Unfortunately, in some cases, the arrangement of sheets changed between the time the maps were first published in the early- or mid-19th century and the date of publication of the index. These booklets are generally no older than the 1920s. Access to individual sheets in sets of nautical charts is through index booklets from the publishing agencies. Access to individual sheets in topographic map sets is through index maps, which are all marked with holdings (many of these are online). The Map Collection generally catalogs maps at the set level. Access via Zoomify has been retained as it’s clearly pleased many users. Over the last year and a half Charles Blair of the Digital Library Development Center and Bridget Madden of the Art History Department's Visual Resources Center have been putting together a protocol that allows downloading of the map files via Luna (I’m very grateful), and Map Collection staff have just added links to Luna versions of the files on the Map Collection Web pages. There have been frequent requests for the tiff files. In addition, there is no doubt that patrons have grown to expect that libraries would be more generous. Servers now have more bandwidth, and there is less worry these days about sharing files. Also, there was a feeling that sharing holdings with the general public should not be done too casually. Library servers would have had trouble with the large files. This seemed appropriate to many people in the Library some years back.
#Zoomify agent download#
Zoomify does not allow download of files. It allows one to zoom in and out and move around quite rapidly. Zoomify breaks up the original tiff files into a very large number of tiny jpegs at several different scales. Until now, Zoomify has been used to share the maps. That’s about as many maps as live users ask for in the course of approximately six weeks. The scanned maps on the Map Collection Website have been a modest hit. Since then we've created fifteen pages of scanned maps, in the form of more or less permanent exhibits of related materials (click here for a list). Map Collection staff started putting scanned maps online in 2003. Few of the maps appear to be held by other North American libraries. In addition, there are thematic maps covering such subjects as the postal service, economic actvity, and battles in the Seven Years' War. There are also numerous city maps including maps of Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Prague, and Wrocław. The page provides access to maps that cover all or parts of Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Balkan Peninsula. The page differs from other Map Collection compilations of scanned maps in that it includes many more maps the maps are all older than those on the other pages and the links for the moment are only to Luna (rather than to Zoomify and Luna). The Map Collection recently added a new Web page that provides access to electronic versions of most of its holdings of 18th-century maps of Central Europe. New Web page devoted to 18th-century maps of Central Europe Only a small number of the maps appear to be held by other North American libraries. There are maps compiled by military topographic mapping agencies, maps from scholarly journals, and commercial maps. Both regional and urban maps, and both general and thematic maps are included. The Map Collection has recently added a new Web page that provides access to scans of some of its holdings of 19th-century maps of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. New Web page devoted to 19th-century maps of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia