Mapster – international project providing historical maps for

researchers and students"

Szymon Biały Cartographic Collection, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland

Marek Zieliński

Map Archive of Polish Military Geographical Institute (1919-1939), London, UK

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• 2004 – groving number of maps began to appear in the Internet

• Copyright protection – 70 years after first publication

Map Archive of Polish Military Geographical Institute (1919-1939)

Archive Maps of Gdańsk Pommerania Institute of Geography of University of Gdańsk

Map Archive of Western Poland Cartographical Archive of Faculty of Geographical And Geological Sciences,

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

The ideology

• To gather growing number of old maps (skans) on one website,

• To provide maps in good resolution / quality, • To provide maps for all Internet users for free,

unrestricted acces, • Low cost and efficient platform for the collection, • To demonstrate and proof that maps can be

available entirely legal for unlimited number of users of internet (public domain)

Content-driven system with its core value of historical maps of the three projects. Map access: •simple and intuitive interface, •search tool •graphic index sheets for an overview of available maps and adjoining maps

Mapster

KISS principle (Keep It Short and Simple) – most systems work best if they are kept simple

Map sources • Private collections (project users, project

administrators, map and town plan collectors); • University libraries run by Geography

and Geology Departments

- Poland (5)

- Germany (2)

- France (1)

- USA (8)

- Canada (1)

• Library of Congress, Washington, USA; • Digital libraries in Poland (EU funding for

digitalization of various libraries and archives is conditional on their online availability)

From paper map to Mapster

access

• Location of Map collection • Contact the owner and explaing the idea, seek permission • Selection of maps • Logistic • Scanning (resolution 300-600 dpi)

If permission is refused, or is unlikely to be granted, the matter is not pursued.

- images are sorted, - allocated file names corresponding to a map series, - saved as jpg (low compression).

The content Group of maps 2015 2017

Polish 5,649 7,459

German, Prussian 11,296 16,047

Austrian and Hungarian 1,575 3,496

Russian and Soviet 4,256 7,116

Allied British-American 4,537 7,665

Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian 399 401

Balkan 86 3,977

Czechoslovak 182 268

Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Caucasian states 2 2

Maps of Western and African countries 676 682

City maps 1,229 1,488

other maps 378 378

Total 30,265 48,979 The vast majority are maps published in the 19th and 20th centuries until 1944, as well as maps dating since 15th century are provided.

Using maps of Mapster content

more than 150 scientific papers on physical and socio-economic geography, land use change, history, settlement, cartography, GIS methodology et al. indexed in Google Scholar and Scopus refference to map resources obtained from the projects,

Dissertations and thesis, source of information for enthusiasts of local

geography and history, popularization of historical cartography.

All materials available are intended exclusively for non-commercial use.

Medal of 90th anniversary of the Polish Military Geographic Service (Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny,

WIG)

Member of Social Archive (AS)

The coordinators are not specialist (geogrphers or cartographers),

The coordinators are not paid for their work,

Private collectors, institutions, archives, libraries are invited to contribute the project through sending scans of their maps or making their maps available.

www.igrek.amzp.pl – Mapster, Old maps of Poland and Central Europe / Mapy archiwalne Polski i Europy Środkowej

www.mapywig.org –Map Archive of Polish Military Geographical Institute (1919-1939) / Archiwum Map Wojskowego Instytutu Geograficznego (1919-1939)

www.mapy.amzp.pl – Map Archive of Western Poland / Archiwum Map Zachodniej Polski

www.mapy.eksploracja.pl - Archive Maps of Gdańsk Pommerania / Archiwalne Mapy Pomorza Gdańskiego

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