A Guide to Map Sources for use in Building a College Map Library

A Guide to Map Sources for Use in Building a College Map Library IN A previous article basic principles for planning the scope and content of a college map library were outlined. T h i s article is designed to help the librarian implement the program evolved. T h e intent is not to provide even a partial list of map sources or agencies. In fact, no such list exists and if it did it w o u l d require several volumes. T h e intent instead is to introduce the librarian to the types of map sources, their nature, and the peculiar problems related to them, and to current bibliographic aids and methods by which he can keep abreast of map publications. T h e college librarian buying books has many advantages compared to one purchasing maps. H e has a variety of well-established aids at hand, including cumulative book lists and lists of current publications. T h e bulk of his material is published in the U n i t e d States; certain concerns specialize in assembling obscure items. Also, faculty members frequently are able to provide precise information and specific titles. In contrast, the librarian purchasing maps is faced w i t h special problems. T h e solution to many of them is time-consuming and is one of the reasons that maps have been neglected by libraries. In the first place, he has no single guide to published maps or to n e w maps being published. Secondly, the bulk of his material is issued in foreign countries. T h e signs and conventions on maps provide virtually an international language, and language is no barrier to the use of maps. M o s t of the maps, both specialized and general, which pertain to a given area wil l be published by agencies within the country in which the area is located. T h u s , whereas a suitable group of books on G e r m a n y in English might be obtained in this country, maps ( w i t h the exception of a f e w small-scale general ones) must be purchased for the most part in G e r m a n y . Purchasing of most maps, therefore, is complicated by all the problems of foreign acquisition. T h i s also explains in part the lack of information concerning the publication of maps. I t is buried within the publications of many countries and is locked therein by language barriers.