There are over 80 Harvard libraries with over 15 million titles - or is that 80 million titles in 15 libraries – in either case it is a remarkable number. I went to two today to check out how I can get in, and what to do to use them, and then discovered a third. All of the libraries are catalogued on-line, and my Harvard Id and PIN number is an ‘access all areas’ pass to search, download electronic copies of papers, and to take books out from the libraries. There are also a whole range of talks, seminars and workshops on a variety of subjects, ranging from politics, women’s rights to self improvement in communication (public speaking) and interview techniques. Whilst looking for the entrance to the second library I found the Harvard Map Library, and it had a small exhibition of maps of Rhode Island – “Taking the Measure of Rhode Island: A Cartographical Tour” telling the story of the cartography of the smallest US State (apart from Washington DC that is), and the story of the people who surveyed and drew them. Seventh heaven for a map nerd! With the map drawn by Surveyors in the 1750’s, and quotes from their ‘poetic’ journal telling of rests under orchard trees, and drinking wine at an inn, and the drinking of sweet beverages to celebrate completing their survey (typical Surveyors!). Or the tale of another surveyor who went bust drawing another map, because the State only bought 7 printed copies of the map, and he had to sell the original copper plates later to make ends meet, only to discover that the purchaser asked someone else to update and publish the new map – he sued for copyright breach but lost on a technicality. And then the sale of ‘subscriptions’ to pay for the work – some subscribers would get their name mentioned, others who paid more got to tell of their business and more. An excellent little exhibition bringing to life the maps from a time when this land was newly discovered, and had to be organised and laid out, and all its resources understood and located. And then there were to original globes made by Mercator himself, sitting in a glass display cabinet, one of the earth, the other of the heavens, and the only two known to be in North America. (Told you it was for Map nerds!).Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Map Nerd's Paradise
There are over 80 Harvard libraries with over 15 million titles - or is that 80 million titles in 15 libraries – in either case it is a remarkable number. I went to two today to check out how I can get in, and what to do to use them, and then discovered a third. All of the libraries are catalogued on-line, and my Harvard Id and PIN number is an ‘access all areas’ pass to search, download electronic copies of papers, and to take books out from the libraries. There are also a whole range of talks, seminars and workshops on a variety of subjects, ranging from politics, women’s rights to self improvement in communication (public speaking) and interview techniques. Whilst looking for the entrance to the second library I found the Harvard Map Library, and it had a small exhibition of maps of Rhode Island – “Taking the Measure of Rhode Island: A Cartographical Tour” telling the story of the cartography of the smallest US State (apart from Washington DC that is), and the story of the people who surveyed and drew them. Seventh heaven for a map nerd! With the map drawn by Surveyors in the 1750’s, and quotes from their ‘poetic’ journal telling of rests under orchard trees, and drinking wine at an inn, and the drinking of sweet beverages to celebrate completing their survey (typical Surveyors!). Or the tale of another surveyor who went bust drawing another map, because the State only bought 7 printed copies of the map, and he had to sell the original copper plates later to make ends meet, only to discover that the purchaser asked someone else to update and publish the new map – he sued for copyright breach but lost on a technicality. And then the sale of ‘subscriptions’ to pay for the work – some subscribers would get their name mentioned, others who paid more got to tell of their business and more. An excellent little exhibition bringing to life the maps from a time when this land was newly discovered, and had to be organised and laid out, and all its resources understood and located. And then there were to original globes made by Mercator himself, sitting in a glass display cabinet, one of the earth, the other of the heavens, and the only two known to be in North America. (Told you it was for Map nerds!).
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