National Atlases: A Bibliographic Index

Summary

Published in Moscow in 1990 by the Kartografiya Production Cartographic Association under the USSR Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography, this volume is a bibliographic index of national atlases issued or under preparation throughout the world. It covers publications appearing after 1950 and incorporates information available through December 1989. Its principal focus is on comprehensive scientific-reference national atlases; where no formal national atlas existed, the compiler included nationally published comprehensive reference or popular-reference atlases capable of serving a comparable informational function. The bibliography draws on the holdings of the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, other Soviet libraries represented in its union catalogue, the collections of Kartografiya, and Soviet and foreign printed sources. In total, it records more than 130 atlases. Entries are organized geographically into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia and Oceania, alphabetically by country and chronologically when several atlases are listed for one state. Following Soviet standards for the bibliographic description of cartographic works, each record gives the title in the original language and a Russian translation, the responsible organizations, purpose and edition, principal scales, place and publisher, publication date or initial year of a continuing series, physical extent, number of maps, accompanying texts, tables, diagrams, illustrations and indexes, format, notes, ISBN, and holding institution or documentary source. Each entry also summarizes thematic content, commonly including physical geography, geology, climate, water, soils, vegetation, natural resources, population, history, culture, administrative organization, agriculture, industry, transport, trade, communications, and land use. The thematic descriptions employ a classification designed to support automated cartographic information retrieval. The introductory survey emphasizes substantial international variation in atlas quality, reflecting differences in socioeconomic development, geographic knowledge, cartographic production, and geodetic services. Nevertheless, the overall trend is clear: the number of countries possessing national atlases was increasing, while revision, republication, and sheet-by-sheet updating were becoming more common. Europe had developed especially mature scientific-reference atlas programs; Asian and American countries were producing new editions and major national projects; African atlas production was stimulated by the need to document natural and labor resources for economic development, although its publications ranged from rigorous scientific works to educational popular atlases; and Australia and Oceania placed notable emphasis on resources, environmental conditions, and regional development. Recent atlases increasingly incorporated synthetic, evaluative, and predictive maps, expanding their role in planning, economic development, and rational resource management. The index therefore functions not merely as a catalogue of holdings, but as a research and reference instrument for cartographic agencies, planning and survey organizations, academic and educational institutions, libraries, and specialists studying foreign territories.