-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        RE: Cataloging policy and practice for maps extracted from
atlases
Date:   Fri, 16 May 2008 14:26:59 -0500
From:   McEathron, Scott R <[log in to unmask]>
To:     <[log in to unmask]>



Harry,

It sounds like your cataloging administration is thinking of atlases as
books instead of an atlas as a convenient way of bundling together a
group of maps.  This is a common disease (call it "book brain") among
librarians not used to working with any format outside of the book or
journal.

Treatment for Book Brain is rarely successful.  Perhaps you could point
out that the contents of atlases where not always uniform. See:
"Amsterdam Atlas Production in the 1630s: A Bibliographer's Nightmare"
by Peter van der Krogt
Imago Mundi, Vol. 48, (1996), pp. 149-160.

Or, you could reason that the maps were generally an intellectually
discrete production.  Thomas Letts, one of the first professional map
catalogers in the U.S. would actually catalog each map still bound into
atlases.  His initials can be seen on maps in many of the old atlases at
the AGS Library.

Best wishes,

Scott McEathron

-----Original Message-----
From: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maps-L Moderator
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 10:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Cataloging policy and practice for maps extracted from atlases

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        FW: Cataloging policy and practice for maps extracted
from
atlases
Date:   Fri, 16 May 2008 10:05:16 -0500
From:   Harry Davis <[log in to unmask]>
To:     <[log in to unmask]>



Advice needed!

We have a number of map sheets that exist as items removed (not by us)
from atlases, most especially pre-20^th -century atlases. Some of these
maps are gifts, while some are past purchases.

Cataloging administration at this library has expressed strong
reluctance to provide any publicly-shared cataloging (via OCLC) for maps
that have been extracted from historical atlases. The position is
principled in the belief that "breaking" integral books (atlases in this
case) is ethically and professionally unacceptable and that our
institution should not condone such practice by agreeing to catalog
extracted maps.

What policy do other libraries observe for such situations?

We have noted the prevalence of maps separated (historically) from
atlases and the value of a record for individual maps once this is the
fact of the situation -that is, that we are not doing the breaking and
that an extracted map retains intellectual value even if tainted by the
removal. We are also mindful, of course, of the map theft for sale
issues.

I suppose a corollary question is one of whether gifts of extracted maps
should be declined (and purchases not undertaken).

What can others contribute to this discussion?

Thanks,

Harry Davis

Map Librarian

Liaison Librarian for Civil and Environmental Engineering,

Geography and Environmental Resources, Geology,

Maps, and Mining and Mineral Resources Engineering

Morris Library

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Carbondale, IL 62901-6632

Phone: 618~453~2372

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