Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeénnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
TRANSLATE ENGLISH to Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish!!!
The Netherlands Society for Cartography (NVK) and its Map Curators Group
E.S. Bos, Chair The Netherlands Society for Cartography (NVK)
© LIBER and author
Published from: Bulletin Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeénnes de Recherche, 28(1986)
I would like to start my short presentation by expressing my appreciation for the opportunity given to me to say a few words here at your conference as chairman of the Netherlands' Society for Cartography. It will allow me to give you in a nutshell an impression on what place the Society for Cartography has in the mapping arena in the Netherlands and, in view of the occasion of this conference, highlight the role of one of its working groups, the Map Curators Group.
The Netherlands' Society for Cartography was founded in 1958, so that last year we could celebrate our 25th anniversary. It was originally set up as part of the Royal Netherlands' Geographical Society (KNAG) and was called the Cartographic Section. The development of cartography as an independent science with its own objectives and working methods has led to a desire for independence among cartographers. This, together with a decrease of interest in maps among geographers, led to a divorce in 1975 which resulted in the establishment of the Netherlands' Society for Cartography.
Let me not bother you with historical details, but instead look at the present situation of the Society for Cartography. The Society at present has 450 individual members and just over 100 institutional members. There is a great diversity amongst the group of individual members, from the student in cartography to his professor, from draughtsman of a mapping organisation to his director, from professional cartographer to map user. Among the institutional members a similar variety can be observed: governmental and private map production organisations, material supply companies, planning institutions at various administrative levels, universities, engineering companies, etc. Not surprisingly, therefore, the Society for Cartography represents The Netherlands at international cartographic events.
Obviously, this diversity should be reflected in the Society's activities: all members should find something to interest them, a requirement not always easy to fulfil. The various activities of the Society can be summarized as follows:
- the Society issues its own journal Kartografisch Tijdschrift with at least 4 issues per year, a respectable effort. How important this journal is within the Society is reflected in the fact that almost 90 % of the total annual budget is earmarked for this purpose. All members receive the journal and in addition there are another 100 separate subscribers.
- Annually, the Society organizes two types of meetings for its members:
- so-called cartographic study days: i.e. 3-4 day workshops with lectures and exercises on specific themes, and aimed in the first place at the technicians and technologists among the membership
- a one or two day mini-congress on specific subjects of a more scientific nature
- the Society has been instrumental with respect to educational training in cartography in The Netherlands and has successfully developed a great variety of activities:
- a correspondence course on map drafting has been compiled by a group of members and is now marketed by a commercial organisation specialising in correspondence courses. The Society is still closely involved in the course and carries out the course revisions, supervision of participants, and sets the examinations
- a full-time programme in cartography run since 1980 at the School of Technology in Utrecht has been initiated by the Society which also had a leading role in curriculum design
- the Society initiates and organizes short summer courses consisting of one-week intensive training programmes on specialized cartographic subjects. So far, four summer courses have been given: two on air photo-interpretation and remote sensing; one on map production planning; and one on map documentation.
One could say that all of these activities have taken place at the central Society level. A great many more activities are carried out at the level of specialized Working Groups. At present nine Working Groups are operational and are responsible for:
- editing the cartographic journal
- supervision of the correspondence course
- setting up map exhibitions
- education and training
- history of cartography
- map curatorship
- map reproduction techniques
- cartographic terminology
- computer-assisted cartography
Each of the Working Groups has its own specific task, part of which is to study a specialized field of cartography and to inform society members and other interested persons of development in that field.
In the remaining part of my paper I would like to concentrate on the role of one of the Working Groups, the Map Curators Group, which was set up in 1975.
The establishment of such a group was the result of a few dynamic members who found support and audience within the Society. Since its start, the Map Curators Group developed into one of the most active components of the Society, a matter for which the Board has great appreciation. The aims of the Working Group may be summarized as:
- to contribute to good map curatorship, e. g. through training, information and proper opening-up of map collections
- to establish and maintain contacts between map curators
- to determine a general job description for the function of curator
- to stimulate proper map use in the various map collections
The Working Group endeavours to achieve these aims through a variety of activities. Important in this respect are one-day workshops and meetings on selected themes, of which several have been organized, since 1975 on a variety of topics, including:
- methods and techniques for the preservation and restoration of maps
- filing methods for maps
- possibilities of automation in map cataloguing
- map collection and map cataloguing as seen by the map user
- use of microfilm techniques
The Directory of map collections in The Netherlands, published in 1980 under the auspices of he Group and partly financed by the Society, is another example of the Group's activities, the summer course organised on map documentation being yet another.
The Group has contributed a great deal to the awareness within the cartographic community in The Netherlands of proper map cataloguing and curatorship. It is generally understood these days by cartographers that a map as a source of information requires adequate documentation in order to become accessible to the users it was meant for. Structured contact between cartographers and map curators is the best guarantee of good map cataloguing and hence the basis for access to map collections.
The Group functions as a catalyst and bridge builder, as members not only have entry to the Society for Cartography but also are accepted as partners in the professional world of map cataloguing. Through their professional occupation, they also have links to other organisations and institutions. In an indirect way, the Working Group has given a substantial contribution to the development of the so-called Central Catalogue of Maps (CCK), which is now a fully operational system.
At present, map curators are concerned with the official conversion of the Central Catalogue of Maps (CCK) into the Royal Library. The CCK is an operational system in which several large map collections participate. It is supervised by a Foundation for Information and Documentation for Cartography, (NSIDK).
Following a request by the Ministry of Education and Sciences, the CCK is now to be brought under the umbrella of the Royal Library. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, this conversion is not without problems, as adaptations need to be made in order to enable the map cataloguing system to fit with the library-oriented Royal Library system. However, the work the PICA computer bureau is doing on behalf of the Royal Library holds promise. What seemed to be just a technical conversion has led to firm discussions between the Royal Library and PICA on the one hand and the NSIDK and CCK, representing map curators in the Netherlands, on the other. Clear performance criteria have now been formulated, and a testing programme should soon give the final answer as to what system is best able to satisfy the requirements of the users.
May I end my paper with some words of thanks for the members of the Map Curators Group who turned out to organise this 1984 LIBER conference. Organising international conferences is for none of you a part of your professional occupation; it requires extra efforts, usually made in the evening and at week-ends. On behalf of the Netherlands Society for Cartography I thank you for what you have done, and congratulate you on the result.
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