-------- Original Message --------
Subject: National Atlas of India
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:05:32 -0500
From: "Mark A. Thomas" <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Perkins Library, Duke University
To: "MAPS-L" <[log in to unmask]>

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We receive a lot of maps from South Asia sent to us by LC's office in
New Delhi, obtained by our South Asian bibliographer. I've gotten a lot
of sheets recently from India's National Atlas and Thematic Mapping
Organisation (NATMO). Many of these are loose sheets of the National
Atlas, dating from the 1990's. We have a set of loose sheets of the
National Atlas already cataloged as a set (using OCLC 10195872).
According to GeoKatalog, this set was completed in 1988. These new
sheets represent the revised ed.

I welcome any direction to information on the publishing history of the
revised editions of these sheets (e.g., a listing of the sheet numbers
with titles; sheets recently published by NATMO in the National Atlas
"style" but not part of the atlas; etc.).  I just want some
documentation.

Some details:

1. The sheet number for a certain sheet usually doesn't match the number
for the earlier edition of that sheet.  Therefore, we can't just
interfile them with the older sheets and get away with a note in the bib
record saying "various editions of some sheets" or whatever.  However,
I'm surprised there isn't a separate set record in OCLC (not that I can
find) for the revised edition. What are other places doing?

Of course, we can just create an original record for the revised
edition, and probably will, or we can catalog each sheet separtely, but
I thought I might be missing something. (Incidently, I don't catalog
them myself, but want to have an intelligent discussion with the
cataloger.)  Also, some of the new sheets are topics that weren't
included in the original set.

Example: "Health," plate 27 in the new batch is dated 1995 and says
"first edition." But there was "Health" sheet as plate 236 in the
National Atlas we already have. Says "first edition, 1972." I admit that
the style of display is different on the two maps, but something still
doesn't jive to me.

2. Half the sheets we've received don't have a sheet number or running
title.  Are these not part of the bound edition that I presume exists?
Or, are they part of it but our individual sheets are sort of
preliminary offprints that don't have all the stuff in the margin?

Example: "Railways" was sheet 150 dated 1975 ("first edition") but we
recently got an unnumbered "Railways" with the same basic design saying
"first edition 1962, second edition 1987, third edition 1999." So I
guess this is clearly a one-off not intended to be part of the atlas per
se.

My understanding from our South Asian bibiliographer is that we have
some sort of standing order for material from NATMO, and I don't have
any documentation (although he's looking into it).

Thanks,
        Mark
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mark Thomas / [log in to unmask] / 919-660-5853, fax:919-684-2855
Economics, Geology, Geography Bibliographer
Map and GIS Librarian / Public Documents and Maps Department
025 Perkins Library / Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0177