The following policy operates under the Library's general
policy statements with respect to collection development. The
British Library Map Collections, comprising the cartographic holdings
of the Map Library as well as maps in other departments, most notably
Manuscripts, form what is arguably the finest map collection in
the world. Unlike those in other institutions, the BL Map Collections
are unparalleled in both historical and modern materials.
Historical Material
Map Library's historical collections concentrate mainly on material
with British connections, but in the light of British history, this
necessarily covers most of the world at different periods. Antiquarian
purchases are made to fill gaps in the collections and a substantial
part of the purchase fund is devoted to this purpose. As part of
its role as one of the major centres of historical cartographic
studies and carto-bibliographical research, Map Library's objectives
include the collection of literature about maps and map-making.
Modern printing techniques have made it possible to reproduce high
quality facsimiles of older maps, generally accompanied by essential
texts written by leading experts, and these are also collected.
Particular strengths are all aspects of British cartography, including
Ordnance Survey, early European mapping (from 6th century), portolan
charts, European atlases from the fifteenth century, colonial mapping,
military and administrative mapping since the Renaissance, Asian
mapping, and modern mapping world-wide.
Modern Material
Current materials are mainly acquired in three different ways.
British cartographic publications are received on legal deposit.
These are considerable given the output and world-wide reputation
of British map publishers. Material is also received from Ordnance
Survey Northern Ireland and Ordnance Survey Ireland, and special
agreements are in place with the United States Geological Survey
and National Imagery and Mapping Administration, the Canadian Department
of Mines and Surveys, the Australian National Mapping Authority,
and the New Zealand Department of Lands and Surveys.
Second are the materials donated by the Ministry of Defence as
part of its programme of distribution of superseded maps and related
materials to map collections across the UK. The British Library
is by far the largest recipient of such materials, which include
medium and large scale foreign topographical and other types of
maps mainly of Europe, Asia and Africa. As map production in many
countries is not as accessible as it is in the UK and the US, the
special acquisition methods and funding available to the MoD make
these donations a remarkable collection of 20th century materials
unlikely to be found in other publicly-accessible collections.
Third is a programme of purchases carefully monitored to fill in
gaps in receipts from MoD and meet general research needs, which
has begun to include materials in digital formats. Such acquisitions
are made taking into consideration collection policies in the other
major research collections in Britain.
The Map Library maintains its archive of large scale Ordnance Survey (OS) maps
in digital form, as OS stopped producing
these maps on paper or fiche in 1999 (annual receipts numbered in
the thousands).
Related to, but distinct from our special relationship with the
Ministry of Defence is the acquisition of its cartographic archives.
This includes compilation material which has been deposited with
us at different times since about 1960 and, more recently, the archive
of UK military mapping produced by the Ministry of Defence and its
predecessors since c1880. The archive, estimated at about 200,000
sheets, is being deposited as a public record in an arrangement
brokered by the Public Record Office.
