TRANSLATE ENGLISH to Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Português, Español! ^Explanation

Report on the 'Inquiry into Map-Use and User-Habits in Europe'

Jan Smits, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, The Netherlands

History and development
During the meeting in October 1986 of the representatives of Liber- institutions in the Rathaus in Wien it was decided that " ... a questionnaire on user-habits has to be developed, based on an example by Monique Pelletier, and be distributed by the National Correspondents to all relevant institutions in their respective countries". For some time the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris had used a questionnaire to examine the use of its collections.
The Secretary used the French form as a basis for a questionnaire which could be used in all participating countries. After consultations with the Board of the Groupe des Cartothécaires and several National Correspondents the form as shown in Appendix 1 was evolved. The form was divided into four sections:

• general information about the user-background;
• information about documents required;
• information about access systems, reference-works and map room;
• information about reproduction requirements.

General remarks
The inquiry was carried out in 15 countries. Some, like Italy, could not respond because mapcuratorship was not formally organized. Others were too small, lacked staff or couldn't see the need, as mapcuratorship was a marginal activity. Eventually eight countries responded.

Table 1: Geographic distribution of questionnaire in time

Country	Number of institutions	Responses	Time used
Austria	4	160	3 months
Belgium	1	72	8 months
Denmark	11	102	3 months
France	7	400	3 months
Netherlands	15	1,312	6 months
Spain	17	177	3 months
Sweden	23	227	3 months
United Kingdom	18	397	2 weeks
TOTAL	96	2,847

To give some weight to the comparison we have compiled a table of participating institutions according to their nature:

Table 2: Participating institutions according to their nature

Country	National libraries	University libraries	Special libraries	Archives	Mapping organisation	Public libraries
Austria	1	1		1	1
Belgium	1
Denmark	1	2	4	2	2
France	1		4		1	1
Netherlands	1		3	5	6
Spain	1	5	8	1	2
Sweden	1	2	8	7	4	1
United Kingdom	2	2	2	9		3
TOTAL	8	16	31	26	10	5

Under 'special libraries' are included those of university departments, under 'map organisations' are IGN's (national mapping agencies), map producers, cadastral and geological surveys. The amount of 'maps' in these institutions range from 12,000 to more than 1,500,000. The larger collections are mainly national libraries, university libraries or map organisations, but this varies widely between countries.
The inquiry lasted from a fortnight (United Kingdom) to 8 months (Belgium), according to the way it was organized. The disproportionate amount of responses in The Netherlands is not only due to the length of time devoted to the inquiry. The map curator of the University of Utrecht, Mr. Roelof P. Oddens, had been so kind as to ambush every client who visited his collection time and again over the 6 months, resulting in 2/3 of all Dutch responses. This may have led to some unkind thoughts and/or unspoken curses of users, but they give us a good insight into relevant questions. Though it was possible that the results here would have less variety, this proved not to be the case. Frequent users seem not to be limited in their interests to a specific subject once they know the possibilities of a map collection.
Unfortunately, not all countries filed a full report, so not all results were comparable. In Spain there was a report from Madrid and from Catalunya. Usually, the National Correspondents or a working group of mapcurators had selected a number of collections where the inquiry would take place. Where this was not the case (Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden) the amount of responding institutions was between 12,5 and 50%.

All results are approximations, as the number of questionnaires cannot give a total overview; also, most multiple users were asked to fill in the form only once. In respect of this we are aware that the results show trends, but do not tell absolute truths. Where the amount of non-responses is high it is difficult to interpret the results. Though some results can be interpreted from absolute numbers, those deriving from question six require further explanation. Subject categorisations are always arbitrary, and the one used for this inquiry is no exception. However, as this question would yield important information, we developed the list as shown in Fig. 1. Specific comparisons only could be made between Austria, Catalunya, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden, as they returned complete statistics. (1,782 responses in total). Their reports are used as a basis for the conclusions (see appendix 2) augmented by written reports from Correspondents. To be on the safe side, the National Correspondents of the eight countries involved were asked to augment this report. Responsibility for the final report, however, rests with the Board of the Groupe des Cartothécaires.

The users
Moutserrat Galera wrote that the type of user in any given map library depends, in principle, on the nature of the library; this may also be somewhat valid for countries. Map use and knowing the way to map libraries may depend on historical trends, availability of map collections or technological innovations; e.g. when the cartographic database OPALINE becomes available in France on Videotext, the number and nature of map users there may well change.

[2] The number of foreigners visiting map collections is between 0% (Catalunya) and ca. 10% (France), while the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris capped everything with 33%, representing 19 different nationalities. These came generally from neighbouring countries or related language areas. Obviously the National and University collections are attended by more foreigners than the more locally-oriented collections.
Whether map collections are more or less internationally-oriented than other scientific collections cannot be ascertained due to the lack of data. In general people in age ranges 21-30 and 30-50 are the most frequent users, which may point to students, postgraduate students, researchers and staff at universities. Using cartographic documents for private use or research (history, genealogy, travel) furthermore may come at a later age. In Catalunya, Denmark and Sweden 40-50% of the users were between 30 and 50 years old. In Denmark and Sweden about 30% of users were over 50 years old. Whether this means there is more leisure or that interests change in older age cannot be said. Some institutions in The Netherlands have more than 5% users under 20 years of age, because undergraduates of geography and some tertiary professional schools visit the map collection as part of their curriculum. In Belgium the minimum age, except for university students and the like, is 21 years.

[3 + 21] Between 50 and 70% of the clientèle are regular customers, though there is variety when one compares separate institutions. In France the IGN and the Bibliothèque Nationale have about 50% regular readers, while at the Centre Pompidou and the Sorbonne this becomes 80 to 90%. In the Belgian Bibliothèque Royale there are about 7% regular users of long standing. Many of the principal collections have customers who almost 'live' in the library. On the other hand, the Royal Tropical Institute of The Netherlands does show a surprisingly small amount -3%- of regular customers, though this is one of the few institutes in the region specializing in tropical countries. Of course there is the possibility that multiple-users fill in the form only once. In the UK in general, special and academic libraries have a fairly regular clientèle, whilst the public libraries have more 'one-off' users.
At the same time about 20 to 50% of respondents visit other map-collections more or less regularly. Notably high responses came from Catalunya (57.7%), France (100% for the École Nationale supérieur des Mines de Paris) and Spain (67.6%). The audience of the Bibliothèque Nationale attends the IGN in Paris inversely. Accordingly one may wonder if that 'common part' is not composed of the same persons having answered the questionnaire in the two institutions.
Nearly one third of users in the UK were first-time users. This, Jim Elliot feels, has important implications for the design of student rooms and reading areas, and places an onus on the curator to consider how to make these welcoming and inviting. All the time one has to keep in mind that users who for the first time visit a collection may become regular users of the same or other collections.

[4] The question about the type of map user may have confused some of the clientèle. Some divided the reasons for consultation into groups of professional reasons, studies or leisure, others didn't know whether to classify a 'local historian' under 'professional researcher' or under 'leisure'.
Roughly a third stated they were scientific researchers (Catalunya 61.5%), while another 30 to 40% were put down as students (Austria 51%). That leaves about a quarter to a third to the other categories.
In Denmark about 15% stated they were educational researcher, while in Sweden ca. 10% stated they were map amateurs. This may have something to do with the fact that about 30% are over 50 years old. As in other countries, this group was mainly occupied by local history and genealogy. In France, professional researchers mainly visit the scientific and professional institutions (university-collections, IGN, Intergéo etc) while 'leisure'-users tended to go to the Centre Pompidou, suiting the aims of this library, and the IGN and Bibliothèque Nationale. In the UK professional researches used mainly special libraries, while public libraries are more used for private interests

The documents
[5] In general two thirds of the users needed more than one document to satisfy their interest. In conjunction with the responses to questions 8 (area) and 9 (documents) one may draw the conclusion that most users ask for specific information; this is contrary to experience in collections with more traditional book and serial materials, where they mainly ask for documents. This discrepancy cannot be emphasised enough as this has a bearing on the means of accessing a collection and on the general and specific knowledge of mapcurators. In the use of more than one document per user Austria is the exception with 18.1%. This number is true for all 4 Austrian institutions which cooperated in this inquiry.

[6] Some subjects are more sought after than others, namely:

Table 3: Choice of subjects by percentage

Subject	Percentage
history of cartography	5.2
geography	5.4
geology	3.9
history	6.1
topography	15.3
town/country planning	10.1

However the foregoing percentages came by because of the predominance of the subject in one or more countries. When we enumerate the predominance of certain subjects in several countries we come to the following table:

Table 4: Dominance of subject per country

Country	Subjects
Austria	town/country planning (25.7%), geology (18.4%), topography (14.5%), history of cartography (10.1%), no answer (14%)
Belgium	history (15.3%), history of geography (10.9%), agriculture (11.l%), architecture (9.7%), urbanisation (9.7%), no answer (4.1%)
Catalunya	history of cartography (15.1% ), geology (9.4%), recreation/tourism (9.4%), cartography (7.5% ), topography (7.5%), no answer (1l.3%)
Denmark	topography (22%), town/country planning (15%), landuse/soil maps (13%), history (10%), geography (6%), no answer (1%)
Netherlands	topography (17.6%), education (13.8%), town/country planning (8.2% ), cartography (5.5% ), history of cartography (4.7%), history ofgeography (4.7%), no answer (12.3%)
Spain (Madrid area)	history (35%), geology (20.2%), geography (19.6%), town/country planning (10%)
Sweden	history (16.4%), geography (10.8%), archaeology (8.6%), geomorphology (8.2%), geology (6%), genealogy (5.6%), town/country planning (5.6%), agriculture (5.2%)

In the case of geology (Austria, Spain) and education (The Netherlands) the high percentage derives from the fact that one of the co-operating institutions specializes in this topic. However this reason is not valid for the topic of landuse/soil maps in Denmark.

Pierre- Yves Duchemin wrote that "it seems that the type of consultation is often linked with the alleged 'specia1ization' of the library ... Concerning this matter, it is interesting to note a rather significant ignorance of the collections: thus, only a few people look for [old] maps in the IGN or for recent maps in the Bibliothèque Nationale, whereas these two map libraries do not limit their collections to documents, the image of which is fixed in public fee1ing. This obvious lack of information should be attenuated in a large proportion by the use of a computerized network. Indeed, the loca1ization of the documents will a11ow a reader questioning the system to know the inventory of collections in each [institution] and thus to discover unexpected aspects ...". If a country cannot afford itself a computerized network one always can try to publish a Guide to Map Collections, which gives enough details to direct the user to the collections relevant for the researches. When a country cannot afford such a publication one can use for this purpose the World directory of map collections published by IFLA.
In general it seems that more specialized collections seem to be better known by their potential users than more general ones. Subjects hardly mentioned included astronomy, bathymetry/oceanography, demography, ecology, economy, geodesy/triangulation, glaciology, law, military geography, mining, politics, religion and remote sensing (all less than 1%). What surprises me is the low demand for maps concerning demography/ecology/economics, but maybe these occur as illustration in other documents rather than as separate maps, so they are not sought after in map collections (And if so, in how far have these maps been accessed already?). Some may find it surprising that art history was mentioned only by 2% of respondents at the university libraries of Amsterdam and Leiden!

[7] As might have been expected most demand was for 20th-century maps, though there is much variety per country as shown in Fig. 2.

E.g. in Denmark this was only 14.8%. In Austria, Catalunya and Sweden the figure was between 22.2% and 38.3%, but the amount of 'no answer' or 'longer periods' ranges between 31.6% and 40.4%, which makes comparisons difficult. In The Netherlands 20th-century maps take up 59.9%, of which about half are published after 1980. In the UK the demand for up-to-date mapping ranged from 42% to 55%. Demands for older materials were mainly directed to national libraries and record offices. Nevertheless it is surprising that there is such heavy demand for older material, as they form only a minor part of all available cartographic materials. Here as with question 8 the comment of Duchemin is probably valid. As bibliographic data on older material is probably more complete, they seem to incur more demand than mere numbers might suggest. Even if all modern collections are available online, demand may drown in the enormous numbers in which cartographic materials nowadays are produced, unless a customer is sure that he can ask specific questions of the available system.

[8] The demand for certain areas seems evenly divided between town/city, province and country. In Denmark and Sweden there was only some 15% demand for town/city areas, in Austria only 11.7% for provinces (Sweden 39.6%) and in The Netherlands demand for country maps was lowest with 14.7%; in Austria this was 38.5%. The demand for maps depicting more than one country or parts of several countries was in general some 14%. Unfortunately the questions were not formulated in such a way that demand for maps of local or foreign content could be ascertained. In The Netherlands this was, however, done for the University of Utrecht. Fig. 3 shows the clientèle's preference. If there are profiles from other institutions one can create maps which show overall demand as well as the whereabouts of the institution which can meet it. The demand for maps of domestic versus foreign content for the whole of the UK was as follows: local area 46%; rest of the UK 28%, overseas 15%, not specified/not relevant 11%. As the paper of Mrs. Clement-van Alkemade showed, there are areas served by too many institutions as well as those served by none. Especially for budgeting the acquisition of foreign maps, this might be a good tool.

[9] As with questions 7 and 8 the totals arrived at are higher than the number of respondents of the inquiry, showing the tendency to ask for a package of information instead of certain documents. Most requests are for atlases (except Sweden at 7%), topographic maps (21.3% to 35.5%) and town plans (8.1% to 17.4%). Globes were required in 28 cases, but none of these were at the Globe Museum in Wien!. I presume that they have been enumerated under 'other' in the Austrian report. Little insight can be gained as to what kind of thematic maps are requested and where. As with other questions pertaining to national co-ordination of map acquisition, this issue should be more thoroughly researched. Where conclusions can be drawn, it seems that demand is evenly distributed between physical and social geography. Because no former inquiries on this scale have taken place it cannot be ascertained whether there is a shift in demand from topographic to thematic maps.
One of the most remarkable questions was put to the Bodleian Library in Oxford by a user who wanted to see all documents on all subjects relating to all time periods! Maybe he was a descendant of Ortelius who wished to maintain his ideas of what an atlas should be about!

Reference and staff
[10] The resu1ts show that there are remarkable differences between European countries (fig. 4). Though the geographic catalogue is the main means of access for users, I am surprised to find that author's catalogues are much asked for. Austria seems a 1ittle erratic compared with the other countries, as the author and thematic catalogue score 30%, while the geographic catalogues score a mere 15%.

Bibliographies are not well used or not available, as there are not many bibliographies of national, local or collection-related importance. However, in view of the recent profusion of national map bibliographies which are currently produced or which will be produced in the near future, it may well be that such tools may become more significant in the future.
'Other' aids mentioned were index-maps and staff. Jim Elliot mentions that only 20 enquirers used graphic indexes, wondering whether we should make these more usable. According to him these are as unfamiliar to most users as the maps themselves. Maybe in future some of the Cartonet-like programmes wi1l help us herewith. It was not possible to ascertain to what extent a combination of search tools was used. However, the ratio research-tools to user ranges from 1,1 to 1,6. There were no computer based catalogues in existence at the time of the survey.

[11-13] A library without staff is almost unthinkable, but a map-collection without staff is a disaster, or so one could conclude from this inquiry. More than two thirds of the respondents needed staff assistance. Users not only have the impression that staff are more reliable than the search tools in answering a request, but also that a direct approach may save a lot of time. Of course a reason may be the inadequacy of catalogues as in the Belgian case or the non-availability of these to the public as is the case with the IGN in France. We may ask ourselves whether we are not too eager to help our clientèle or that there is a deeper question behind this. It may be the case that such complicated visual documents as maps cannot easily be explained in search tools, except when quick cross-reference is available. In certain understaffed map collections it is often the question of the chicken and the egg. Less access to documents puts greater pressure on staff to assist users directly, while leaving less time to access the documents. Roughly a third of the clientèle used reference works. Why a lot of users found the reference works not adequate was not answered. It is advisable to ask users what they expect in the reference library, whether these requests are justified, or whether they should be left to more general departments of the institutions.

[14] This question should only have been asked of regular visitors. As this probably was not the case, those whose use is given as 'always' and 'hardly' have to be counted as first/one-time and regular visitors, while those who find them 'sometimes' must be regulars. The 'no answer' may be mostly qualified as multiple users or as users who didn't find what they were looking for. All in all most map-collections may be satisfied with this response, as this may convert many users into regular customers. It also says something about staff, as they seem to be well trained in converting queries from users into questions answerable by their institution.

[15-16] Most users seem to be satisfied with the accommodations offered. Lisette Danckaert of the Belgian Royal Library suspects that no trained practical cartographers used the library as there is no special equipment such as light tables. But, she says, the space provided for the readers is generous, which probably is the key to the massive 'yes'. It indeed may be that spaciousness of accommodations makes people feel comfortable by themselves, and not only because they need the space to consult large documents. Margareta Lindgren reports that Swedish users are content with the accommodations. However she personally thinks that they ought to complain more, as she has herself been in contact with so much out-of-date equipment both in her own department and elsewhere. She wonders if it could be that the enthusiasm shown over the kindness and helpfulness of the staff is so overwhelming that the visitors forget the negative impressions made by other things?
In Spain and Denmark users were not always satisfied with opening-hours. In Catalunya hours of opening of over 5 hours a day were considered normally advisable, but anything under this number of hours was found to be insufficient. As far as I can make out from the Madrid report, services are available on Saturdays but not in the afternoons, while users would like to have it the other way around.

Reproduction
[17-19] Cartographic materials are not as readily available as other documentary materials, though specialized map-shops etc. alleviate the situation a little. We know how difficult it can be to obtain topographic and other maps, because of the unwillingness of government services to make them available. To a lesser extent this is also true of local maps.
Fig. 5 shows this need for reproduction. In all countries, except The Netherlands, the demand is very high. The figure shows the amount of orders from users and not the amount of copies required. One should also bear in mind that a lot of reproductions are sent by mail-order and that some researchers ask for reproductions only after they have finished their researches. The comments received from users on aspects of Xerox-copying depends on whether the user is allowed to copy him/herself or whether staff have to serve them. Because of the nature of the documents involved the latter is most often the case. This probably makes the copies costlier than elsewhere. One should also keep in mind that users probably don't Xerox maps at commercial reproduction bureaux, but compare prices of A4- or A3-copies. Sometimes students, because of their low income, ask for reduced rates, but as governments take a more businesslike stance on the question of reproduction facilities, these requests probably cannot be met. When staff have to make Xeroxes this takes more time, especially if there is no machine in the map room itself.

Comments were made about poor quality. For some years there has been the possibility of colour Xerox-copies, but as the machines are expensive and reasonable costs depend on economies of scale (e.g. some 20 or more copies) these will only be used by map producers etc. Some users wanted them to be acquired by the map collections, but probably have no idea of the financial resources of a (sub-)department!
Some documents, because of their age or fragile state, may not be Xeroxed. If a user still wants a copy they have to ask for a higher quality reproduction, which is of course costlier. Some users require more collections of negative microfilms etc., which make reproduction easier. (Of course these could as easily be used to browse physically through collections!)

Remarks
[20] Some users demanded specific additions ( e.g. town plans, charts, aerial photographs etc.) to the collections they visited, or a systematic microfilming of certain old collections or parts thereof, especially if these are cross-border collections (e.g. town plans by Jacob van Deventer of the 16th Century). Some wanted to borrow maps or atlases which, to quote Jim Elliot of the British Library, "... [is] not an easy condition to fulfil for any institution specialising in large, flimsy, delicate and often rare and irreplaceable objects". However, what was requested most were 'guides to map collections' and 'union map catalogues'. Both these finding aids, when not available, are hard to fulfil, though one harder than the other. Guides to map collections have been published more or less recently in France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Furthermore they are in the process of being published in Denmark, Sweden and Austria and hopefully some other countries. The creation of 'union map catalogues' takes quite some doing, as it involves a lot of investments in hardware, software and staff. The problems concerning these catalogues will be discussed at the next conference in Paris in 1990.

Discussions
As the results of the inquiry were to be discussed during the conference in Sweden the Board of the Groupe des Cartothécaires decided to have workshops relating to the subject matter. For this purpose a paper was issued with questions around which these workshops could be built (see Appendix 3).
Of course the discussions overlapped the separate workshops. Also some of the comments can be found in the paragraphs above. However it may enlarge the insight into the problems if a synopsis of those discussions is given here.

• The User
  The user needs more support than is usual in conventional libraries. Cartographic researchers are in pursuit of an idea or concept in which the answer is not known, while in conventional research the idea is given a more or less concrete definition through references to specific sources. This means that staff are burdened heavily with requests. This may lead to financial charges if too much of pre-research has to be done by staff. Before this happens some institutions put limits on staff time. Furthermore telephone and written inquiries take up quite some time, especially as communication with the inquirer is hardly possible.
  In those countries where 'guides/directories to map collections' have been published, direct and indirect use has increased considerably. This increase definitely is not only a result of more social and scientific demand, but also results from the fact that the map market has become more transparent by these guides. They are especially important in countries where distance is an important factor. One also feels clearly that automation, of catalogues and in networks, will increase requests from users considerably.

• Research
  Unfortunately there was no written report supplied during the conference so there can be no synopsis of the discussions of this topic. From other discussions one could glean the following: Is there a necessity, given the scarcity of time and labour, to make a difference between professionals and amateurs? This controversial question was answered neither in the negative nor the affirmative and may depend heavily on the nature of individual map collections.

• Catalogue - Reference Library - Curator
  In small map collection a traditional catalogue will be sufficient. However when a certain critical mass of documents is reached then only online catalogues can assuage the needs, because more entries can be made and these in turn give the possibility of using Boolean operators for cross-reference. For researchers national networks are needed, though this wasn't a clear result of the inquiry as most users could find the documents they were looking for, apparently!.
  Map in books/periodicals are generally not catalogued, due to lack of resources. However, especially in the thematic maps, their value cannot be denied and they are under-used because of this obscurity. Even with an automated catalogue the mapcurator's help is indispensable. He/she has to give advise about the kind of documents the user needs in relation to his research (e.g. a map, a gazetteer, a map in an atlas or travel-guide or research-report). However they are severely restricted by lack of resources.
  Earlier, it was stated that map curators do a lot of research for their clients. Such tasks are often not listed in the official job description. Apart from the need for 'standards for map libraries' there is a need for 'standards for map curators'. The reference library should not only include 'guides/directories to map collections', but also guides to archives and guides for local geography and history.

• Map-Use and Acquisition
  There is some consensus that the user must have an indirect influence on collection policies, i.e. acquisitions. Therefore it is necessary to have good records (besides the memory of the mapcurator!) of map use. However, one must keep in mind that leading topics or periods of interest are also dependent on fashion or historical development. Furthermore, informal networks for coordination of acquisition and exchange of surplus material should be formed regionally or nationally. The latter could be done by a simple newsletter which circulates between participating institutions (in future one even could use an 'electronic news-bulletin' for this purpose).
  The problems become larger the more general profile an institution has, e.g. national libraries are more dependent on historical trends for their acquisition policy than university collections who rely on the developments in their sciences.

• Map-Use and Reproduction Facilities
  The Groupe des Cartothécaires should recommend to LIBER that the LIBER member libraries should promote more actively their conservation and reproduction pricing policies to their users. This should help the user to understand why there are differences between institutions and should make them better satisfied with the photocopying and photographic services. Where preservation considerations prevent institutions making copies available, these should be explained.
  Professional users (e.g. publishers, advertising agencies, newspapers, etc.) are less easily satisfied by reproductions than non-professional users of map collections. We have to ask ourselves why the user wants so many reproductions: is it because the user has a natural expectation of obtaining reproductions of articles etc. or is it because most cartographic materials are not for loan?

Conclusions
In her report Montserrat Galera of Catalunya notes that the number of people attending map collections is small. At the same time the opinion of the users acquainted with such services is highly positive. She says it is clear that the mapcurators are responsible for the promotion of their collection. This can be done by word of mouth advertisement when services provided are well but also in other ways. One, which happens in several collections, is to get in touch with teachers/professors in map-related fields of teaching, who'll send their students on reconnaissance visits to a map collection to get to know the possibilities of such a collection for future studies. There should be more training in mapcuratorship for practising map curators, i.e. more general and specific courses in fields related to mapcuratorship or in new and innovating techniques.
To make map collections more accessible, 'guides and directories of map collections' are needed in those countries where they haven't been published yet. These should be comprehensive enough to give users a good insight into the possible information a collection can yield and which services can be rendered. To make more widely available knowledge of the documents in the collections, map librarians should automate their cataloguing procedures, at the same time using innovating techniques to drain more information from the documents than is possible in traditional cataloguing. Automated catalogues should be linked to networked or union catalogues, as information needed by researchers are not deposited in a certain collection unless these collections have been founded with the specific aim of serving a certain science, area, subject or era.
Last, but not least, managers should evaluate staffing levels in order to optimise use of automated catalogues etc. It may be necessary to employ more staff to overcome the bottleneck of backlog cataloguing or re-cataloguing without disrupting present service levels; also as one feels that catalogue automation may lead to and stimulate more requests for information.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank those organizers and reporters of the countries in which the inquiry has taken place, to be more specific Franz Wawrik, Lissette Dankaert, Inger-Grete Uldal, Pierre- Yves Duchemin, Dirk de Vries, Teresa Reyna, Montserrat Galera, Margareta Lindgren and James D. Elliot, who have helped to make this report possible.

Appendix 1

Page 1 of the questionnaire

Page 2 of the questionnaire

Appendix 2

Results of the inquiry in figures

Appendix 3

Discussion Themes
In relation to the 6th working session the GdC-Board has seen fit to present you with the following topics and relating remarks and questions as a guidance for discussions:

1. THE USER
   
   • knowledge of the existence and contents of collections: what part do 'Guides/directories to map-collections' play herein?
   • is use related to a certain age-bracket or is there a much bigger variety?
   • is it possible to prove a relation between the user and the institution in which a map-collection is incorporated?
   • which share of use do foreigners have? Are clients mainly concentrated in the direct vicinity of the map-collection or is there a remarkable regional spreading?

2. RESEARCH
   
   • do researches have a specific nature or do they seem more general in historical or geographical tendency?
   • are there preferences for maps of certain areas?
   • can it be shown that there are predominant periods of interest? Can there be a relation with the profile of map-collections?
   • what role do special research-project play in map-use?
   • is there a relation between the kind of research and the number of maps requested?
   • is there a relation between research and the cartographic material (e.g. atlas, topographical map, chart, etc.) requested?

3. CATALOGUE - REFERENCE LIBRARY - CURATOR
   
   • what is the role of the reference-library with regard to the map-use of a collection?
   • does the catalogue-apparatus answer the need for information?
   • is the mapcurator (in)dispensable? To what extend is the mapcurator an intermediate between the map-user and map-use with regard to the interpretation of user-queries?
   • is there an increased demand on a mapcurator's knowledge, the more specific a search for information is?

4. MAP-USE AND ACQUISITION
   
   • what is/shou1d be the influence of map-use on acquisition?
   • is there a need to co-ordinate the acquisition of cartographic materials on a nationwide basis? And if so, who will/must take the initiative?
   • in how far is acquisition dependent on a collection-profile versus map-use?

5. MAP-USE AND REPRODUCTION FACILITIES
   
   • can maps be loaned? If so, all or only specific categories?
   • are there restrictions on the Xeroxing of maps? May/can clients Xerox themselves?
   • can only costs of reproduction be recovered or is there room for a certain profit?
   • is there a possibility/need for a differentiated tariff-structure for internal and external demand?
   • to what extend can collections impose fees/duties?

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