----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear Colleagues, We would like your opinion and thought concerning the following. Since I have become mapcurator of the Royal Library in 1979 we have striven as much as possible to incorporate all maps published in books and periodicals in the National Bibliography for Maps. As the amount of maps published annually is much higher then we can process we developed a systematics to face the problem (See: Frontiers of access to cartographic materials within a repository library / Jan Smits. In: Liber bulletin, 28, 1986, p. 34-39). This has led to an automated database with appr. 50,000 titles, of which 70 percent concerns maps in books and periodicals. Since some time we are also inventoring and accessing the scientific collection of the Royal Library. We have inventoried up till now more than 100,000 maps, either in atlases or in books and periodicals. However during this process some problems surfaced. We have started to access maps in parliamentary papers (appr. 1,500-2,500 maps) and the Dutch Geographical Journal 1876-1991 (appr. 1,000 maps). We would like to know your experiences and thoughts concerning these to base our policies on firmer grounds. The Department for Cartographic Documentation of the Royal Library intends to research the problems concerning cartographic materials in books and periodicals published in the 19th and 20th century. Based on a study of literature and a sample which will be taken at random from some 10 native and foreign geographical periodicals concerning the amount of maps, dimensions, quality of contents and durability of material we hope to start internal and external discussions concerning this very vulnerable cartographic material (damage and theft). Resulting from these discussions we hope to be able to propose measures which will result in better accessibility and conservation. We envisage solutions like optical image recording, conservation of maps within the binding or of separating the materials from their hosts with automated concordances. Though these problems are also valid for books and periodicals of earlier periods -the Department is closely connected with an historical cartographical research under the direction of professor Guenter Schilder (University of Utrecht) of cartographic materials in 17th and 18th century geographical and ethnographic books and pamphlets- we want to concentrate on the 19th and 20th century. We feel that hardly any attention is given in the discussion concerning 'brittle books' to the appended or bound cartographic (and other) image material. This concerns the function as artefact as well as (through her union with the text) it being a gauge for the contents and quality of the cartography. In our continuing strive to hitch on to global developments in our field of work we like to know your opinion concerning this matter. More specifically we would like to be informed on the following: 1. Do you know specific literature concerning the problems of maps in books and periodicals (from the point of view of mapcuratorship, historic-cartographic research, as well as from the user in general); 2. Are there more institutions around the world which process cartographic materials in the same way. If not are you aware of other initiatives concerning the accessing and conservation of imaging materials (prints, photographs, etc.) in this field; 3. Do you have experiences with conservation of this kind of material (optical image recording, microfilm, conservation in binding with e.g. folding schemes, conservation outside binding); 4. Are you interested in and are there possibilities for exchange of research findings; 5. Would you be interested in exchange of database-records to divide workloads for accessing these materials. Jan Smits Mapcurator Royal Library, National Library of the Netherlands [log in to unmask]