This is the 3rd edition of a standard textbook on map librarianship. It is American and stands with Map librarianship/H. Nichols, London: Bingley, 1976 and 1982, as one of the two comprehensive English language texts on the subject. This edition has been greatly enlarged and incorporates large segments on digital spatial data and its control in the library. Spatial data is the preferred term throughout the text, although the original title was deliberately retained. The purpose is clearly stated in the introduction – a practical guide for the librarian or library student thrust into the control of a map collection, often with no formal training appropriate for the job (carto‐literacy is often not recognised or sought by the library administrator or supervisor). It reviews pragmatically existing practices based on long experience in academic map libraries, visits to other map libraries and communication with public map librarians and a wealth of professional reading. Mary Larsgaard has long been prominent in the map library world and has done much to foster her own and others’ professional development.
The book is logically arranged in seven chapters followed by a large bibliography, specialised appendices and an index. The reader is taken through: Selection and acquisition, Classification, Cataloguing, Storage care and repair, Reference services, Public relations and marketing and Education. The first three chapters take up two‐thirds of the text and the bibliography and appendices (mainly supplementary bibliographical and directory information) nearly one third of the volume.
The Australian Map Circle has long concerned itself with the problem of education for map librarianship and has identified cartographic, bibliographic and library elements. What does this book offer to the library student? It supplies a rational approach to the immediate problems faced as a librarian. It does not presuppose preliminary cartographic knowledge or expertise but leaves introductory information to the beginning of the chapter on Reference services. It provides a comprehensive introduction to collection building for the American librarian, it gives practical instruction in the application of three classification schemes and short comparative details of others and a step by step manual of cataloguing practice, mainly for contemporary maps and map series, both traditional and digital. It does not examine the philosophy involved in classifying maps, nor does it emphasise that, in map cataloguing, the content is catalogued rather than the package that is a book. It does not recognise that maps, created usually for one purpose, are often used effectively for a multitude of other purposes. It does however address all the library fields in which the student must become competent and highlights paths for initial education and further professional development.
The additional value of this book to the practitioner is the wealth of detail which can be accessed to meet day to day problems. The chapter on reference work is relatively weak compared to the strength of the chapters on collection building, management, preservation and storage. The content is limited to particular types of library and clientele and does not study the environments in which libraries exist – notably the availability of accessible alternative collections, or the range of interests and needs of the library’s users. The bibliography attempts, not always successfully, to be exhaustive and is an important guide to more specialised and specific information. Rare map librarianship is only dealt with briefly in the chapters on acquisition and cataloguing. Storage system choice ignores the purpose and nature of use of the collection, e.g. single copy as opposed to multiple copy use requirements, and whether the collection should be open or closed access.
Planning and staffing the map library is ignored; a chapter on this or a reference in the bibliography would be useful for the practitioner and vital for the library administrator. Great detail is given of major equipment requirements. This could reflect the author’s experience of being pitchforked into an “established” map library. Too often a map librarian has not been involved in the planning process and has had to improvise. As the controller of accommodation, equipment and planning, the library administrator will find this book valuable as it highlights the need for capital equipment required, often overlooked in other areas of library planning. Larsgaard demonstrates that the physical nature of cartographic items and the electronic needs for accessing digital spatial data demand more than is usually provided for traditional library materials. Automated library system requirements demand hardware with less memory and operating systems for other forms of data than for maps – the actual requirements are specified. Not specified are the office type mapping tools necessary for the effective bibliographical control and use of the collection.
Within its limitations and because of its strengths, this is a necessary item in the professional librarian’s library. It has great value for the student, the practitioner and the library manager and its coverage of new technology is outstanding. It is not, nor does it pretend to be, a “Bible”. It is intensely practical and brings together most of the problems, together with solutions, faced in spatial data librarianship.
