Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche,
Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
TRANSLATE ENGLISH to Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Português, Español! Explanation
© LIBER and author
History
The creation of the Département des Cartes et Plans de la Bibliothèque Nationale was
relatively late:
cartographic documents were dispersed between different departments, principally the Cabinet des Estampes,
the
Département des Manuscrits, and the Département des Imprimés. At first included
in that of the
engravings, the Map Legal Deposit was not individually specified as such in legal texts until 1713.
In 1785, a "gallerie pour la géographie" appeared at the Bibliothèque Royale. In 1792,
Jean-Denis
Barbié du Bocage was given the "geographical section" of the Département des
Imprimés in charge. It
was in 1828 that Edme-Franois Jomard obtained the creation of the "Département de
géographie" which soon
became the "Cabinet des Cartes". He kept its direction until his death in 1862. His work was considerable
and laid the base
for the acquisitions and development policy which still exists today: exhaustive coverage of legal deposit
documents,
selective acquisition of topographic documents published abroad, covering the whole world, and buying-in
of older
documents in public sales.
From 1830, a large part of the cartographic documents dispersed in the other Departments were regrouped,
coming
together with numerous and important revolutionary confiscations, among which were nearly 200 atlases
and 55 maps
portfolios from the Abbaye de St Victor.
In 1924, the 8,700 manuscripts and engraved maps collected during the 18th century by the geographer
Jean-Baptiste
Bourguignon d'Anville were deposited in the Cartes et Plans by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, followed
in 1947 by the
deposit by the Naval Hydrographic Service of 25,000 manuscripts or engraved objects from before 1800.
Since 1942, the Department houses as well the collections of the Société de
Géographie, including
the personal collection of Prince Roland Bonaparte.
The Département des Cartes et Plans is actually the managing organism for the legal deposit
of cartographic
documents, except for aerial photographs, whose deposit is carried out by delegation to the Photographic
Library of the
Institut Géographique National, and for satellite images deposited at Spotimage. Nevertheless,
the Cartes et Plans
have a quasi exhaustive collection of satellite images edited in France.
Buildings and store-rooms
Since 1882, the Département des Cartes et Plans occupies the central section of the Hotel Tubeuf,
which became
the Mazarin Palace from 1643 to 1661. Important internal reconstruction work, finished in 1954, gave
it the aspect we know
today. The whole occupies nearly 3000 squares meters, including four storehouses underground.
For practical reasons, the 1954 restructuring adopted format classification. Documents are stocked
horizontally in portfolios
placed in mobile shelf-units on rollers. Very large maps are rolled; nonetheless, precious documents
(notably maps on silk),
are hung in a storeroom 4 meters high.In the reserve room, next to the reading room, the 434 precious
vellums bought by
Jomard and which constitute the most important collection in the world of Portolan maps, are stored
horizontally under
altuglass.
The Reading Room offers fourteen places conceived for the consultation of large-format documents,
thanks to a plateau one
meter large, inclined at 8 degrees. The room holds nearly 3,000 reference volumes, the catalogues and
a photographic
section of documents already reproduced by the Photographic Service of the Bibliothèque
Nationale.
The collections
By size as well as by variety of its collections, the Département des Cartes et PLans is one of
the most important
map libraries in the world: it holds maps, plans (town plans, not architectural plans, which are held at
the Cabinet des
Estampes), atlases, globes, plans in relief and other objects (astrolabes, compasses, geographical games,
etc).
Sheet maps
More than 1 million objects, from medieval mappamundi -with the Pisan map, the oldest nautical chart
on vellum, dated
about 1290- up to Spot images, which retrace the evolution of progress in world exploration
from the 8th century to our time.
Atlases
About 1,100 volumes, mostly in large format.
Globes
About one hundred, of which 44 unique ones of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Department "conserves"
as well,
manuscript globes of 4 meters in diameter and a height above the footing of 12 meters ordered from
Coronelli by Louis XIV.
Exhibited up to the end of the 19th century in what is now the Serials Room the Bibliothèque
nationale, they suffered
a long "purgatory" at the Orangery at Versailles before being shown at the Centre Pompidou during
the "Maps and Earth
Figures" Exhibition. After the Médiathèque de la Cité des Sciences at La Villette,
and the Naval Museum at the Chaillot
Palace, suggested to receive them, it seems that their next implantation ought to be the Bibliothèque
de France...
Relief plans
Several hundreds, in wood, terracotta, metal, plaster, plastic, polystyrene...
Objects
Armillary spheres from the system of Ptolemy or Copernicus, astrolabes, compasses, geographical games
from the 18th
and 19th centuries, puzzles, planetariums copying the movements of the planets, lunariums copying eclipses
of the moon,
etc...
Reference works
Nearly 30,000 volumes of which 3,000 are in direct access in the reading room.
Serials
There are 70 ongoing specialised titles in cartography, topography, history of cartography, etc... Geographical
serials are
conserved in the Département des Périodiques.
- Several thousand single-view microfiches in colour 13 x 18 cm.
- The Société de géographie collections:
- 84,000 works (30,000 from the Bonaparte collection)
- 2,000 serials titles, mostly unique in France, especially interesting for the 19th century.
- 10,000 photographs taken at the end of the 19th century by explorers of Africa and the Far
East.
- 400 boxes of travellers' and explorers' manuscripts, including several precious documents: notably,
the
notes of René Caillié, pencil drawings by Père de Foucauld, as well as
... the
manuscript of "20,000 leagues under the sea" by Jules Verne!
- 35,000 maps, with several portulans from the Bonaparte collection.
Access to documents
Legal deposit by the law of 21 June 1943 and of June 1992 (copyright library) of atlases, maps and plans
edited copies) or
distributed (1 copy) in France, the Département des Cartes et Plans has for its mission not only
to collect and
conserve, but also to catalogue and treat these documents in order that the collection will be up to date
and
exploitable.
As well as the edition of the French National Map Bibliography which lists all legal deposit documents
received, the
Department offers three manual files in the reading room:
- Authors in the largest sense (cartographers, engravers, editors, organisations). Alphabetical
classification.
- Subject of the cartographic document (pedology, ethnography, tourism, etc). This file only
exists since 1936.
Alphabetical classification.
- Geographical area : toponyms corresponding as exactly as possible to the area represented
on the map.
Alphabetical classification.
- For each name, sub-classification by scale, then by date, then by theme, then by parts.
Example: France. 1 : 25 000
--------------------
France. 16th century
France. 1589
France. 1678
France. 19th century
France. 1837
--------------------
France. Archaeology
France. Breweries
France. Railways
France. Geology
--------------------
France. Centre
France. North East
France. North West
France. South
Normalisation
The IFLA's (1) first edition of the ISBD(CM) (2) goes back to 1977. This document was used from
1978 onward by the
Département des Cartes et Plans to produce the French translation in 1979. The French experimental
standard
AFNOR Z44-067, a more precise adaptation of the ISBD(CM), was published in 1981, followed in 1982
by the documentation
pamphlet AFNOR Z44-068, destined to accompany and illustrate the experimental standard.
The second edition of the ISBD(CM) was published in 1987. The French translation was elaborated
at the Cartes et Plans in
1989.
Revision of the experimental standard Z44-067 was also finished in 1989; it includes additions and precision
on old
documents and manuscripts, aerial photographs and satellite images. It has been published by AFNOR
in september 1991,
as well as the revision of the documentation pamphlet Z44-068, and the publication of rules dealing
with geographical
subject entry elaboration and numerous illustrated examples, referenced as NF Z44-081.
However, no matter how precise it is, a descriptive bibliographical notice established following ISBD(CM)
recommendations
is more particularly destined to build up manual files : brief description, limited access unless the basic
card is duplicated,
lack of access coherence.
This is why, in view of a necessary computerisation, the Département des Cartes et Plans has
started to elaborate a
computer format for cartographic documents. This work has been completed thanks to several partners'
collaboration with
whom the Cartes et Plans work since several years, notably in the framework of the "Documentation"
Commission of the
Comité Français de Cartographie which has allowed, under the aegis of the CNRS
INTERGEO laboratory, the edition of a
Union Catalogue of five Parisian map libraries and a Directory of French map libraries. These partners
are mostly
"institutional" organisms producing cartographic documents; thus, the Institut Géographique National
(IGN), the
Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM), the Office de Recherches
Scientifiques et Techniques
pour les Territoires d'Outre-Mer (ORSTOM), the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minires
(BRGM), the Institut National
de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE), the Institut d'Urbanisme et
d'Aménagement de la
Région Ile-de-France (IAURIF), the INTERGEO laboratory of the CNRS, The Ecole des Mines
Library, the Institut
Méditerranéen des Sciences de la Terre and the CADIST at Jussieu University have
participated in the preparatory work of
the developed format for the establishment of a protocol destined to furnish data indispensable for exchanges.
The first
edition of this document, published at the end of 1985, permitted the redaction of a thousand test forms
in Spring 1986.
The INTERMARC(C) format
Why an INTERMARC (3) (4) format? The Bibliothèque Nationale utilises the national work
format INTERMARC and
the Département des Cartes et Plans is not an autonomous organism: it is an integrated part
of the
Bibliothèque Nationale and its work should be compatible with the other applications of this
establishment, especially
with BN-OPALE, the Bibliothèque Nationale database concerning printed works and serials:
many authority notices are
susceptible of exchange between systems... and an atlas is also a book! However, INTERMARC (C)
is an exact copy of
INTERMARC for the general notions (author, title, publisher, collection, ISBN, etc.), it diverges from
it concerning purely
cartographic data: scale, geographical coordinates, meridian of origin, system of projection, representation
of the relief
etc.
INTERMARC (C) divides bibliographical data into 4 principal categories:
- Guide: a fixed field of 24 characters which contains the necessary information for automatic
treatment of
records,according to ISO 2709.
- Fields 008 and 009: fixed length fields which contain information about the whole of the
catalographic
record; this information is coded on to fixed positions and is principally destined to sort, select
or produce
statistics. The 008 field holds information useful for any type of document (language, publishing
country, etc),
on the other hand, the 009 field holds information strictly for cartographic documents (type
of document,
support, receiver, spectral bands, focus, film sensitivity, etc) and can hold information relative
to other types
of documents.
- Zones for structured data: these fields hold elements of information of which the length is
generally fixed
(ISBN, ISSN, dates, geographical coordinates, language codes, etc.).
- Variable zones: these fields represent the true descriptive element of the cartographic record
: we find the
ISBD block (title, responsibility mention, publishing mention, bibliographic address, technical
description,
collection, notes), as well as the relations between records or files, the analysis and the "authority"
zones for
interrogation.
However, the "ISBD block" treated in format sees its information elements divided into their minimal constituents, which permits a very complete description, much finer than that obtained which the ISBD(CM) which thus becomes a print-out format; that is, a record in ISBD is more readable for the user than a mass of data identified by numbered labels for zones and codes of sub-zones preceded by "$" !
BN-OPALINE
The Bibliothèque Nationale uses the GEAC system for catalographic treatment of printed works
and serials, extended
by public access known under the name of BN-Opale. The specifications for this project didn't foresee
short-term extensions
for specialised documents, or no-books, so certain Departments started projects based on TEXTO software.
Especially the
Phonothèque Nationale which produces since 1983 the E-mail database LEDA and the Estampes
whose
development turned later towards management on personal computer of the piloting software for the
"Révolution française"
videodisc.
The Département des Cartes et Plans having obtained in its turn at the end of 1985 the authorization
to develop a
project, a look around the documentary software market was conducted, but the adaptation capacities
of existing products
to the cartographic document seemed too limited, so the decision was taken to build a specific system.
Analysis and
development of this relational database called BN-OPALINE are the fruits of a close collaboration between
the Computer and
Organisation Service of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Département des Cartes
et Plans. From the
beginning of the functional analysis, the principle of a multimedia concept was retained: starting form
the INTERMARC
format, a "common stock" was defined containing "general" information which allow descriptions of any
type of document
(author, title, publisher, date of edition, etc.) to which was added an extension containing the necessary
data for describing a
cartographic document (geographical positions, meridian of origin, system of projection, relief representation,
date of
measure, etc.). The "Maps and Plans" version of BN-OPALINE can describe any type of cartographic
document: isolated
maps or series, atlases, globes and objects, ancient maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, serial
publications, collection
management and multi-level cataloguing (the ISBD(CM) retains this useful possibility for treating
cartographic serials).The
modular conception of OPALINE has aided to realise not only the "Maps and Plans" version, operational
since September
1987, but also other extensions: thus, an "Engravings and Photographs" and a "Record library" version
have been developed
in 1988 and 1989 respectively after conversion of TEXTO data into INTERMARC format. A "Printed
Music" version works
since spring 1992 and a "Coin and Medals" version as well as a "Manuscript" version should come out
in autumn 1993.
Implanted under GCOS7 system on a BULL DPS7-7000-340 (TDS-IDS2) multi processor mainframe
of 32 megaoctets in
central memory and disc capacity of 14 gigaoctets on line, the BN-OPALINE system controls 150 terminals
by DSA
DATANET at this time.
The software has five principal functions:
Data Administration
This function controls the validity lists which verify coded data according to lists established by the ISO
or
IFLA and internationally recognised (publishing country, document language, document type, physical
support, projection
type, origin of meridian, etc.). It also permits real-time management of INTERMARC(C) formats in
bibliography and
classification, as well as the follow-up of deferred treatments (daily take-up by batch programmes).
Entry Registration
This module can register and manage new documents from legal deposit, exchange, acquisition or gift.
Used in the
beginning for the editing of inventory registers, it can also manage entry by warning letters, classification
tickets and order
follow-up edition. A simplified interrogation procedure allows a rapid research. Finally, registrations
taken up by this module
are recuperated as "pre-records" during cataloguing. Spring 1990 has seen registration facilitated by the
use of an optical
reader-spencil or bar-codes which are used more and more frequently on cartographic documents. This
facility will also
permit the edition of a manual of French map publishers.
Real-time cataloguing
Cataloguing is done on line with the document in hand. This module permits the enrichment and indexing
of registered
records. However, it is possible to directly create a "bibliographic" record passing through the entry module.
The necessary
data for the inventory edition will, in this case, be transferred afterwards to the entry module.
Cataloguing is permanently controlled by validity tables which immediately signal any error or incoherence.
What is more,
the cataloguer benefits from INTERMARC(C) format assistance which proposes, in the left-hand margin,
the necessary zones
for description. This " memory-aid" can be modulated according to document type: different "models"
types of "abstract"
records can thus be created, the necessary zones for atlas, serial map, publicity plan, collection record
description, etc. are
different.
The system can also immediately tie up an authority description with a bibliographic record or create
analytical
records.
It also offers the possibility of multi-level cataloguing, which has undeniable advantages for avoiding
repeat information,
rapidity and fiability. This type of treatment is particularly adapted to large series: in an "upper" level
record, data are
described common to the whole of the series (author, publisher, scale, format, projection used, relief
representation, date of
the start of the series, etc.); records of "lower" level type describe elements of each sheet (title, geographical
position,
number and date of edition, dates of measurement, geographical zone represented, placenames, etc.).
The ties made
between "lower" and "upper" level records ensure a transparent interrogation by the user. (In case of
data exchange with a
partner not using "level" cataloguing, the system can furnish magnetic tapes on which the information
is reformatted into
isolated records).
It is also possible to make up register copies, such as a new edition of a previous document, a particularly
interesting
procedure for serial and collection treatment.
Finally, thanks to a "window" system, the cataloguer can create an authority record without leaving cataloguing
transaction
and interrogate either the documentary database or the authority files.
Authority management
These are reference forms concerning four principal notions: physical persons, collectivities, common-noun
words
established according to the RAMEAU list (Répertoire d'Autorités Matires
Encyclopédique
Alphabétique Unifié), which is a French version of LCSH and placenames.
As well as cataloguing assistance given by the format, this module enables inter-authority relations (individual to collectivity, placename to placename, ect.), management of orientational directions and exclusion directions (including anterior dated forms) to be carried out. It gives various information (collectivity addresses, placename, geographical positions, etc.) and offers the possibility of multiple indexing, interrogation by a rejected form sending the user to the chosen one.
Finally, the modification of an authority form automatically leads to the correction of all the bibliographical records using it.
Documentary research
43 accesses (see Annexe) are actually available with possibility of right-hand truncation and multi-criteria
boolean
interrogation. The user is proposed an important navigational function which permits him to use indexes,
ties or "zooms" on
authority records. What is more, interrogation of numerical data, especially dates and scales, can be
done by "forks"; before
1850, between 1:25000 and 1:100000, from 1912 to 1930, the 1940s, since 1985, etc.
Edition can be obtained in format with tags and codes for subzones or in ISBD. Simplified public access in self-service is proposed by the Département des Cartes et PLans: boolean access limited to 15 criteria and a selection of "prefabricated" questions taken from a statistical study of public demand in the Department.
Future perspectives
The Département des Cartes et Plans wishes to pursue the policy which it has undertaken since
several years to put
forward the ISBD(CM), the AFNOR Z44-067, Z44-068 and NF Z44-081 brochures and the INTERMARC(C)
format, with a view
to creating a National Union Catalogue of cartographic documents. Several regional projects are constructed
on these bases
(notably in Ile-de-France, Rhones-Alpes, Centre, and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur), others are being
studied (Bourgogne). On
the international level, strong contacts exist, particularly with the British Library, whose format for describing
cartographic
documents MAP UK-MARC is very close to INTERMARC(C).
Computerisation projects exist or are being studied :
- Furnishing of UNIMARC format records
- Thematic editions by personalised strategic research
- Automatic realisation of assembly tables
- Videodisc on the history of French mapping, thanks to the software developed for Engravings
(trials in
analogic methods have been undertaken but the graphic screens' quality of rendering doesn't
seem to be
very satisfactory). Other trials with digital process and scanners are more much satisfactory
and are on the
point to be concluded by a portolan CD-Rom.
- CD-ROM OPALINE multimedia fabrication
- Graphic research : starting with a numerised planisphere and by blip displacement and successive
zooms, it
will be possible to obtain the description of a document thanks to automatic research (transparent
for the
user) by geographical positions then by a simple sub-menu (scale, theme, date).
- VIDEOTEX server implantation.
The master plan of the Ministère de la Culture provides for the creation of a National server
on which will be placed
BN-OPALE and BN-OPALINE-LEDA records. Libraries and documentation centres have a growing
demand for descriptive
records of cartographic documents and above all to have access to the authority list of placenames (more
than 215,000
geographical names to date), which gives hope for an early solution.
A market study will be conducted for a "KIOSK" version suited to tourist maps.
Portable version on microcomputer. An important demand exists, but the first studies show that several
functions of
BN-OPALINE will have to be abandoned, especially the verifications by validity tables, format management,
authority record
creation and complete multi-criteria access (see Annexe). On the other hand, the complete geographical
index, including
rejected forms, should be available.
To conclude, the setting-up of a network of French map libraries is the project which, on its own, practically resumes all the efforts of the Département des Cartes et Plans, either in the IFLA "Geography and Maps Libraries" section, of which it assumes the secretarial functions, the European map libraries LIBER group or in the "Documentation" commission of the Comité Français de Cartographie of which it assumes the chairmanship.
This project has more than one claim to importance. An increased co-operation between establishments is necessary because French map libraries are often isolated, with varied profiles, having diverse human and financial resources and coming under very different authorities. A National Union Catalogue would permit a better knowledge of the frequently very specialised stocks of each establishment, thus a better information for readers, often ignorant of the possible potentialities of an establishment. It would permit also to have a reasoned acquisition policy, especially for foreign documents, and thus to optimise resource exploitation in avoiding systematic doubling of certain documents.
A more important step can be made thanks to the creation of a computerised documentary network of map libraries. Taking account of the rapid progress in computer or microcomputer performances, of the setting up of the NUMERIS network, of the development of optical supports, and of the charging-up of BN-OPALINE at the Bibliothèque Nationale, the centralised network seems out of fashion and it is possible to foresee less heavy solutions ... more user-friendly and better adapted to the actual French situation, consisting of a relatively important infrastructure but badly-spaced geographically and without functional liaisons. If we refer to the typology of documentary networks established by UNESCO, a central map library integrated into a decentralised network could be a "French" solution. This scheme, using the possibilities of each member to furnish a share cataloguage seems an interesting eventuality whatever computer system is used, the accent being placed on a normalised structure of data move more than hardware identity.
In France, this network is already virtually existent. Producers of institutional cartographic documents or private sector producers and map library executives (not always Parisians...) meet regularly for information exchange.
At the dawn of Europe 1993, these relations must be reinforced and officialised to weave a documentary network as dense as possible to permit the largest public to have simple and economic access to cartographic information available in France.
Annexe
Documents and collections: MAPS and PLANS
BIBLIO: Inventory of INDEXED data accessed by multicriteria
Physical Person Subject Measure date
Collectivity Geogr. name Elaborated date
Words/Title Published date
Collection title Revised date
Function Subdivision Subject date
Example date
No volume Geographical Subdivision Entry date
No édition
Type doc. Chronological Subdivision Country
Support Language
Classification number
West longitude Resolution degree
East longitude Register
North latitude Satellite name
South latitude Spectral band
Scale (horizontal) Incline
Scale (altitude) Focus
Relief Film
Projection Sensibility
Original meridian
Notes
1. IFLA : International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
2. ISBD(CM) : International Standard Bibliographic Description for Cartographic Materials.
3. MARC : Machine Readable Cataloguing
4. INTERMARC : French version of MARC format