Bibliographic description of antique cartographic holdings: an analysis of conflicting aspects

Abstract

After assessing the difficulty presented by the description of antique cartographic holdings, the most problematic aspects of this process are listed and studied. The point of reference for this discussion are the Spanish norms contained within the Cataloguing Rules (CR) as well as the international codes ISBD (CM) and AACR2. Four large thematic blocks of problems are presented concerning: standards, the presentation of data within documents, the mathematical encoding of cartographic drawings and indexing. The need to revise Chapter 4 of CR so as to include the advance ments obtained both from professional experience in this field and from the developments in the electronic systems for information encoding and retrieval is addressed. Some suggestions and solutions are put forward in this context. A selected bibliography on all aspects of the description process is also included.