-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Determining Rare Maps Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:26:52 -0400 From: Fry, Michael <[log in to unmask]> To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]> Carlos, I don't mean to sound flippant, but I don't think you should worry about what's "rare" as much as what's useful to the CWU community. I don't think "rare" by itself is all that meaningful in a library setting unless, perhaps, you're concerned about how much effort to put into finding new owners for that stuff (for whom "rare" might be a genuine selling point). Otherwise, decide whether it's beneficial to your users to have access to print copies of the atlas folios, 15-minute topos, etc. Those things are increasingly available online (e.g., Texas A&M's digital collection of atlas folios at http://repository.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/2490), so the information they contain is increasingly ubiquitous, not rare. The artifacts themselves are increasingly rare, but it's all relative. And so what? You are a library, not a museum and not, for the most part, an archive. (I've forgotten a lot of my FDLP rules & regs, but I don't think you're legally obligated to keep any govdocs you acquired outside of the FDLP. And since you joined in 1962, I think that would necessarily include the atlas folios and 15-minute maps if not that "experimental" USGS map.) I'm not trying to discourage you from keeping those things, nor do I mean to sound uncaring about the artifacts themselves. (If you decide to weed, I certainly hope you will make every effort to find a good home for whatever you withdraw.) When at U-Md., I put a lot of effort into collecting and conserving every 15-minute map of Maryland and DC I could get my paws on. College Park is the state's flagship university, so it seemed inconceivable to me that we wouldn't have a solid, if not comprehensive, print collection of the earliest USGS topos of our own state. I would do that all over again in a heartbeat, on principle if nothing else. (If we didn't do it, who would?) OTOH, my effort to collect a full set of the atlas folios would be harder to justify again given the low use they saw. They are historic and useful, but did U-Md. need the folios from Montana, Kansas, or Michigan? That can and should be debated. Good luck. I hate weeding. I especially hate weeding old things whose value, if not rarity, I often feel unqualified to assess. And that happens a lot! mf -- Michael Fry Senior Map Librarian National Geographic Society 1145 17th St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 202.857.7098 <tel:202.857.7098> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 9:50 AM, Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Determining Rare Maps Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:58:06 -0700 From: Carlos Diaz <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> I posted the inquiry about how to determine if a map is rare due to a possible weeding project in our maps collection. I would really like to know how to identify such maps. We are a Federal documents depository and we have quite a collection of maps. For example: --Are the */Geologic Atlas of the United States/* that were published in the late 1800 and early 1900s be considered rare though quite a few depository collections may have them. --How about the early 15 minute series maps. are they also considered rare? --The other day while going through the collection, a student worker found a USGS map that included a black and white photo image (looked like a satellite image). Well, the map had the following phrase printed on the lower right corner of the map: */Experimental Issue/*. Though not old, could this be considered rare because it was the first time they tested something new? We don't want to remove something that could be valuable. ------------------------------__------------------------------__----------- ,-~~-.___. / | ' \ "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of ( ) 0 the few or the one." \_/-, ,----' ==== // Mr. Spock / \-'~; /~~~(O) Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan / __/~| / | =( _____| (_________| Carlos A. Diaz Government Publications, Maps, and Microforms James E. Brooks Library Central Washington University Mailstop 7548 Ellensburg, WA 98926 [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> http://www.lib.cwu.edu/__government-publications/ <http://www.lib.cwu.edu/government-publications/> Carlos' phone: (509) 963-1545 <tel:%28509%29%20963-1545> ------------------------------__------------------------------__----------- <mailto:[log in to unmask]>