This message is from Jan Smits.----------Johnnie ------------------------------------------------------- Fri, 7 Jan 1994 21:25:42 +0100 [log in to unmask] Documents/Maps Department Names (A) In the past my department was called "Office for Maps". It seemed to cover fairly well the contents of our work. Since the Royal Library has been reorganized since 1991 my department is called "Section for Cartographical Documentation" and comprises the former Office for Maps, the Dutch Union Map Catalogue and the nascent Cartographic Information Centre. However I have the feeling that "map" or "cartography" occurring in the name of a department like ours is not adequate anymore. In relating to our materials we didn't call them "maps", but "cartographic materials" like in the ISBD and AACR2. But is the science we serve the public with not so much evolving that it overreaches its former goals. Did we see in the 60s a maturing of cartography which resulted in IGU and ICA and its national societies, now we see the opposite movement, because the information we want to supply cannot always be called cartographic. Our main goal probably will be to supply "spatial information" in visual form, but with the rise of GIS-applications and multi-media we probably also will start to supply non-visual spatial information. [In Dutch the word "spatial" doesn't have so much a NASA-connotation. Thus in Holland we have a University Faculty called "Faculty of Spatial Sciences", but it is translated into English as "Faculty of Geographical Sciences"]. At large we could say we handle geo-referenced materials, but these automatically include non-visual materials. Though the IFLA has a "Geography & Map Library Section" and the Americans have a "Map and Geography Round Table" (MAGERT) I wonder in how far the brethen sciences of geography and cartography are participating in these organisations. For one I know that within IFLA the Map Libraries are predominant and the problems they take care of are mainly cartographical! Maybe we should redefine our working-field in the present GIS-age and incorporate more geography or seek more co-operation with geography to serve our clients better. Then we may become truely "Geography and Map Libraries (or Information Centres)". This could also have the advantage that we not only access predominantly pure cartographic materials (i.e. single or independent maps or map-series, charts, globes, relief-models, digital equivalents etc.) but also those cartographic materials which are part of other media (i.e. books, periodicals, GIS, multi-media etc.). I hope I haven't confused the matter more than necessary! Jan Smits Mapcurator Royal Library, the National Library of The Netherlands [log in to unmask]