----------------------------Original message---------------------------- 8/1/97 NEW MAJOR ACQUISITION PROGRAM FOR ATLASES OF THE FORMER USSR OFFERED BY EAST VIEW PUBLICATIONS East View Publications announces a major new blanket-order program for supplying customers with all of the most recent major oblast- and republic-level atlases of Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet republics. As atlases tend to have a very long useful shelf life and significant ongoing reference value, this program is both retrospective and current in nature. For each political unit, East View will supply the most recent official atlas of a scholarly nature. Quality atlases represent a core component of any reference or research library. As the importance of regions outside of Moscow has grown in recent years, so has the requirement for comprehensive official information on such regions. Atlases of countries and other administrative rregions of the former Soviet Union are often represented in libraries by a single USSR-level volume. Below the all-Soviet level, few atlases have been systematically acquired, as can be readily seen by searching OCLC and RLIN catalogs. Indeed, until 1988, most major regional atlases were classified "DSP" ("For Official Use Only") and to this day remain virtually unknown. Now, for the first time, East View Publications has organized a comprehensive program to make available all of the most recent atlases for each oblast -level unit of the Russian Federation (89 units) and Ukraine (25 units), as well as for each of the 13 other former Soviet republics. Under special directives from the Soviet Council of Ministers, an extremely active publishing program existed throughout the 1970s and the 1980s for the producation of regional atlases. At the republic level, such atlases were produced by the local Academy of Sciences' Institute/Department of Geography. Typically the atlases consist of two volumes: one covering basic geology, natural resources and the environment; and a second one covering local economic and demographic features as well as history. Oblast-level atlases for the Russian Federation and Ukraine follow the same general pattern. Customers who enrol in this blanket-order program will recive substantial discounts as opposed to ordering via firm orders. In total this program involves some 125 atlases. Due to their large size, high quality and rarity, blanket-order prices will range from $75-$300 per volume. Blanket-order participants should plan on receiving 50-75 atlases the first year and 20-30 atlases per year thereafter. City-level atlases can be included as an add-on option. For those who choose not to enroll in this program, individual atlases will be announced on East View's Geography/Atlas EVmail notification group which can be joined at http://www.eastview.com/bo/distlist.html. The service is free of charge and includes regular announcments of new atlases, GIS materials and geography-related titles from the countries of the former Soviet Union. Please inquire for additional information or to enroll in this new atlas acquisition program. **************************************************** Catherine E. Porter Director, Book Division East View Publications http://www.eastview.com E-mail: [log in to unmask] Phone: 1 800 477-1005 or (612) 550-0961 Fax: (612) 559-2931 ******************************************************* Please browse our new books, CD-ROMs & database catalog at http://www.eastview.com. Search instructions are coming soon, so don't despair! ******************************************************* Also, don't forget to sign up for our new book notification services, EVmail (under the "New" menu option in the Book Section). It's FREE !!