British Library Map Catalogue on CD-ROM

Published by Primary Source Microfilm

Published in association with the British Library

This unique digital research aid provides complete access to one of the world's finest cartographic collections. The CD-ROM combines in one resource all nineteen volumes of the British Library's catalogue of printed and manuscript maps, and an automated catalog of post-1974 accessions. With more than 300,000 records, it offers the scholar unprecedented research possibilities into cartographic material dating from medieval times to the present.

The collection itself is now housed in the new Map Library at the British Library and comprises more than four million maps, 67,000 atlases and books, and many globes, relief models and other rare cartographic materials. More modern examples are also featured, such as the complete range of Ordnance Survey and other British mapping, and comprehensive coverage of foreign mapping in recent editions.

With every single word indexed, the user can now decide their own access route. They can enter a geographical name or select an area (for example, a country or a county) and retrieve all its unspecified parts. Those interested in a named individual will often find several times as many entries as were listed under the old name headings.

Primary Source Media has provided extensive support to enable users to maximise the results they produce from every catalog search. The comprehensive online help introduces the Library's map collections and provides general installation assistance, and the full index allows researchers to specify their query quickly and efficiently. In addition, every disc includes a copy of the printed guide, Searching the British Library Map Catalogue, containing invaluable advanced searching tips.

Review:

"This recent CD publication is a welcome addition to any map librarian's reference collection. Before its availability, four separate and very different catalogues and files were needed to locate cartographical materials in the British Library map collections...The most important feature on this CD-ROM is that all these disparate catalogues can now be examined seamlessly in a single search."
"This reference work is highly recommended for any institution fostering map research and particularly historical cartographical research. It would even be an excellent tool for institutions involved in historical research in general, because of the important role that maps play in understanding historical events."
-- Kathryn L. Engstrom, Library of Congress in Imago Mundi 53 (2001)

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