Michael, Totally agree with you that something like linear feet doesn't tell anyone anything substantive. In the past folks have come up with pretty solid figures on average number of inches of sheets per drawer and then estimating how many sheets there are and reported these here on MAPS-L. I hope I am describing that correctly. Heather can confirm/deny this but I believe because of moving our collection twice since I arrived in the mid 1990s they needed things like square feet of the room and number of map cases involved in order to make sure those cases would fit into a different space, how to arrange them, how high to stack and all that. There's probably some other parameters I am missing too. Paige ________________________________ From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Fry, Michael <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2022 10:28 AM To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Subject: map collection measurement If your superiors asked you to describe the size/extent of your sheet map collection, what would you say? In what unit(s) of measurement would you provide an answer? I'm being pressured to answer the question in terms of linear feet--again, for sheet maps--and can't get my head around that. The only way I can get to "linear feet of maps" is to literally stack them on top of each other and measure the height of the stack. Which, IMO, would be a ridiculous (and meaningless) way to measure the size/extent of the collection. Much less meaningful than # of sheets, or number of drawers, or even square feet (of area occupied by map cases). I'm off to search the literature on this, but wondering what your thoughts are. ? Thank you. mf -- Michael Fry Collections Manager | Map Library Manager National Geographic Society Library, Archives & Media Management 202.807.3139 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [Nat Geo Logo Yellow_Black.png]<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpga2%40PSU.EDU%7C518e57852bd2487f1edf08daab97a8a6%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C638010965102611332%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=97EZOUIFhnnVjvjrFzIB7rkW%2FwaCjjVyAmOsBZrxNts%3D&reserved=0> 1145 17th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036 [https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/eUMCwcTzfSOm5kGoUiG8MvwcpGfyR9NuYdSkt62WHK-3Pq_A_qfuBxOi1BIAD2aPMTwXUio_NI2OTTpVvyglE21_0EFcmF9JtpgYDZkC8DXnnIVRw_6DjU6pduqyAFII0aAbx2hT]<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpga2%40PSU.EDU%7C518e57852bd2487f1edf08daab97a8a6%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C638010965102611332%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Ada43fPEDPOnU4cO0SHjMlPz4%2FYwcsP3g21aBfEXqiY%3D&reserved=0>