Spatialization is an innovative way to expand searching capabilities for a marine/coastal reference database by using a metaphorical map framework to establish a sense of place for non-spatial information. Spatializing the Catalogue of Oregon Marine and Coastal Information (COMCI), a coastal reference database, enables the marine and coastal resource community to quickly access pertinent information in a dynamically changing marine environment that will aid them in making decisions on management, protection, and conservation. Geographic information systems, including ESRI’s ArcGIS and ArcIMS, are used in conjunction with an Access database of nongeographic data to create visualizations that facilitate the use of an interactive search interface. Using a self organizing map (SOM) technique to spatialize the coastal database, a metaphorical information space was created and implemented into an interactive graphical display.