-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        sharing an older article about the IGN
Date:   Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:46:19 -0500
From:   Paige Andrew <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]



All,

In recent weeks I filled a gap in my own collection of MAGERT's formal
journal, /Meridian/, by acquiring vol. 14 (1998) from someone here on
MAPS-L....yet another great service that this list provides! (I now only
lack vol. 15 :'( or I'd have a complete run?) Thanks go to great
colleagues who made this journal possible from the late 1980s-late
1990s, folks like Charley Seavey, Alice Hudson, and David Cobb. There
are many invaluable treasures in the form of articles and other
information in this title, and I'd like to share but one that I wasn't
aware of until perusing my recently-acquired vol. 14 issue: "Institut
Geographique National - France" by Jean-Philippe Grelot. As a maps
cataloger I'm very, very familiar with the many IGN products since I've
been able to work with them both at UGA and in great quantity as we
finished cataloging a portion of Penn State's maps collection falling
into northern Africa. I only wish I had run across this article long
before this because it gives a wonderful detail as to IGN map series,
the organizational structure, etc. (as of the late 1990s) and on page 26
is a wonderful chart of all of the IGN map series by name, scale, number
of sheets in the series, and number of copies published/distributed. The
text of the article gives a bit of historical mapping background to the
contemporary maps as well as techniques used, and even a discussion of
the quandary between IGN being a public entity but its products being
protected by copyright.

If you're a cataloger like me who needs some context as to, for
instance, the number of sheets in a given series, or provide reference
services, either way this is a little gem of an article that will help
users of all kinds, even ourselves!

Paige