Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeènnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
On 10 November 1997, a workshop took place in the Library of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich entitled 'Digitale Karten: Neue Arbeitsbereiche in einer Kartenbibliothek' ('Digital maps: new fields of work in a map library'). The main topic was the Internet, but there was also an exchange of information on electronic index sheets and on the digitization of the maps of Eduard Imhof.
Activities in map libraries
The French-speaking parts of Switzerland have now installed VTLS (Virginia Tech Library System). The university libraries of German-speaking Switzerland - including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - have decided upon the System Aleph500, made by Exlibris of Jerusalem. The new system should be installed by autumn 1999.
The National Library in Berne started moving its holdings to new closed stacks underground in mid-1997. The enlargement of the library will be completed by the end of 2000. During this time, the consultation of old maps will be more restricted. The Library of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has begun focussing in particular on electronic maps.
All 16 000 maps of the Ryhiner collection have been catalogued in the time allocated. Now a four volume catalogue of the collection is being prepared for publication. In the Zentralbibliothek Zurich, the computer cataloguing of the old maps is being carried out. Swiss maps have first priority, with the maps of neighbouring countries being catalogued subsequently ( http://www-zb2.unizh.ch/ZB_ETHICS and http://www-zb.unizh.ch/Index2.htm).
The microfiching of the map collection of the Basler Mission has now been completed.
Acquisitions
On 27 May 1997 the estate of Eduard Imhof was given to the Library of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.
Exhibitions
Farbe, Licht und Schatten: die Entwicklung der Reliefkartographie seit 1660 [about the history of relief cartography], 5 April until 3 August 1997 in the Swiss Alpine Museum (Schweizerisches Alpines Museum) in Berne and afterwards from 20 September until 29 October 1997 in the Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen in Vienna. A catalogue of the same title has been published in Murten, 1997, 45 pp.
Die Region Stein am Rhein im Bild alter Karten und Pläne des 18. Jahrhunderts, 6 April until 29 July 1997 in the Wohnmuseum Lindwurm Stein am Rhein. Catalogue with the same title by Christian Birchmeier, Stein am Rhein, 1997, 72 pp.
Fryburg an der Sana: Von der ersten Schweizer Landkarte bis heute, 27 August until 27 September 1997 in the University Library of Fribourg, about the old maps of the canton of Fribourg.
Basel 1798. Technik und Politik: Wilhelm Haas und seine Zeit, 22 January until 31 August 1998 in the Basler Papiermühle (Swiss Paper Museum and Museum for Writing and Printing). [Wilhelm Haas was renowned for his printed maps with movable types]. With catalogue Basel: 1798: Vive la République Helvetique, Basel 1998, 180 p. [About the exhibiton on Haas, pp. 155-189].
Die Helvetische Republik (1798-1803) im Spiegel ihrer Landkarten, 30 July until 29 August 1998 in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. Article on this topic by Hans-Peter Höhener in Cartographica Helvetica, 18, 1998, pp. 21-32.
Der Weltensammler: eine aktuelle Sicht auf die 16000 Landkarten des Johann Friedrich von Ryhiner (1732-1803), 10 September until 6 December 1998 in the Swiss Alpine Museum in Berne. A catalogue with the same title has been published: Murten, 1998, 60 pp.
On 24 December 1997 a virtual exhibition entitled Eduard Imhof - Künstler und Kartograph was inaugurated in the Internet.
New publications
SCHARFE, Wolfgang et al. La cartografia dels paisos de parla alemanya: Alemanya, Austria, Suissa. Barcelona, 1997, 278 p. [Papers of the sixth course in the history of cartography in Barcelona, by Wolfgang Scharfe, Ingrid Kretschmer and Hans-Uli Feldmann].
DÜRSTt, Arthur (ed.). Schmid, Sebastian: Chorographia et Topographia. Murten, 1996, 24 pp. [Surveying instructions from the 16th century, with documentation by Arthur Dürst, 19 pp.]
DÜRSTt, Arthur & MURERS, Jo. Planvedute der Stadt Zürich von 1576: eine Dokumentation. Zürich, 1997. 12 pp. and 4 maps.
GERMANN, Thomas. Zürich im Zeitraffer: von der Römerzeit bis zum Schanzenbau 1642: gezeichnetes und kommentiertes Stadtbild. Zürich, 1997, 59 pp. [Reconstructed views of the city of Zurich in different periods].
HAURI, Roge. Panoramen und Karten des Schweizer Alpen-Club: Die "Artistischen Beilagen" von 1864 bis 1923. Bern, 1997, XIV+147 pp. [Bibliography of the separately-published panoramas and maps of the Yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club for the years 1864 until 1923].
PFISTER, Christian & EGLI, Hans Rudolf. Historisch-Statistischer Atlas des Kantons Bern 1750-1995: Umwelt, Bevölkerung, Wirtschaft, Politik. Berne, 1998, 170 pp.
MEYER, Johann Rudolf. Carte d'une partie très interessante de la Suisse à l'usage des voyageurs. Murten, 1997. Facsimile of the edition of Aarau, 1796 A facsimile of the Scheuchzer manuscript map of Switzerland of 1712 is to be published at the end of 1998.
Recently a CD-ROM of the maps of Switzerland to the scale 1:100,000 was published by the Federal Office of Topography. An electronic version of the National Atlas of Switzerland is now being planned.
Hans-Peter Höhener, Zentralbibliothek, Zürich