Looking for a couple of books to introduce surveying to 2 people with zero experience. Like a Surveying for Dummies?

Land Surveying Simplified, By Paul Gay

This book gives the reader some introduction to the kind of instruments surveyors use and why, together with some discussion of the sort of work products we produce.

@norman-oklahoma Looks like a GREAT one! Thank you! Ordered and on its way.

Elementary surveying--any edition. The Wolf & Brinker old editions don't have much about satellite surveying, but as a primer on survey basics they're golden.

The Elementary Surveying books (Wolf, Ghilani, etc.) are great but are intended for a year college course and may be overwhelming for someone who is just interested in a faster introduction at this time.

I would suggest the Surveyor Reference Manual by Cole.

Note, while this makes for a great introduction text to surveying, I wouldn’t actually recommend it for test prep, despite it being marketed as such.

Plenty of videos on YouTube telling people how to survey property lines.  I saw one the other day saying that even if you have to hire a surveyor it's only $300-$1000. 😉 Obviously I'm kidding.  Years ago I had the pleasure of working with Paul on a boundary that had some issues.  Smart dude, I'm sure the book is worth it.

Good luck with it. Any time I've tried an explain the basics to a layperson their eyes glaze over and they get that deer in headlights look, usually in under 60-90 seconds. Also works well as a party hypnosis trick.

A lot will depend on what type of surveying you want to relay and the capacity of the recruits. My Mom and I worked through the 73 manual when she went for her real estate license. It was an easy read for me and I learned a lot, but it didnt get me started in the profession. An elementary surveying text would probably do more..

Posted by: @thebionicman

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A lot will depend on what type of surveying you want to relay and the capacity of the recruits ...

That book I recommended is not a book about how to survey. It's a book about what surveying is.

For the love of all that is holy, if some young person approaches you asking about what kind of job surveying is, do not hand that person Elementary Surveying or anything like it. Unless you are looking for a quick way to snuff out an interest in the profession before it has a chance to flower.     

I don't have any books, but below are a couple of handouts I created to accompany the Cadastral classroom investigation published by BLM in 2023. I have had good luck using them as outreach for all levels of folks that are curious about what Cadastral Surveying entails.

No. 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14pIxRCwHjKMa5mQ6GcLeGfs6KPKN0AI-/view?usp=drivesdk. Click or tap if you trust this link." href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F14pIxRCwHjKMa5mQ6GcLeGfs6KPKN0AI-%2Fview%3Fusp%3Ddrivesdk&data=05%7C02%7Cmking%40blm.gov%7Cfba2ac828d31451faf5808de804a87da%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C639089254755492087%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ddQWLm7K5GSixTS83QJeyJ5%2FpDMCiyDaU9n14H%2FHQVI%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" data-ogsc="" data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody"> https://drive.google.com/file/d/14pIxRCwHjKMa5mQ6GcLeGfs6KPKN0AI-/view?usp=drivesdk

No. 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14jRyBj3uhQLfCOWn6h5UZe1dFE7_sNhE/view?usp=drivesdk. Click or tap if you trust this link." href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F14jRyBj3uhQLfCOWn6h5UZe1dFE7_sNhE%2Fview%3Fusp%3Ddrivesdk&data=05%7C02%7Cmking%40blm.gov%7Cfba2ac828d31451faf5808de804a87da%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C639089254755514631%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2F27Yjg0sJLZbVrqri7BBm3gOLEFhQPDLPIRTaNgh%2Biw%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1" data-ogsc="" data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody"> https://drive.google.com/file/d/14jRyBj3uhQLfCOWn6h5UZe1dFE7_sNhE/view?usp=drivesdk

Let me know if any issues with the links.