Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeènnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
The Map Curators group held two meetings in 1994: on 14 March and on 14 November (both in Berne), and two meetings in 1995: on 8 May in Aarau and on 20 November in Zurich. In 1996 there were meetings on 10 June in Basle and on 12 May in Interlaken, the letter together with the German map librarians. The next meeting will take place on 26 May in Lausanne. These meetings are always followed by a visit to a library or another institution. In Berne, a visit was organized to the new exhibition of the Alpine museum, which has an interesting display on the history of cartography in Switzerland, with many relief maps. In Aarau there was a demonstration of the Digital Atlas of Nature of the Canton of Aargau (Naturatlas Aargau). In Zurich there was a tour round the new building of the Central Library, the new map department of which was officially opened on 17 June 1995. In Basle a visit was organized to the map collection of the Mission house (Basler Mission), whose maps, mainly mission maps of overseas countries, are now being put on microfiche (ca 500 maps have already been copied).
Some changes are coming as regards the information systems of the most important Swiss libraries.The French- speaking parts of Switzerland will choose the same system as the Swiss National Library in Berne, VTLS (Virginia Technical Library System). The university libraries of the German-speaking parts have recently formed a working group to decide upon a new information system to succeed ETHICS+ in Zurich and SIBIL in Berne and Basle. The new system should start operating in about three or four years.
In the field of map cataloguing, the libraries of the Swiss Technical University and of the Central Library in Zurich have adapted their map cataloguing rules to achieve mutual compatibility, now that they have the common information systems. Coordinates are given for all maps. But until now they do not feature as an access point - whereas the scale does.
The Eisenbibliothek (Iron library) in the former convent 'Paradies' in the Canton of Thurgovia bought an important private collection of maps of the Canton of Schaffhausen. The State Archives of the Canton of Zurich bought Hans Conrad Gyger's famous map of the region of Zurich in a manuscript copy made at the end of the 18th century by Johannes Müller, city engineer of Zurich.
As far as exhibitions are concerned, we shall list only a few: Jacques-Barthélemy Micheli du Crest 1690- 1766 in the Cantonal Archives of Geneva from 1 November 1995 to 29 February 1996 (with a catalogue of the same title); a collection of Polish maps in the Polish Museum of Rapperswil from 28 April to 16 June 1996, to which a catalogue made by Piotr Maria Mojski (Cartographia Rappersviliana Polonorum) appeared; an exhibition about Eduard Imhof (Die Ostschweiz in Karten und Bildern von Prof. Eduard Imhof) in the renovated former baths of Pfäfers in the Canton of St Gall from 15 June to 14 July 1996; and an exhibition about Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739-1813), who published the first modern map of Switzerland at the beginning of the 18th century, the so called Meyer-Weiss-Müller-Atlas, in Aarau from 6 September 1996 to 12 January 1997. In Lausannežs Historical Museum there will be an exhibition about railways in the region of the Lake of Geneva and the Alps from 18 April to 31 August 1997 (Les réseaux ferroviaires lémaniques et alpins).
Now a look at some publications. Several facsimiles and reproductions of old maps were made, of which the most important was perhaps the St Petersburg atlas of Battista Agnese (Portolan-Atlas von Battista Agnese (1546) aus dem Besitz der Russischen Nationalbibliothek in St.Petersburg, edited by Arthur Dürst. Disentis, cop. 1993). Urban Schertenleib wrote a book about the important Swiss private cartographic industry in Winterthur in the 19th century (Kartographie in Winterthur: Beiträge der Winterthurer Kartographie-Betriebe zur Methodengeschichte der Kartographie des 19. Jahrhunderts. Winterthur, 1994). A supplement to Blumeržs bibliography on maps of Switzerland (Eine Ergänzung der Bibliographie der Gesamtkarten der Schweiz von Mercator bis 1802) appeared in 1996, made by Franchino Giudicetti.
The digitalization of the geological maps of Switzerland at a scale of 1:100 000 is planned, as is the production of a CD-Rom of the first edition of the so called Siegfriedkarte, the first topographical map of Switzerland in the scales of 1:25 000 and 1:50 000.
From 3 to 5 October the 8th conference of the German-speaking map historians (Kartographiehistorisches Colloquium) took place in Berne, being the first meeting of this kind in Switzerland.