X-Comment: UCONNVM.UConn.Edu: Mail was sent by cherry.ease.lsoft.com Approved-By: [log in to unmask] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 14:04:13 -0700 Reply-To: Digital Libraries Research mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Sender: Digital Libraries Research mailing list <[log in to unmask]> From: Jack Kessler <[log in to unmask]> Subject: FYI France: digital libraries, cartography at Sciences Po To: [log in to unmask] X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 FYI France: digital libraries, online cartography at Sciences Po The "Sciences Po" -- "l'Ecole libre des sciences politiques" -- has made an extraordinarily interesting and useful "digital libraries" site available online. The resources include the expected information about the school itself, and access to rich documentation / information - searching sources, an interesting and broad - based Z39.50 search engine, and the online catalog of the school's famous book collection. But in addition there is a link to a fascinating thing called, simply, "site de la Cartographie", or "Cartes et Diagrammes", for anyone who loves maps... "Cartes et Diagrammes" offers, a) "Grandes lignes de partage du monde contemporain" -- The curriculum in cartography at Sciences Po, a very interesting tour through how the subject currently is taught in France, and the general basics of the cartographer's world. Interesting maps, simply and clearly presented. b) "Cartothe`que" -- A large, and growing, online collection of maps in use by classes and researchers at Sciences Po. Currently over 200 maps are shown, covering things like, * Europe. La amenaza terrorista en Europa * Monde. Les Ame'ricains expatrie's * Europe. L'avancement de la transition e'conomique dans les pays post-communistes * Espagne. Attitudes et valeurs de la jeunesse espagnole * Monde. Agglome'rations de plus de 2 millions d'habitants * Monde. Les lignes ae'riennes les plus profitables * France. Taux de criminalite' * France. Taux de cho^mage et variation - 1992-1997 * Monde. Les conflits mondiaux * Roumanie. Origine ethnique des citoyens roumains * France. Familles monoparentales * Monde. Multinational firms in the world * Monde. La drogue dans le monde * Monde. Transgressions des Droits de l'Homme (etc.) c) "Fonds de cartes" -- A perhaps - extremely - useful collection of charts and "projections" -- sketch outlines -- of all sorts of geographic entities, interestingly provided often in historical perspective. So, for example, among the five general categories, * Le Monde * Les Continents * Les Ensembles re'gionaux * Les Etats * Les Villes you can find the series, * Europe 1812 * Europe 1815 * Europe 1914 * Europe 1938 * Europe 1939 * Europe 1992 * Europe 1994 * Europe 1996 e'troite * Europe 1996 e'largie * Europe 1945-49 * Europe 1945-89 -- to scale and following the same methodology -- so you can trace, and present, historical developments very easily using these... Another example: * Chine (provinces) * Chine (provinces et noms) * Chine (contours) -- and there are many other examples suggesting intriguingly useful applications here -- i.e. * France en 1790 * France en 1815 * France en 1975 -- in this last, the de'partements are simply outlined on an unmarked map -- very useful for anyone possessing rudimentary map - making or other graphics software and in need of showing students, or others, how things have changed in France... d) "Dossiers the'matiques" -- Currently four projects are shown, each valuable in and of itself, and the collection valuable for anyone interested in comparative approaches to map - making -- * "L'immigration en Europe" * "Le monde sur grand e'cran" * "Les organisations internationales" * "Un ou plusieurs Tiers - Mondes(s)?" e) "Comment faire des cartes et des diagrammes: The'orie cartographique et se'miologie graphique" -- Finally theory, last but not least. This is France, and it wouldn't be French without some theory, and a little "se'miologie"... Four very interesting presentations currently appear in this section of the Sciences Po site: * "La graphique (Jacques Bertin)" * "La cartographie: ge'ne'ralite's" * "Typologie des cartes" * "Du tableau des donne'es a` l'image graphique" A general note: Fascinating to consider all of the different issues which can be "mapped"... particularly useful in this era of the "globalization" buzzword... Also, it is interesting to consider how cartography may be revolutionized, now -- along with everything else it sometimes seems -- by online access and digital information tools. Web users anywhere now can view these things, and download them, and use them, and alter them using increasingly - freely - available hardware and software and user knowledge about graphics. Thanks to computerization and the Internet, and pace Edward Tufte, my children know far more now than I ever have about fonts, and colors, and shading, and graphic presentation generally. Maps no longer are "set in stone" -- any more than "books" or any other "texts" are... The addresses for Sciences Po are: W3: the school -- http://www.sciences-po.fr/ W3: "documentation" -- http://www.sciences-po.fr/docum/document1.html W3: library catalog -- http://satellit.sciences-po.fr/ W3: "cartographie" -- http://www.sciences-po.fr/cartographie/index.html postal: 27, rue Saint-Guillaume 75337 Paris cedex 07 "Sciences Po" was founded in 1872. It has trained an important sector of the French ruling elite for over a century. Today it offers a full internationally - oriented curriculum to 4,000 incoming students every year, 1/4 of whom were non - French in 2000, and 1/3 of whom are expected to be non - French by 2003. FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916 * | FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic | journal published since 1992 as a small-scale, | personal experiment, in the creation of large- | scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler. / \ Any material written by me which appears in ----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for // \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me --------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it // \\ isn't going to make them money: if it is going to make them money, they must get my permission in advance, and share some of the money which they get with me. Use of material written by others requires their permission. FYI France archives may be found at http://infolib.berkeley.edu (search fyifrance), or http:[log in to unmask] (BIBLIO-FR archive), or http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/pacs-l.html (PACS-L archive) or http://www.fyifrance.com . Suggestions, reactions, criticisms, praise, and poison-pen letters all will be gratefully received at [log in to unmask] . Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler, all rights reserved except as expressed above. ****************************************************************** Announcing the first issue of Sun's Campus Advisor newsletter. Formerly known as the Administrative Advisor, the newsletter has been re-named to reflect broader coverage of the entire spectrum of Higher Education computing, including HPC, collaborative research, bioinformatics,libraries, web-based learning, and more. Check it out at http://www.sun.com/edu/admin/Winter00.pdf ******************************************************************