Altrettanto importanti, forse di più, sono le carte geografiche e le mappe. Non solo le più recenti o quelle satellitari utili per la pianificazione del percorso, ma anche le più vecchie perché sono strumenti preziosi per ritrovare le antiche piste e le carovaniere sepolte sotto la sabbia coi loro tesori. Oppure diventate massacranti toule ondulée o, peggio, nastri di asfalto nero e bucato. Una risorsa importante da questo punto di vista è offerta dal programma di African Studies avviato alla Northwestern University da Melville J. Herskovits nel 1948. La biblioteca intitolata a suo nome si è costituita come fondo a sé nel 1954 raccogliendo e catalogando le mappe dell'Africa dalle prime origini ai tempi moderni.
Le mappe di esempio qui accanto fanno riferimento all'Africa Nord Occidentale e, rispettivamente, sono datate: 1561, 1664 e 1829. E' possibile consultare l'elenco completo delle mappe disponibili.
About the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies.
Established in 1954, the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University is the largest separate Africana collection in existence. Its scope is as wide as the continent of Africa itself; its subject matter ranges from art, history, literature, music, and religion to communications, management, and cooking. The Africana collection is a resource for the entire university, and most of Northwestern's disciplinary programs are reflected in the collection. In addition to serving the NU community, the Herskovits Library staff also serves regional, national, and international scholars as well.
Map area coverage includes the continent, regions (particularly North Africa and Algeria ), islands (particularly Madagascar ), and a few city plans. All of these maps are loose items, though many have been excised from published atlases. Some of the highlights of the digital collection are: a series of Ptolemic maps of North Africa by Ruscelli, ca. 1565; Forlani: Africa , 1562; Mercator: Africa, 1595; Blaeu: Æthiopia ca. 1650 (a Prester John map); Carey: Africa, 1795 (first map of Africa published in the United States), Arrowsmith: Africa, 1802 (notable for its large dimensions, 124 x 145 cm .), a series of Algerian maps published by the French government in the mid-1800's, and maps by other notable cartographers, such as Hondius, Jansson, de Jode, de L'Isle, Ortelius, Sanson, and de Wit. The maps are initially organized in Library of Congress call number order (except for two sets which are kept together), and are searchable by region, cartographer and date. Search results include each map's catalog record . The original maps are kept and maintained in the map collection in the Government and Geographic Information and Data Services Department.
Technical Information.
The maps and text have been digitized at 600dpi using a process of tiling and stitching, and are delivered in JPEG2000 via an Aware Image Server. MARC records for the maps have been transformed into MODS, bundled with PREMIS preservation metadata and MIX technical image metadata, wrapped in METS and ingested into Northwestern's Fedora repository. A collection search based on Lucene provides a custom gateway to this important collection.
About Government and Geographic Information and Data Services.
The Government and Geographic Information and Data Services Department (Gov Info) houses maps and data collections, workstations for GIS and data work, and is a depository library for U.S. government, State of Illinois, United Nations, Organization of American States, European Union, and World Tourism Organization publications in all formats. Many materials in the department are not included in NuCat the library's catalog. To provide better access to resources, non-depository resources, indexes, and other access tools are acquired.
