Improving User Access to Soviet Military Mapping: Current Issues in Libraries and Collections around the Globe

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union has seen the emergence of its unprecedentedly comprehensive global military mapping programme and the commercial availability of a vast number of detailed topographic maps and city plans at several scales. Many libraries and archives around the world are discovering and acquiring these maps and plans, developing vast potential to provide researchers in a variety of fields with a wealth of previously inaccessible topographic data. However, significant differences exist in the cataloguing, classification, translation and transliteration between and within the major collections, potentially limiting access to this important new resource. This paper presents a survey of how Soviet military city plans are described in the catalogues of forty libraries and highlights these inconsistencies. It proposes a method for their description that is based on an identification of key sheet characteristics, with a view to facilitating the cataloguing of new acquisitions and improving access to these important sources for current and future users.