A survey technique for map collection retrospective conversion projects

Although much has been written about the need for, methodologies, costs, and other aspects of retrospective conversion little exists in the literature regarding retrospective conversion of cartographic materials, and map collections specifically. Reference is usually made to the need to survey the collection for conversion, but theauthor was unable to locate a description of a random sampling technique that explains how it is applied and what the outcome was. This article introduces the use of a random sampling technique with a major university map collection. The University of Georgia’s Maps Collection was surveyed to ascertain how much of the existing maps card catalog needed to be converted to an electronic form for use in the local online public access catalog. In addition, the samples pulled from the survey were searched against the OCLC union catalog to determine the proportions of records that could be found in OCLC and loaded into the Georgia Libraries Information Network (GALIN), the online catalog, with no cataloging intervention versus the degree to which the maps cataloger would have to either adjust existing records available or create original records for the online catalog. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected] <Website: http://www.haworthpressinc.com>].