I don’t have a written policy that delineates the boundaries between the open collection and the locked collection.  Practically speaking, the question for me is “which maps should be in the locked cabinets.”  My area is open to the public until 11pm on school nights (the rest of the building is on 24 hour access during the semester).  Though we do have student employees staffing the Map Library counter, I can’t rely on that alone to deter theft.  Maps might go into the locked cabinets for 3 reasons:



·         Theft risk – Could be from value or could be from the subject area of the map.  A vague cutoff is if the replacement cost would be more than $500, but that isn’t firm at all.  Plenty of foreign topo sets cost more than that but they don’t have as much risk of theft.



·         Fragile – the locked cabinet maps each go into their very own acid-free folder and have fewer items per drawer than the mad crush in the regular drawers.  A new map that I know will mostly be used for exhibits might go into the locked cabinet just to keep it from getting dinged up.



·         Old – the cut off isn’t firm.  Most of the 19th century items and older are in the locked cabinets, but by no means all.



Kathleen Weessies

Geosciences Librarian; Head, Map Library

Coordinator; Collaborative Technology Labs

Michigan State University

Main Library

366 W. Circle Drive, W308

East Lansing, MI  48824

517-884-0849



From: Maps-L: Discussion Forum for Maps, Air Photo, Map Librarianship, GIS, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Theresa Quill

Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 2:15 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Classification of Rare Maps



Hi all,



I'm in the middle of revamping what we consider "rare maps" and I was wondering if y'all have policies that spell out which maps are "rare". Do you do it by date? If so, what is your cutoff? Number of copies in the world? Relevance to your institution?

For example, the USGS 15 and 30 minute topos are OLD but not necessarily RARE. We also have some newer maps that we hold the only cataloged copy for. So maybe there's a hybrid solution? If you do have a policy, would you mind sharing it?



Thanks!



--

Theresa Quill

Map/GIS Coordinator, Herman B Wells Library

MLS Candidate, School of Library and Information Science

Indiana University