Thousands of maps, each revealing its maker’s worldview

The Osher Map Library (OML) and Smith Cartographic Center at the University of Southern Maine reopened in October after being closed for two years while it was expanded. Two new public spaces - a contemporary exhibition gallery and a multipurpose room where the children started their tour - are part of a $12.3 million, three-story renovation designed by Koetter Kim & Associates of Boston. The project quadrupled the library’s size, from 4,500 to 19,500 square feet, adding advanced security systems and a 7,500-square-foot climate-controlled vault made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

On the building’s facade are 104 aluminum panels whose 156-by-26-foot etching of a Dymaxion Map is possibly the largest exterior map installation in the world. The map was invented by the futurist Buckminster Fuller in 1946 to depict the globe with minimal distortion and make a political statement about the interconnectedness of continents and peoples.

The gallery is open to the public only three afternoons a week because of university budget constraints. There are no docents to guide you. But anyone with a special interest can make a specific request. If time permits, a staff member will bring selected maps down from the vault.

“Maps are universal documents,’’ says Harold Osher, the retired Portland cardiologist whose collection helped establish the library. “Maps encompass not just geography but also history, art, superstition, religion, dogma, warfare, any type of human activity, and furthermore, they do it in a graphic fashion.’’

OML has earned a national reputation for its commitment to the use of maps in kindergarten through college education. The library offers workshops and online resources for educators, scholarly conferences, and lectures and panel discussions open to the public. Exhibits of facsimile maps travel around New England. A recently expanded website has activities for grades 4-10 and a wealth of information for individual map enthusiasts.