Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeènnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
The Institut Géographique National (National Survey) has issued a proof sheet of the new topographical map at 1:10,000. The publication of the fust batch of definite maps win be delayed untill 1991, though all the coordinates have been numerized.
The cataloguing of globes in public and some private collections has been completed at the University of Leuven and will probably be published in 1991.
At the Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, a small number of geographical books has been computerized. But the project for cataloguing geological maps, started with retrieval in English, has been stopped for lack of funds.
Two students in library techniques got their qualifications in 1990 with a programme on cartography. At the division for human geography of the University of Brussels, neither chosen Hypercard software nor ISBD(CM) proved to be adequate, and the student proposed a complete reorganization of the open shelves collections and catalogue. Unfortunately lack of staff and funds jeopardized the actual realization. The existing Information Management System (IMS) used for books by the library for the African Territories in combination with collaborating Ministries had to be adapted to map use for readers without direct access to the cataloguing retrieval system. The staff has access by keyword to title, author, geographical names and some UDC-themes. Ultimately, the UDC-themes were proposed as 'Abstracts' to complement ISBD-descriptions on microfiches used by readers.
Among the publications on cartography, the several editions of the topographical map of Belgium issued by the Military Survey in the 19th century (C. Lemoine-Isabeau), maps of Luxembourg (M. Watelet) and of Brussel (L. Danckaert) can be selected. Maps were also prominent in exhibitions held in Brussels (150 year of opening to the public of the Royal Library, with special reference to Pisani's curious world map; the Region of Brussels by the Crédit Communal de Belgique; Heaven and earth, China in the Palais des Beaux-Arts, with world maps by Ricci and Verbiest) and in Antwerp (Christopher Plantin and the exact sciences in the Musée Plantin-Moretus, with maps by Ortelius, Guicciardini and a display of copper-plates).
LISETTE DANCKAERT, retired mapcurator of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Brussel