Annual report 1990-1992, activities in Switzerland

The map curator working group held meetings on 19 November in Lausanne, on 18 March in Glarus, on 27 January 1992-in Zurich, and on 15 July 1992 in Neuchatel. It concentrated its work on the edition of an inventory of Swiss map collections Karten in Schweizer Bibliotheken und Archiven = Cartes dans les bibliothèques et archives suisses. The evaluation of the questionnaire, which was sent to all public collections with maps, was made by Mrs. Hildegard Schudel-Meyer. The publication has just appeared (published by the Library of the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, 1992, 80 p.).

Additional information has been exchanged beween the different libraries. One theme was the structural reform of the Swiss Association of Libraries and Librarians (BBS = Verband der Bibliotheken/Bibliothekare der Schweiz = Association des Bibliothèques et Bibliothecaires Suisses). The participants decided to maintain the status of a working group. Initially, the Swiss Association of Librarians set the working group two tasks: the preparation of cataloguing rules for cartographic materials and the project for a collective catalogue of all maps in Switzerland. The first task was finished, the second has yet to be done. The working group would like the Swiss Librarian Association to renew this mandate, as it wishes to participate in the concept of the new collective catalogue. This catalogue should include all maps in Swiss libraries and would best be controlled and administered by the Swiss National Library (Schweizerische Landesbibliothek in Berne). The individual libraries would deliver the data, and the Swiss National Library would put them at the disposal of the public. Another task of the working group for the future is the professional training of map librarians. A subgroup has developed a proposal for a training course with the theme "maps in libraries". This course will probably take place on two days in May 1993 in the Library of the Swiss Technical University. On the first day there will be instruction on cataloguing rules for maps, and on the second on the subject catalogue, the accession, storing and care of maps. In 1990 Switzerland agreed to organize the LIBER conference in 1994. Preparations are now underway.

Thomas Klöti, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Bern