Organization

We’re very excited to receive this new collection. And, while the physical maps will be an extremely important addition to our physical collection, of greatest use to the members of our library community will be the digitized instance of the collection. In terms of organization of the two collections, each will have some unique requirements, as follows:

Cataloging the physical collection

Our catalogers will use workspaces in Special Collections so they have access to the physical maps. The maps will be cataloged according to the Marc 21 Format for Bibliographic Data. This is the cataloging standard currently in use at the library and is sufficient to meet the needs of describing this collection. Using this standard will also allow us to retrieve some, if not all, records from OCLC, and allow us to save resources. 

For those maps that do not have records already available for our use, our catalogers will self-train and seek resources online, of which there are many. For general information, they are listed at the conclusion of this section.

Applying metadata to the digital collection

Our plan is to have the maps digitized as soon as received by the library. Therefore, as catalogers complete the cataloging for each physical map, they will then locate the item in our content management system to refine the metadata. This offers a more streamlined workflow and allows for quality control of the metadata record. Since the digital collection will be harvested and indexed by Google, it is important that the metadata is as error-free as possible.

The metadata standard we will use for the digital collection will be the standard one we use for our other digital collections, the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. A crosswalk from MARC to Dublin Core is available for catalogers to use as a resource.

In addition to the fifteen formally endorsed terms for applying Dublin Core metadata, the metadata for this collection will include geographic latitude and longitude coordinate information. With this information, we will be able to include our maps in Google Earth for even greater access.

Resources for cataloging and applying metadata to maps:

WAML Map Librarian’s Tool Box: Cataloging and Processing.

Metadata Primer for Map Librarians.

Map Cataloger’s Tool Box