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Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 14:18:57 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Online Map Cataloging in Europe
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     I received several informative replies to my question on MapHist about
the state of online map cataloging in Europe.  I thought I would summarize
these responses and the results of my own follow-up investigations.
Because I think the subject will be of widespread interest to the map
community in North America, I am also posting this summary on Maps-L.
Corrections and significant additions would be appreciated.  I plan to post
some version of this message on my Web site at SUNY Stony Brook.

     In brief, a fair amount of map cataloging from Europe is available
online, although the majority of it is for contemporary maps.  A
significant amount of retrospective cataloging has been done in several
countries, and some of it is available on the Internet.  The situation is
complex, and I have just scratched the surface, but in lieu of anything
better the following information should provide a good starting point for
anyone interested in accessing European map cataloging via the Internet.

     The best place to begin is probably Odden's bookmarks <
http://oddens.geog.uu.nl>, which can be searched for online map catalogs.
Click on "browse," then on  "map collections," limit to the category
"catalogues," and select "all countries."  This will give you 37 hits, but
does not include many comprehensive catalogs that include maps.  Also
useful is a gateway site with links to many European national libraries,
which can be found at <http: www,konbib.nl/gabriel/>.

     A very good source of information on developments in online cataloging
in European libraries is the set of Web pages maintained by the LIBER
Groupe des Cartothecaires at <http://www.kb.nl/infolev/liber/>.  These
pages include articles of cataloging and progress reports from major
European countries, and most are in English.  (The materials not in English
can be automatically translated by something called "Babelfish," which
produced information for me about the Dept. of "cards and plans" at the
Bibliotheque Nationale.)

     OCLC and RLIN are available (at least to catalogers) in many European
libraries, and some contribute records to the databases.  I do not know how
many map cataloging records created by European libraries can be found in
those databases, but I have the impression that the total number is small
in comparision to that available on individual European OPACS.

     The closest thing to a European version of OCLC is (or was) a
Dutch-based system called PICA.  PICA has three central databases in
Holland, Germany and France, which contain approximately 40 million
bibliographic records.  For better or worse, PICA is apparently being taken
over by OCLC.   If this deal goes through, it would nearly double the size
of the OCLC database, including many European maps, which would be a boon
on this side of the Atlantic.  A large number of Dutch maps are either in
PICA, or are being converted to PICA format, according to Jan Smit.

     As Chris Fleet mentioned in his post sent to MapHist, the Consortium
of University Libraries has a union catalogue of 8 million records across
18 libraries that can be accessed at <http://copac.ac.uk>.  This catalog is
easy to search, and has a reasonable number of records for maps, including
historical maps.  A larger collection of British academic online catalogs
can be accessed individually at <http://www.niss.ac.uk/lis/opacs.html>.  A
union datanbase for scottish researh libraries can be searched at
<http://cairns.lib.gla.ac.uk>.

     When one descends to the level of individual European library
catalogs, things get really complicated.  a large number of European maps
have been converted into some sort of machine readable format.  As in the
United States, most of them are current maps and retrospective conversion
is proceeding slowly or not at all.  Many of the bibliographic records are
in some national version of MARC, but there are a fair number of catalogs
that use ideosyncratic formats.  Both in terms of content and ease of use,
the European catalogs range from very good to attrocious.  They need to be
described one at a time.  I will hit a few of the highlights.

     A good deal of retrospective cataloging of maps has been done by
German libraries.  I was particularly impressed by the catalog of printed
maps before 1850 done by the Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut (DBI) Berlin
database <http://dbix01.dbi-berlin.de:6100/DBI/login.html>.  It has a
user-friendly interface with an English language option.  Several other
German catalogs are listed in Odden's bookmarks.

     In Switzerland the IDS Basel/Bern catalog has a good collection of
historical maps of Switzerland and neighboring countries (thanks to the
Ryhiner Project at the University of Berne).  The catalog is easy to
search, although the interface is in French or German only
<htttp://ALEPH.UNIBAS.CH:4505/aleph


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