WWW-Virtual Library: History
Map History / History of Cartography: THE Gateway to the Subject

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 Map History

Collaborating on the 'Map History' site

Would you like to help?

Do you have some web expertise you could spare?

'Map History', as will be obvious, is designed by an amateur. Often this may not matter. But some pages definitely need skilled attention:

Would you be interested in creating and maintaining a listing?

The 'Map History' site is, in many respects, a collaborative venture, see Companion Sites. There is the need for the following:
      A LISTING OF MAP CATALOGUES

Would you like to send occasional information, or even become a 'Collaborator'?

Would you be interested in helping maintain the 'Map History' site? Do you think you could provide new information or improve what is already there? Are you interested in the map history of your area or the maps relating to a particular theme? With your help, 'Map History' could become even more international - for example with more links to pages in languages other than English.

Anything you can tell me that will improve the quality of the information on the site will be gratefully received. Just send me what you think might be useful.

Alternatively, consider becoming one of the named 'collaborators'. The main ways you can help are described below.

Select the geographical area or subject theme that most interests you from the following pages (but please do not feel restricted to those two sections):

Each of those is the only one of its kind on the web; both have updates almost every month; and each already contains many hundreds of links.

Do all the existing links work properly? If not, please let me know

  • Are any of them dead links (404)? [We use a free program, Xenu, to check for dead links on a regular basis, so there should not be many of those]
  • Do any links lead to what is now an irrelevant page? [Checking these would be very valuable. If you cannot find out whether the site has moved or disappeared, I may be able to answer the question. Alternatively, you could try the tips offered by Xenu (see No. 16 'How do I correct broken links?')]
  • Do any links refer you to a new address? [Even if the forwarding is done automatically, I would like to include the current URL]

Can the existing information be improved?

  • Is the description accurate? [It would presumably have been accurate when the entry was made but that might have been several years ago. I seldom have time to revisit sites]
  • If you, who have a particular interest in the subject, are checking out a site, you are likely to spend longer than I would, and to be much more thorough. You may well be able to send me additional relevant details. In some cases, you might like to email the webmaster (perhaps in your own language) to get further information

Checking map image sites

When dealing with the 'Images' pages (e.g. URLs of the form < http://www.maphistory.info/image***.html >):
  • Is the total number of images listed for the site still correct? If no total is given, is it possible to find this out? [Sites with over 300 images need to be listed also on the Index to the largest map image sites]
  • Is the description of image quality correct? The explanation for the terms used (taken from the main Web Images page) is as follows:
    • high resolution, enabling every place-name to be easily read
    • medium resolution, enabling some names to be read but not the smaller ones
    • low resolution, with almost all the names illegible

Informing me about new entries

First, please see 'What is not included on this site and why', so that you do not spend valuable time on what I will be unable to use. As far as the image pages are concerned, the maps depicted must be original, not historical reconstructions. Also note that the listing is of image sites, not of individual map images. Such sites normally need to have at least four images to be listed, unless they are special in some way, e.g. a wall-map.

I can supply a full, searchable listing of the 5,500 links already on the site, showing which 'Map History' page contains the link in question. This is the quickest way to see if a link is already present.

Please do not worry about writing a full description of a new site. The important thing is to let me have the URL. However, if you can supply descriptive notes, that would be helpful. Notes will be especially valuable for non-English language sites. If there is an English version of a page, please give me that.

You might like to check out the major libraries, museums, etc. in your country to see if they have put images of their maps, or a listing of their map collection, onto the web.

Searching via Google (and other engines) for your particular area of interest or map theme will probably find sites I do not list. Any searching I do has to be very general (e.g. 'history of cartography'). Try looking for 'map' and the name of your area, or 'map', 'map history', 'history of cartography', etc., in your own language.

You may find other relevant and interesting pages when looking at a site that I already list. There may well be significant and distinctive subsidiary pages that I had missed (or that were created after my visit) which deserve to be mentioned separately.

If you decide to become a Collaborator, I hope you will be able to check 'your' area at least every few months to see what has changed or been added.

Other parts of the site you could help with as well

Besides the Images and Articles pages mentioned above, almost all parts of the site could be improved, particularly if it had more non-English language material. You could (if you had the time) look at the following as well:
If you decide to join the growing number of 'National and Subject Collaborators' your name will be recorded on the
Thanks page
(unless you would prefer to remain anonymous)

Please email me (Tony Campbell) with any additions, corrections or questions:  

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