----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hi Maps-L folks.
Could I tap a few minds about the best way to handle the indexing of US
topos at 1:24,000 and 1:25,000?  The indexes to these maps are very well
done, but they do present us with some difficulties.  We believe that the
best way to access our collection of US topos is through the indexes
folded up as green coloured booklets.  Because we file our maps
upright in vertical map filing cabinets, we don't keep the indexes with
the maps.
 
The indexes are kept in a Princeton box on a book shelf not too far away
from the maps.  The maps are filed alphabetically by state and, within
each state, are filed alphabetically by sheet name.  Our problem lies
with the fact that some sheets (for some states) are 1:24,000 and other
sheets are 1:25,000; for cataloguing reasons we file the all the
1:24,000s for a particular state first; immediately behind these are the
1:25,000s for that same state.
 
But the printed indexes do not distinguish between the two different
scales (sidebar: I find that curious!).  We don't want our patrons to
have the search in two different places in our collection to find a
particular sheet--e.g., looking for Troy, New York in the 1:24,000
section and for Troy, New York in the 1:25,000 section.  We experimented
with annotating the indexes to indicate those sheets that are at 1:25,000
(since there are fewer of these than of the larger scale) but the indexes
are very "busy" and this information is hard to read.  We also tried
using different coloured inks/magic marker/grease pencil to indicate
scale.  But this presents a problem for us since we keep only the most
recent sheet; that is, if our 1:24,000 topo is superseded by a more
recent 1:25,000, then we withdraw the earlier 1:24,000.  This means that
we then have to un-highlight the sheet on the index.
 
Does anyone out there have a similiar filing situation and, if so, how
have you tackled the problem of indicating your holdings?
  Cheers,
 =============================================================================
Richard Hugh Pinnell
Head, University Map and Design Library, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada  N2L 3G1
Phone: 519/888-4567, extension 3412
Fax:   519/746-8476
Email: [log in to unmask]
 =============================================================================