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Dear Colleagues,
 
We would like your opinion and thought concerning the following.
 
Since I have become mapcurator of the Royal Library in 1979 we
have striven as much as possible to incorporate all maps
published in books and periodicals in the National Bibliography
for Maps. As the amount of maps published annually is much higher
then we can process we developed a systematics to face the
problem (See: Frontiers of access to cartographic materials
within a repository library / Jan Smits. In: Liber bulletin, 28,
1986, p. 34-39). This has led to an automated database with appr.
50,000 titles, of which 70 percent concerns maps in books and
periodicals.
 
Since some time we are also inventoring and accessing the
scientific collection of the Royal Library. We have inventoried
up till now more than 100,000 maps, either in atlases or in books
and periodicals. However during this process some problems
surfaced. We have started to access maps in parliamentary papers
(appr. 1,500-2,500 maps) and the Dutch Geographical Journal
1876-1991 (appr. 1,000 maps). We would like to know your
experiences and thoughts concerning these to base our policies on
firmer grounds.
 
The Department for Cartographic Documentation of the Royal
Library intends to research the problems concerning cartographic
materials in books and periodicals published in the 19th and 20th
century. Based on a study of literature and a sample which will
be taken at random from some 10 native and foreign geographical
periodicals concerning the amount of maps, dimensions, quality of
contents and durability of material we hope to start internal and
external discussions concerning this very vulnerable cartographic
material (damage and theft). Resulting from these discussions we
hope to be able to propose measures which will result in better
accessibility and conservation. We envisage solutions like
optical image recording, conservation of maps within the binding
or of separating the materials from their hosts with automated
concordances.
Though these problems are also valid for books and periodicals of
earlier periods -the Department is closely connected with an
historical cartographical research under the direction of
professor Guenter Schilder (University of Utrecht) of
cartographic materials in 17th and 18th century geographical and
ethnographic books and pamphlets- we want to concentrate on the
19th and 20th century. We feel that hardly any attention is given
in the discussion concerning 'brittle books' to the appended or
bound cartographic (and other) image material. This concerns the
function as artefact as well as (through her union with the text)
it being a gauge for the contents and quality of the cartography.
 
In our continuing strive to hitch on to global developments in
our field of work we like to know your opinion concerning this
matter. More specifically we would like to be informed on the
following:
1. Do you know specific literature concerning the problems of
maps in books and periodicals (from the point of view of
mapcuratorship, historic-cartographic research, as well as from
the user in general);
2. Are there more institutions around the world which process
cartographic materials in the same way. If not are you aware of
other initiatives concerning the accessing and conservation of
imaging materials (prints, photographs, etc.) in this field;
3. Do you have experiences with conservation of this kind of
material (optical image recording, microfilm, conservation in
binding with e.g. folding schemes, conservation outside binding);
4. Are you interested in and are there possibilities for exchange
of research findings;
5. Would you be interested in exchange of database-records to
divide workloads for accessing these materials.
 
 
Jan Smits
Mapcurator Royal Library, National Library of the Netherlands
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