the free distribution of governmental geospatial data, and that free distribution can serve as a strategic basis for cost recovery of GIS operations. Publications include a Model Data Distribution Policy and a paper outlining 10 ways to support GIS without selling data.

Rasterex Software: A software company based in Oslo, Norway that specializes in visualization, collaboration, and raster editing software. They are the creators of RxSpotlight, a raster and hybrid drawing editor and raster-to-vector converter. They also make programs (RxView and RxHighlight) that view, print, mark-up, and convert many different document and image file formats.

Safe Software: A software company based in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada that specializes in spatial extract, transform, and load (Spatial ETL) technologies. They are the creators of the Feature Manipulation Engine (FME), a CAD/GIS data format translation utility.

Sidwell Company: A software and consulting company based in St. Charles, Illinois that specializes in GIS and mapping services. They are the creators of a GIS productivity toolset called Parcel Builder (an ArcGIS extension). They also have a GIS-based software product called FARMS to aid in assessing farmlands. These products are known for their integration with ESRI and Bentley GIS products.

Smart Data Strategies (SDS): A software and consulting company based in Franklin, Tennessee that specializes in CAD & GIS implementations, land records management, CAMA integration, right-of-way management, inventory management, and data conversion, among other services. They are the creators of DREAMaps, a software suite of ArcGIS extensions for managing, editing, and analyzing parcel data.

Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA): A non-profit association of professionals using GIS in government.

United States Geological Survey (USGS): The USGS Geography page; the home page for the National Map. Also links to other USGS map product offerings.