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Map cataloguing and automation in the Netherlands: from amateur to professional : with special reference to the university library map collections, and in particular to the Free University Library of Amsterdam

Riet Clement-van Alkemade, Free University Library of Amsterdam

© LIBER and author
Published from: Bulletin Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeénnes de Recherche, 28(1986)

A short history of map cataloguing in the Netherlands
Map collecting and cataloguing in the Netherlands is just over a century old when taking into account the map collections of the university libraries. In 1872, Leiden, the oldest university, was enriched with the Bodel Nijenhuis collection. Cataloguing, however, was not started until 1884, and was still incomplete in 1904. In 1838 and 1864 the University Library of Utrecht received respectively the collections of Moll and of Ackersdijck, both professors there, and in 1973 the two collections were transferred to the custody of the Faculty of Geography of the State University of Utrecht, founded in 1908 along with its own library and map collection. Catalogues of the Ackersdijck and Moll collections were published in 1975 and in 1977 respectively. In 1880 the University Library of Amsterdam recovered the collection of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society on loan, and still houses this collection.
There is very little information about how maps were catalogued in the past. As far as Leiden is concerned, some references are found in a publication on the history of cartography by Niermeyer dated 1893, and in an article by James in the journal of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society of 1904. James gives detailed information on how maps were catalogued by the curator L. D. Petit. As for Amsterdam, the librarian Burger reports on the library concerning the year 1904 in the journal Boek-en Bibliotheekwezen (Book and Library matters) of 1905. He refers to the map collection and reports that A. Cramer started ordering and cataloguing the rich collections of old maps of his own accord, and did a very good job. Until that time, too little was done.
Map cataloguing was a neglected subject both in libraries and in the literature of librarianship. Libraries had to fight a constant battle against limited storage-space and few personnel. Gerben de Jong is a person who deserves a lot of credit where maps are concerned. From 1941 to 1948 he was reference librarian for Theology at Leiden University Library, and at the same time he was in charge of the Bodel Nijenhuis Collection. During his Leiden period he wrote various articles on map cataloguing, map storage, managing a map collection and setting up a map catalogue. Stimulated and encouraged by the librarian of Leiden University Library ,. Dr. Sevensma, de Jong could publish his ideas in the library joumal Bibliotheekleven, developing general rules applicable to all maps and arguing for unity in the principles and methodology of cataloguing.

Rules tor map cataloguing
Although in 1955 de Jong had become professor of economic geography at the Free University in Amsterdam, he accepted the offer in 1957 to become a member of the committee which was to establish the rules for map cataloguing published as chapter VI of the booklet 'Rules for cataloguing', laid down by the Rijkscommissie van advies inzake het Bibliotheekwezen (Advisory State Committee for Library Matters).
In the Sixties, the discussion between Lutsenburg Maas (Leiden University Library) and de Jong focussed on the fact that one should use the title of the map and thus form, in a strictly objective way, an alphabetical catalogue. De Jong states that the differences between maps and books justify a difference in a treatment and that maps should be catalogued according to region, preferably arranged in a hierarchical way. Since the widespread introduction of the computer into the library, discussions on these matters have been abandoned. The tradition of cataloguing maps according to rules is very young. Lack of adequate personnel and lack of money created a situation we are all familiar with, in which special materials such as maps could not be properly taken care of.
In the Netherlands things have changed since the Seventies. In the first place map curators were appointed in 1967 to the University Library of Amsterdam and to the Free University Library of Amsterdam, in 1971 to Leiden and in 1974 to the Faculty of Geography of the State University of Utrecht, in 1975 to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library).
Secondly, in 1970, the Dutch Foundation Information and Documentation Centre for Cartography (NSIDK) was founded as well as an office called 'CCK-bureau', which were soon to develop the Dutch Union Map Catalogue.
Thirdly, in 1975 the Dutch Map Curators Group was established within the Dutch Society for Cartography.
Fourthly, in 1982 the first summer course on the cataloguing of cartographic documents was held, in the same room where the Liber Conference is now gathered. Hot from the press we received the Dutch translation of the ISBD-CM (London, 1977) called: Beschrijvingsregels voor kartografische documenten, volume 8 of the Regels voor de titelbeschrijving (Cataloguing rules for cartographical documents, known as vol. 8 of the Rules for cataloguing).
The stimulation given by this cataloguing course as well as that offered by previous meetings of the Map Curators Group is gradually changing map cataloguers from amateurs into professionals.

Catalogues of maps
In the Netherlands most university libraries produce a card catalogue or even one in book form. Usually, it consists of an author sequence and a separate subject sequence. A shelflist, or shelf-catalogue, generally is available for library use only. Inquiring about map catalogues in several libraries, the following points may be noted:
- of seven libraries approached, only two arranged map titles alphabetically within the book catalogue; all had regional catalogues, but the systems of those catalogues were different; four libraries had a shelf catalogue; five libraries had a names catalogue (For details see table 1).
- Cataloguing will improve because of the possibilities offered by the computer. This will mean an end to the handwritten and typed cards with their limited information content and an easing of the practical restrictions on the number of entry points. At the moment automation means microfiche and fiche readers, whilst online searching will become available in the near future. Anticipating events, most map curators did not change their map cataloguing policies, but instead waited for project-CCK to become operational in 1984.

Cataloguing maps, purpose and aim
At the Free University Library the flat, folded and rolled maps stored in the map room are catalogued in a regionally ordered catalogue on typed cards, whilst maps in books, serials, travelbooks and atlases are catalogued like all other library materials in the author and subject catalogues and in the shelflists. Since 1977, when the library of the Free University adopted automation for the map collection it has been possible to add more headings per title than in the previous card catalogue.
Maps in books and in articles can now easily be entered under several headings by region (name of the country, name of the city), by theme (e.g. : economy, history, earth sciences etc.), and by specific category such as atlases, maps, publishers, or school atlases. Themes and categories are arranged according to a classification in use in the map collection. In practice, the books only are catalogued whilst the maps are referred to in the annotations of the book description (see table 2, number 2 and 3); in some cases a short description of the map is added, such as title, scale, date, size, publisher or other important information. Maps in books and periodicals can thus easily be traced. This is not a perfect system for the map cataloguer, because the rules for making an ISBD-CM description are neglected; also, it is not possible for staff to catalogue all maps present in all books and periodicals received by the library. Before 1984, maps in books and periodicals were in most cases catalogued by hand, and typed onto cards which came under the heading 'maps' in the dictionary catalogue in the map collections. (see also table 2, number 1 and 2). Since 1984 the procedure has been identical with that for books, in which microfiche is now the only media used. The regionally-ordered map catalogue mentioned above is still in use, however, because the project-CCK is not yet fully operational. (see table 2 number 4 and 5 for CCK output).

Automation and shared cataloguing
In 1980 the Free University Library began its participation in the project-CCK, and in September 1984 we received the first printed cards of the catalogued maps, about 200 titles.
Because of personnel changes in 1980 and the computerisation of book cataloguing the cataloguing of maps suffered. Because there has been a delay in making the project-CCK operational, we still catalogue maps for the old card map catalogue. Now we have tasted the possibilities of an information retrieval system, we are enthusiastic about the project-CCK and about all it can offer. Although offline cataloguing has its drawbacks, we are for the time being happy with the results and with the ISBD-CM output on cards. Although each participant in the project-CCK has his or her own title file, it is possible to copy the descriptions of another participant to one's own file. We call this operation 'shared cataloguing'. As long as the project-CCK is not online, we have to improvise. Titles are copied by searching the numbers of the descriptions in the Bibliografie van in Nederland verschenen kaarten (Bibliography of maps published in the Netherlands) or in The Catalogue of the Soil Survey Institute. Instead of one map catalogue ordered according to region, the project-CCK now provides us with catalogues ordered by: region-theme-scale, region-theme-date, theme-region-scale, theme-region-date, and names. A shelflist is also produced. Once we are online, more cross references will be added to the system. I look forward to a time when more participants, including those from abroad, would be able to contribute descriptions, or would be online to an European database of map descriptions. Will this only be wishful thinking?

Table 2: sample catalogue entries

1. Maps in Belgian periodical article

2. Map in monograph

3. Reproduction of map added to monograph in the History of Library collection

4. Description of a map catalogued for the Dutch Union Map Catalogue (CCK)

5. Map catalogued for the Map Catalogue present in the Map Room of the Free University of Amsterdam

References
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Harms, J. en M. Donkersloot-Vrij. Catalogus van de kaartencollectie-Moll. Utrecht, Universiteits-Bibliotheek, 1977.

James, O.G. Museum Geographicum Bodellianum. In: Tijdschrift van het KNAG, 2e serie, dl. 21 I (1904), p. 368-373.

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