-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Outsourcing the Cataloging of Cartographic Materials
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 15:54:40 -0400
From: Grabach, Kenneth A. Mr. <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>
Julie, and others,
Thanks to Paige, for a fine summary of antiquarian cataloging, which I
have only done a few times, and most often when there was good
cataloging for the title already existing. I only add to his comments
for one further item.
Paige mentions conversion of coordinates based on principle meridians
before the time of the Greenwich as the standard principle meridian.
Another part of the mathematical information, of course is scale. In
these maps there may be a graphic scale, but given in an unfamiliar
measurement. Or there may be a verbal statement. Distances were not
standardized at the times of many of these maps, so that there are
distances given as leagues, paces, stadia, and so forth. Leagues alone
present a challenge because there were several definitions of how long a
league was! Also, early 19th-century maps in the US might have
distances given in rods or chains. These were standardized, but are
less frequently used today and so require some research to make
something meaningful with the record. Whatever else one might say about
the French Revolution, the creation of metric measurements based on
units of 10 was a boon to the map cataloger!
The fascinating thing about cataloging an old map is that you invariably
learn something about a map maker, about map making, about old
measurement systems, and about early coordinate systems, as well as
about the historical geography being portrayed.
Ken Grabach <[log in to unmask]>
Maps Librarian Phone: 513-529-1726
Miami University Libraries
Oxford, Ohio 45056 USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Angie Cope, American
Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 2:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 14:15:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Paige G Andrew <[log in to unmask]>
To: Air Photo Maps, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>
Julie,
Aha...the age-old question of "how long does it take" is back! And, of
course, the phrase "it depends" is very applicable.
You specifically said "antiquarian" maps so I am going to base my
answer/guesstimate on the need to know about maps that are no younger
than early 20th century, but most likely from the 19th and/or 18th
century? The age of the maps is definitely a parameter to be aware of
because before maps were truly mass produced of course much of the work
was done by individuals. This has a direct bearing on potentially taking
longer to do a description, because attribution for early/antiquarian
maps is most likely for one or more people, and accurate, authorized
headings for people tends to be lacking more than for corporate bodies
responsible for maps.
Another factor is whether or not you want to strictly capture
coordinates for each map (I highly advise this), because of course the
prime meridian for older maps is all over the place, meaning it takes
longer to convert a set of coordinates based on Paris, Ferro,
Washington, D.C., London, or similar to Greenwich.
As James mentioned in his reply a major factor is of course the
experience level of the person doing the cataloging, and added to that
is their knowledge of early cartographic history. Someone who knows
pretty well the "players" involved in historical cartography along with
the descriptive rules and nuances to them based on early maps, is going
to be able to craft an accurate and complete description,
classification, and set of subject headings more quickly than someone
who is new to working with older maps (and especially someone who also
has little or no map cataloging experience). And there is probably even
a bit of difference, time-wise, between two experienced catalogers doing
this work -- one who regularly touches antiquarian maps and atlases
versus one who only occasionally does. An example might be Nancy
Kandoian versus myself; I would expect Nancy to be able, if we both were
given the same 18th-century map to catalog, to craft a description is
less time than myself,!
simply because she has been around the names associatied with these
maps more often and also knows the differences inherent in the
cataloging rules between contemporary and historical maps.
Then, of course, there are the differences in the maps themselves. Its
one thing to have to go through a pile of single-sheet, one main map,
maps and quite another to have to tackle a pile that has some of these
but also maps that are a single map on multiple sheets, maps that are
very large physically vs. small in size, and mix in maybe a topographic
set or similar. The more random the type of map(s) one has to deal with
the longer it will take to do the cataloging.
I always hesitate to put times on cataloging; and in fact another major
factor is whether one is creating an original description from scratch
vs. dealing with copy -- especially poor, inaccurate, incomplete copy.
Editing someone else's work almost always takes more time than starting
from scratch. Other factors to consider are:
full level vs. minimal level or even "core"
cataloging within a certain program, like BIBCO, or not full authority
control over all headings vs. only over the main entry (talking AACR2
here) and subject headings is the cataloger also responsible for
creating call numbers or not and even the preservation factor -- is the
cataloger expected to make
583 notes on encapsulation for example?
To summarize, there are a LOT of factors that sway putting an "average"
time it does, or should, take one to catalog maps (contemporary or
historical). And, the longer one has been cataloging maps, the more
he/she should be able to do in a given amount of time.
I would think, given all the variables, someone new or relatively new to
cataloging antiquarian maps should initially only be expected to do
perhaps 2 or 3 titles per day. Someone with a strong background in map
cataloging, even if it has been primarily with contemporary maps, should
be able to do twice that much. And, I am basing this on doing original
cataloging, including classification and complete authority work.
Please take the above with a large grain of salt because your
circumstances locally will effect these decisions. After all, somebody
supervising this person has to first set up an expectation, and then the
cataloger involved may be happy to simply meet that expectation, while
another person may turn out to be better motivated, a fast learner, or
just have an affinity that helps them go above that expectation.
If you would like some specific cataloging numbers based on my own
experience I'd be happy to share that with you offline, keeping in mind
that my experience has always been primarily with contemporary maps,
though I do have some experience with both original early maps and
facsimiles of the same.
Hope this helps!
Paige
----- Original Message -----
From: "Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee"
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2012 1:00:02 PM
Subject: Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 09:44:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Julie Sweetkind-Singer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Julie Sweetkind-Singer <[log in to unmask]>
To: Air Photo Maps, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>
April and Paige,
Can you two estimate how long (in terms of minutes) you think it would
take to catalog an antiquarian map? I'm being asked to give metrics on
this as we try to work through our backlong. How much can one person be
expected to do in an hour, a day, etc?
Thanks for your expertise.
Julie
***
Julie Sweetkind-Singer
Assistant Director of Geospatial, Cartographic and Scientific Data &
Services Head Librarian, Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map
Collections Stanford University
397 Panama Mall; MC 2211
Stanford, CA 94305
(650)725-1102
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *"Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW
Milwaukee" <[log in to unmask]>
*To: *[log in to unmask]
*Sent: *Thursday, July 5, 2012 5:54:21 AM
*Subject: *Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 16:51:39 +0100 (BST)
From: A CARLUCCI <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: A CARLUCCI <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>
Hi Greg
Following on from Paige's comments, I'm happy to offer a few thoughts.
I've had the opportunity to see close up some projects which weren't
exactly outsourcing as you're thinking, but were similar enough. One was
a retroconversion of a large printed catalog, which was done by a
contractor, and the other a large donation of maps which came with
cataloging data supplied by the donor. In both cases, looking at it as a
manager, you would have to wonder if the outsourcing had been worth the
trouble, given the effort required by in-house staff to clean up the
data later.Paige is right, in these sorts of situations you lose control
of the details, and there's nothing more important in cataloging than
details. Paige was lucky to be able to develop a good rapport with the
external cataloger on his project; it doesn't always work that way.
Another consideration is where the work will be done. Assuming that
outsourcing means outside of your library, how will the maps get to
where they're being cataloged? Pardon this terrible pun, but maps don't
travel as well as many other types of library materials, at least not if
the maps are large and flat. Sending copies, whether paper or digital,
completely messes up your physical description and scale. Sending the
maps themselves is a security and conservation risk.
But it's not all doom and gloom. The answer is fairly simple and
something I've been involved with many times in my career, in all sorts
of library settings. Plan it as an onsite limited term project and hire
a map cataloger. Training and help is available. It's not easy to
estimate how much work there will be, but then you would still have to
estimate it for an outsource. It gives you a lot more control over
quality, keeps the materials safely at home, and you're giving someone a
job as well. I'm sure you can get help with the details from the map
library community; all in all, we're a pretty nice bunch!
Good luck!
Regards
April
April Carlucci
The Itinerant Map Catalog(u)er and Consulting Map Librarian
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* "Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW
Milwaukee" <[log in to unmask]>
*To:* [log in to unmask]
*Sent:* Monday, 2 July 2012, 13:50
*Subject:* Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2012 14:09:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: Paige G Andrew <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: Air Photo Maps, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Hi Greg,
Sorry for the delay in replying, I am STILL not caught up on
conference-related things! I sure hope others are. So, here it is on the
weekend and I'm trying to clear up several things.
Outsourcing the cataloging of cartographic materials -- there really is
only one viable option, and its an expensive one that doesn't net you
the best of records ("useable", "average" are a couple of words that
come to mind from my experience), and that is OCLC's retrocon service.
Here at Penn State in the late 1990s/early 2000s I coordinated a project
to get all of our city maps from Pennsylvania and the surrounding six
states cataloged by outsourcing them to OCLC (the project was of course
run by our Cataloging and Metadata Services Department's head and
assistant head, they took care of things like the budget stuff,
higher-level communication between us and OCLC initially, communication
up the organization from within, etc.). I would have to dig to see if I
even have any dollar figures available, keeping in mind that its been
about ten years ago, whether for the entire project or per-record, or
other. My post outsourcing thoughts gather around a couple of things;
the over!
all quality of the work done at the bib. record level on their end, and
for the project as a whole.
Starting with the bib. records, and you know I am a pretty picky and
high-detailed maps cataloger, I was not too happy with the outcomes. I
did have a good line of communication with the person doing the
cataloging on OCLC's end for our project, and he was very amenable to
either my suggestions for changes or my outright request in specific
cases. But, I felt like some things were often overlooked when they
should not have been, though I would say that outright errors were
minimal. Mostly it was information *lacking* that made me have to step
in and do additional work at times. That said, I do know that the
catalogers at OCLC don't necessarily specialize in specific formats of
materials (unless that has changed in the meantime) and thus I think the
lack of experience with map cataloging showed in the results.
As for the overall experience with OCLC, I think it was positive. As
noted above I had a very good line of communication with the fellow
cataloger. In addition the "red tape" side of things, filling out forms,
tweaking profiles to fit our needs, and so forth, was positive, the
folks at OCLC were timely in their replies and provided good
explanations when needed.
However, whenever you have another person or organization doing the work
for you, in instantly lose control over the ability to make changes in a
timely manner. Changes to workflow (e.g., let's say you decided you
wanted to only have your Tennessee city maps cataloged, and then a
couple of months later you decide to also add doing all the Tennessee
maps, this kind of change takes time to propose, work around from both
ends, etc., until implementation), changing the specifics you want
included or not included at the record level, and even the reality that
at a moment's notice the budget for the project might be cut suddenly --
all of these mean it takes more time to do because you aren't able to
sit down with a supervisor and maybe an administrator quickly and make
decisions and then begin implementing them. That can be frustrating at a
minimum, and more costly at a maximum, because as we all know time is money.
I would hedge my bet and say that if one has a relatively small and
focused project in mind, with the budget to see it completely through,
then perhaps outsourcing is a viable alternative. But, if the idea is to
outsource a major part of a collection to get the cataloging done, or
the entire collection (or remainder thereof), and you have the capable
cataloger(s) to do the work, you will end up with a better result, for
less money, in the long run.
Are there other persons or companies that take on outsourcing
cartographic materials cataloging? Well, I know in the 1990s there was a
person I believe in Virginia that started such a company but a few years
later folded. Outside of OCLC I don't know of any others, though there
may be one or more, and I trust others on this list can fill in the
blanks for me.
Hope this helps.
Your friendly, neighborhood maps cataloger,
Paige
----- Original Message -----
From: "Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee"
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 11:05:09 AM
Subject: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Outsourcing the Catologing of Cartographic Materials
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:01:00 +0000
From: March, Greg <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Hello,
Would anyone be willing to offer any opinions, advice, personal
experiences related to outsourcing the cataloging of cartographic
materials? Any input you can offer would be very much appreciated.
Thank you!
-Greg
Gregory H. March
Associate Professor
Map/GIS Librarian and
Head of Map Services
University of Tennessee
G21A Hodges Library
Knoxville, TN 37996
865-974-3878 (phone)
865-974-3925 (fax)
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