Map Collections and the Internet: Some Ideas about Various Online Map Services, Based on the ETH Map Collection in Zürich

The Internet enables a map collection to be easily available to the general public. The Internet allows worldwide usage of map libraries. It is well suited for public relations and therefore important for today’s map libraries.

The Internet allows worldwide usage of map libraries. It is well suited for public relations and therefore important for today's map libraries.
How can we develop and maintain a Web site? Usually there is no Webmaster available for map librarians. We have to do the work ourselves, including: • Creating a Web site • Finding useful links and integrating them in the Web site • Digitizing our holdings for a digital archive or a thematic index The map librarians have to learn how to create web sites using HTML. They have to learn how to navigate efficiently on the Web to find useful links for their own Web site. In addition, it is helpful to be creative using graphics in On the other hand, we can profit from the work of our colleagues, for example by copying their index sheets or lists, selecting links from their Web sites or by consulting them. Communication between colleagues is helpful in developing and maintaining a useful Web site. The ETH-Bibliothek map site can illustrate some of the possible map services on the Internet.

HOW TO FIND THE HOMEPAGE OF THE MAP COLLECTION
The site can be located by: • Entering the exact Internet address • Going to the homepage of the library and selecting "maps" or "map collection" • The homepage introduces the services and the collections.
The services and collections can be divided into three levels: Sheets of the map series are not recorded in NEBIS-WebOPAC. To find specific map sheets you have to go to the index of a map series. Once a map series is displayed, you can click on the index map to select the desired sheet number, and you can see a list of sheets with different editions. Wolfgang Crom (Berlin) presented this idea on a workshop in January 1999, which is easy to reproduce and also convenient for small map collections (see also Crom, 1999).

Map Collections and the Internet: Some Ideas about Various Online Map Services, Based on the ETH Map Collection in Zürich
For a map collection with large holdings of map series it is recommended to use the professional software product TOPORAMA. It is user-friendly and has the map serial control function. TOPORAMA works with the software ArcView and requires an Internet map server from ESRI.
TOPORAMA: An integrated, interactive search net for map sheets worldwide. By clicking on an area of the index the desired map sheet can be obtained.

c) CD-ROMs 8
The Web site contains a list of over 100 CD-ROMs with digital maps, spatial data and GIS products. They can be viewed on three large screen workstations in the map library. Examples: • Switzerland: Country map 1:100,000/50,000, Digital Atlas of Switzerland, GIS "Gewässer" The World of Maps is an extensive link collection for maps, spatial data, map catalogues and cartographic information.
It contains a geographical and a thematic map catalogue with metadata and digital maps,

Map Collections and the Internet: Some Ideas about Various Online Map Services, Based on the ETH Map Collection in Zürich 474
This was created to be a map catalogue with image information. By zooming you can see a larger scale of map displayed with more cartographic and bibliographic details.

b) Registers of Local Places 11
Registers of local places on the Internet are useful and popular sources.
A "World Gazetteer" is compiled from the index of Bartholomew Times Atlas, containing more than 100,000 names worldwide and searchable by name, country, co-ordinates, etc.
We plan to connect the World Gazetteer to TOPORAMA index sheets. From the index sheet it is easy to select a local place to get to the right map sheet.

c) Map Bibliographies 12
The Web site was composed for the "Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER" containing extensive multilingual bibliographies in map librarianship, map history and GIS/cartography, and important gateways for map curatorship.

d) Tutorials and Reference Sources 13
This is a collection of links to free educational programs and reference sources in cartography, GIS, geography and geo-sciences. "Who is Who in Map Librarianship" contains useful information about map librarians and their special fields of knowledge, serving as a guide to find help for any particular problem on a personal level. A valuable tool, organized by country and subject in order to find the relevant person.

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"Virtual Library Eduard Imhof" is created from original documents of the famous cartographer. This virtual library, is an interesting product making our archival material accessible world-wide, containing over 50 web sites with close to 200 pictures divided in 11 chapters, a biographical section and a reference list of the original resource. This is a valuable Web site both for historians in cartography and the general public. It is a broad and demanding field and a challenge for our profession!