Hi Theresa,







I’ve forwarded your question to a Special Collections librarian here at UCLA for their perspective on maps that are old and rare. I will let you know what they say.







Meanwhile, at the UCLA Young Research Library we keep flat maps and atlases in two locations.  Contemporary atlases are in a stacks area in the main Reference Reading Room where they can be kept flat.  Old and “rare” atlases are in a location in the Special Collections area from which they can be paged for use.  Our flat maps are divided by date of publication: maps published after 1945 are kept in map cases in a public area, filed by LC classification number, for use by the public.  Maps published through 1945 are considered “historical” and are housed in map cases in the Special Collections area.







There are some exceptions to this.  Most of our large map series are housed in remote storage because of space considerations.  Several of our large map series such as U.S. Nautical Charts and BLM series are housed in the Special Collections area because there is no space elsewhere; the plan is to eventually move them to remote storage as well.







Hope this helps.







Louise



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 11:15 AM

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