Thanks everyone! This has been very helpful for pulling my scattered thoughts together. We have a loose working policy for what is "rare" that applies to new acquisitions, but I know that some maps that were cataloged loooong ago and put in the general collection probably deserve special attention. We're shifting a bunch of things around so I thought this would be a good time to reorganize the collection. -Theresa On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 6:31 AM, Cahill, Colleen <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Theresa, > > I read the other replies, which were all great and wanted to add one > thing; some items are considered “rare” if they are one-of-a-kind. The map > might not be valuable or fragile or old, but if it is the only one in the > world, it might end up in the rare map holdings. This happens for mostly > manuscript maps, of course. > > > > Why you would have a less than valuable or fragile map in a rare area > would be based on your collection policies. A map by an important person > in your institution might be very significant to your holdings, but not so > much to the rest of the world. > > > > Colleen > > > > Colleen R. Cahill > > Digital Conversion Coordinator and > > Recommending Officer for Fantasy and Science Fiction > > Geography & Map Division > > Library of Congress > > 101 Independence Ave. SE > > Washington, DC 20540-4650 > > Voice: 202-707-8540 > > Fax: 202-707-8531 > > [log in to unmask] > > These opinions are mine, Mine, MINE! > > > > > > > > *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 2:15 PM > *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 > -- Theresa Quill Map/GIS Coordinator, Herman B Wells Library MLS Candidate, School of Library and Information Science Indiana University