What are cartographic materials?
Cartographic materials are maps, atlases, and other graphical presentations of geospatial data. While these resources are largely produced by government and intergovernmental agencies as part of their public mandate, private publication is also fairly common through a fairly limited number of private agencies, such as Gousha, National Geographic, Rand McNally, and Sanborn, and through professional organizations such as the Geological Society of America (GSA). Except for some special cases, such as some print atlases and computer files, most cartographic materials fall under the MARC21 “Maps” format. This format includes some tags that are unique to cartographic materials, specifically numerical data relating to scale and coordinates, base or reference information, and location. Obviously, location is of prime importance on maps, and other elements, such as topical subject, are considered as secondary to this. Also, during the discussions leading to AACR2, when the rest of the descripti
