-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Gazeteers - how important?
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:21:52 -0500
From: Brent Allison <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>
Folks,
Count me as an ally of Arlyn's and Nancy's, They're seasoned enough to
have their advice considered thoroughly. Unlike many you who weren't
around when Ike was the U.S. President, Arlyn and Nancy know me well and
will attest that I'm no technophobe or digital Luddite (just for
example, for those who don't know me well or at all, I was Chair of
MAGERT in 1989-90, one of several informal leaders of the ARL GIS
Literacy Project, applied for and received a (then) first-of-its-kind
grant of $250,000 to establish a GIS facility within the map library for
which I was presented with the ALA Library of the Future Award
<http://map.lib.umn.edu/awards>. I most definitely wouldn't pitch any
of the library's print gazetteers. They are just too valuable as
resources (sometimes more accurate than GNIS), as geographic artifacts
(who would toss gazetteers from eras where countries have fragmented
(e.g., Yugoslavia <http://bit.ly/usbgn_yugoslavia>under Field Marshall
Tito <http://bit.ly/fieldmarshaltito>) or consolidated (such as Germany
as is now - but what about when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire?), Too many supply etiological information invaluable to the
geographic researcher or identify mythical places, not necessarily of
the mythological vein, but such as the names of several islands in Lake
Superior which were named to please a monarch or a benefactor being
buttered up by naming islands for the children of one's benefactor's,
which now and never did exist. I know shelving space can be a premium,
but for two decades, I never failed to acquire a gazetteer the map
library didn't already own and I have never regretted that policy. Some
gazetteers may have relatively few entries (The Shtetl Finder
<http://bit.ly/shtetl_finder>) or relatively many (Where Once We Walked
<http://bit.ly/where_once_we_walked>), both invaluable resources for the
Jewish genealogist or World War Two historian -- they retain a precious,
rich history of towns (and their inhabitants) wiped off the map as a
result of genocide. Others go into great historical detail concerning
the names' origins, which are sometimes controversial. For instance,
currently Minneapolis is debating <http://bit.ly/lake_calhoun> whether
to rename Lake Calhoun <http://bit.ly/mpls-lakes-calhoun> (whose
namesake was the 19th century South Carolina politician, John C.
Calhoun, (a U.S. Senator, Vice President, Secretary of War and outspoken
advocate for maintaining slavery in the United States), to Lake Humphrey
(as in Hubert H.) who was known for his staunch, unwavering stand
against racism and anti-semitism going back to the 1940's, when it
wasn't such a popular stance).
I could go on, but those are just a tiny number of the reasons this old
geezer wouldn't toss even one gazetteer from a map library's collection.
Best regards,
Brent
--
Brent Allison
Special Projects Librarian for Archives and Special Collections
University of Minnesota Libraries
472 Wilson Library
Minneapolis, MN 55455
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
(612) 624-0306 <tel:%28612%29%20624-0306>
Google Talk: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 2:18 PM, Angie Cope, American Geographical
Society Library, UW Milwaukee <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Gazeteers - how important?
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:24:24 -0400
From: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
I agree strongly with Arlyn on this. Scanning a few pages of place
names
in the BGNs allows possible spellings to reveal themselves in a way
that
searching some of the major online databases does not.
Nancy A. Kandoian
Map Cataloger
The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
The New York Public Library
5th Ave. & 42nd St.
New York, NY 10018-2788
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
phone 212-930-0586 <tel:212-930-0586>, fax 212-930-0027
<tel:212-930-0027>
Re: Gazeteers - how important?
Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW
Milwaukee
to:
MAPS-L
06/14/2011 01:37 PM
Sent by:
"Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship"
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Please respond to "Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map
Librarianship"
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Gazeteers - how important?
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:23:59 +0000
From: Booth, Arlyn <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: 'Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship'
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
It's a whole lot easier to browse in the hard copy than online. And the
spelling patrons give can be very "off". I wouldn't pitch my BGN
gazetteers. They include much smaller places than any other gazetteers
we have.
Arlyn
Arlyn Booth
Map Coordinator
Illinois State Library
300 S. 2nd, Rm. 305
Springfield, IL 62701-1796
(217) 558-4140 <tel:%28217%29%20558-4140>
FAX (217) 557-6737 <tel:%28217%29%20557-6737>
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Jesse White, Secretary of State & State Librarian
-----Original Message-----
From: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
[mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On
Behalf Of Angie Cope, American
Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Gazeteers - how important?
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Gazeteers - how important?
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:48:49 +0000
From: Robert Lopresti <[log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
We are in the midst of consolidating our map library into the main
library. I have approximately 22 shelves of paper gazetteers from
around the world. Most but not all our from the US government, and the
most recent seem to be from the 1990s. Most are from the 1950s to
1970s.
My question is: how useful/important are they today? Should I be
saving
eight shelves worth of them?
Thanks,
Rob
Rob Lopresti
Map Librarian, Liaison for Huxley College and Government Information
Librarian
Western Washington University
360-650-3342 <tel:360-650-3342> [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
************************************************
Disclaimer - This email and any files transmitted with it are
confidential and contain privileged or copyright information. You must
not present this message to another party without gaining permission
from the sender. If you are not the intended recipient you must not
copy, distribute or use this email or the information contained in it
for any purpose other than to notify the Office of the Illinois
Secretary of State.
If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender
immediately, and delete this email from your system. Any views
expressed
in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the
sender specifically states them to be the views of the Office of the
Illinois Secretary of State.
************************************************
|
