Challenges for National Atlas-Publications. The Approach of the National Atlas of Germany

Summary

Losang examines how national atlas agencies can sustain publication after completing an edition, using the National Atlas of Germany as the central example. Its twelve-volume print and CD-ROM edition involved more than 600 scientists over ten years and produced over 2,000 printed pages and 4,000 maps and graphics. Completion brought closure of the atlas agency, staffing cuts to 10% and dissolution of its advisory boards. The article considers funding and licensing, changing geographic themes, technological dependence and user demands; no user survey of the original German edition was available. Follow-up development reused existing resources and combined maps, graphics and interpretive texts, with media and teachers emerging as important audiences. Alongside an English selection CD and exhibition animations, nationalatlas aktuell updated selected topics through an Illustrator/Mapublisher, Typo3 and Flash workflow involving contributing authors. Germany in Maps adapted the printed volumes' thematic structure for teaching, combining database-generated interactive maps, modified static maps and separate animations in online and offline versions. The bilingual nationalatlas.de portal launched in January 2011 to give these publications a common identity and entry point. Losang outlines planned integration and updates, an archive of first-edition material, and international atlas information and reviews.