Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 09:16:45 -0400
From: Patrick McGlamery <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [Fwd: FYI France: digital libraries, cartography at Sciences
Po]
Sender: Patrick McGlamery <[log in to unmask]>
-----------------------------------------------------------
FYI France: digital libraries, online cartography at Sciences Po
The "Sciences Po" -- "l'Ecole libre des sciences politiques" --
has made an extraordinarily interesting and useful "digital
libraries" site available online. The resources include the
expected information about the school itself, and access to rich
documentation / information - searching sources, an interesting
and broad - based Z39.50 search engine, and the online catalog of
the school's famous book collection.
But in addition there is a link to a fascinating thing called,
simply, "site de la Cartographie", or "Cartes et Diagrammes", for
anyone who loves maps...
"Cartes et Diagrammes" offers,
a) "Grandes lignes de partage du monde contemporain" -- The
curriculum in cartography at Sciences Po, a very interesting tour
through how the subject currently is taught in France, and the
general basics of the cartographer's world. Interesting maps,
simply and clearly presented.
b) "Cartothe`que" -- A large, and growing, online collection of
maps in use by classes and researchers at Sciences Po. Currently
over 200 maps are shown, covering things like,
* Europe. La amenaza terrorista en Europa
* Monde. Les Ame'ricains expatrie's
* Europe. L'avancement de la transition e'conomique dans
les pays post-communistes
* Espagne. Attitudes et valeurs de la jeunesse espagnole
* Monde. Agglome'rations de plus de 2 millions d'habitants
* Monde. Les lignes ae'riennes les plus profitables
* France. Taux de criminalite'
* France. Taux de cho^mage et variation - 1992-1997
* Monde. Les conflits mondiaux
* Roumanie. Origine ethnique des citoyens roumains
* France. Familles monoparentales
* Monde. Multinational firms in the world
* Monde. La drogue dans le monde
* Monde. Transgressions des Droits de l'Homme
(etc.)
c) "Fonds de cartes" -- A perhaps - extremely - useful collection
of charts and "projections" -- sketch outlines -- of all sorts of
geographic entities, interestingly provided often in historical
perspective. So, for example, among the five general categories,
* Le Monde
* Les Continents
* Les Ensembles re'gionaux
* Les Etats
* Les Villes
you can find the series,
* Europe 1812
* Europe 1815
* Europe 1914
* Europe 1938
* Europe 1939
* Europe 1992
* Europe 1994
* Europe 1996 e'troite
* Europe 1996 e'largie
* Europe 1945-49
* Europe 1945-89
-- to scale and following the same methodology -- so you can
trace, and present, historical developments very easily using
these... Another example:
* Chine (provinces)
* Chine (provinces et noms)
* Chine (contours)
-- and there are many other examples suggesting intriguingly
useful applications here -- i.e.
* France en 1790
* France en 1815
* France en 1975
-- in this last, the de'partements are simply outlined on an
unmarked map -- very useful for anyone possessing rudimentary map
- making or other graphics software and in need of showing
students, or others, how things have changed in France...
d) "Dossiers the'matiques" -- Currently four projects are shown,
each valuable in and of itself, and the collection valuable for
anyone interested in comparative approaches to map - making --
* "L'immigration en Europe"
* "Le monde sur grand e'cran"
* "Les organisations internationales"
* "Un ou plusieurs Tiers - Mondes(s)?"
e) "Comment faire des cartes et des diagrammes: The'orie
cartographique et se'miologie graphique" -- Finally theory, last
but not least. This is France, and it wouldn't be French without
some theory, and a little "se'miologie"... Four very interesting
presentations currently appear in this section of the Sciences
Po site:
* "La graphique (Jacques Bertin)"
* "La cartographie: ge'ne'ralite's"
* "Typologie des cartes"
* "Du tableau des donne'es a` l'image graphique"
A general note:
Fascinating to consider all of the different issues which can be
"mapped"... particularly useful in this era of the
"globalization" buzzword...
Also, it is interesting to consider how cartography may be
revolutionized, now -- along with everything else it sometimes
seems -- by online access and digital information tools. Web
users anywhere now can view these things, and download them, and
use them, and alter them using increasingly - freely - available
hardware and software and user knowledge about graphics.
Thanks to computerization and the Internet, and pace Edward
Tufte, my children know far more now than I ever have about
fonts, and colors, and shading, and graphic presentation
generally. Maps no longer are "set in stone" -- any more than
"books" or any other "texts" are...
The addresses for Sciences Po are:
W3: the school -- http://www.sciences-po.fr/
W3: "documentation" -- http://www.sciences-po.fr/docum/document1.html
W3: library catalog -- http://satellit.sciences-po.fr/
W3: "cartographie" -- http://www.sciences-po.fr/cartographie/index.html
postal: 27, rue Saint-Guillaume 75337 Paris cedex 07
"Sciences Po" was founded in 1872. It has trained an important
sector of the French ruling elite for over a century. Today it
offers a full internationally - oriented curriculum to 4,000
incoming students every year, 1/4 of whom were non - French in
2000, and 1/3 of whom are expected to be non - French by 2003.
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
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Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
all rights reserved except as expressed above.
---------------------------------------------------------
Patrick McGlamery
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