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Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeènnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
Apart from this work the Danish Mapcurator Group has visited several mapcollections in Copenhagen, governmental as well as municipal. These meetings have proved to be of great value as we have not only become more acquainted with each other but also had the opportunity to discuss topics of common interest. We plan to have such meetings in the future, too.
In the 1986 Vienna-report it was mentioned that a proposal had been put forward to merge the Geodetic Institute and the Cadastral Service. This merge has been considered since 1986, however, the merging of 3 governmental mapproducing institutions is planned: The Geodetic Institute, the Nautical Chart Division and the Cadastral Service, of which the two first mentioned have been under the Ministry of Defence, whereas the third has been under the Ministry of Agriculture. The plans were that the merge should take place as of May 1st, 1988, now under the Ministry of Housing and with a new nane: The Map/Chart and Cadastre Administration. Everything was ready, a manager had been appointed and the bill had been put through the first and second (of three) readings in the Danish Parliament as an out-of-sequence election for Parliament was issued 19th April this year due to an unendurable political situation. After the formation of n new government it is expected that the bill will be put forward during this autumn-session. Everybody is looking forward to seeing what will happen in this respect and when it will happen.
As was mentioned in Vienna the Cadastral Service was facing the implementation of digital cadastral maps based on orthophotos. The Cadastral Service has started the implementation now the 1st of September. The small Danish island of Bornholm has already been represented as a project a couple of years ago, and now something like that is going on at the island of Funen. These maps are combining the traditional cadastral-map with orthophotos and are produced in a kind of cooperation with the Geodetic Institute and with Geodetic Institute's altimetry. These maps seem to be a great success.
Concerning archives
Jorgen Nybo Rasmussen from the National Record OfficeG, 1st Department, has made a brief summary of map- and drawing collections of Danish Governmental Archives to be utilized by the users of the archives. The summary is expected to be published this fall as part of the information series: How do I get around? Jorgen Nybo Rasmussen begins with general remarks about maps and drawings in archives, continues with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Department of the National Record Office and finally the four province-archives of Sealand, Funen, North-Jutland and South-Jutland respectively. Reductions of public budgets in the archives do also affect map- and drawing collections in a way that it becomes difficult to serve the needs for recording and preservation. Lack of space and mapcabinets are also results of the reductions. Furthermore, an increasing interest of utilizing this material is contributing to wear out these vulnerable sheets.
It should also be mentioned that the map collection of the University of Odense has started to buy maps from the Arabian world: North Africa, the Middle East, etc. in scale 1:200,000 but, unfortunately, this effort is going very slowly - owing to economic reductions.
Computerized cataloguing of Cartographic Materials
In the Department of Maps of the Royal Library we have during the past two years worked hard on making a format for CM based on ukMARC and danMARC. The format is now finished, and only needs ratification by the EDP-office of Danish Research Libraries. From 1989 we hope that Danish maps can be found in the Royal Library's online-system, called REX, both in the common base and in a special base for CM. The main entry will be geographic region, not author.
An exhibition in the Royal Library
Inspired by an exhibition at the British Library in 1978, Cartographj.cal Curiosities, Susan Vejlsgaard laid out a small exhibition at the Royal Library from 18th April to the 31st May this year with the title: Maps in human- and animal shape, the maps ranging from Bucius' Europe as a virgin to 19th century comical maps.
In November 1987 a Globe-Session was held at the Conservator School of the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Graphic Restoration. For this session several foreign and local lectures have been invited. The head librarian of the Department of Maps, Prints and Photographs of the Royal Library, Ib Rønne Kejlbo gave a lecture on The globe collection at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
At last I think worth mentioning that the 14th of September 1988 was a very special day for Danish cartography: The 600th anniversary of the Dane Claudius Clavus, the first Northern cartographer. On this occasion a memorial plate was unveiled at his birthplace in Sallinge on Funen.
Inger-Grete Uldal, Det Kongelige Bibliotek