History of Maps and Important Map Collections in Turkey

Abstract

Considering the historical process, mankind has produced many information sources and used them in the most effective way when he needs. One of the most known and used of these resources is books. However, there are many information resources in different formats except books. These resources are called non-book materials. The one, which is regarded as the most strategic information resource among the non-book materials, is map. Maps are information resources which can give detailed and strategic information about any part of the world differ from the other information resources. They have been used as widely as books in almost every age of the history. Maps have been drawn and used after discoveries, excursions, and especially military expeditions. Many countries, governments or managers ordered special maps for their countries and/or other countries and paid serious budgets for them. The most important characteristics distinguishing maps from other information resources are that they have many types and they can be used for many purposes. Different applications were developed for organizing them because of the variety of the information they contain. These characteristics of maps put forward that drawing and reading map necessitate a special education. In the study, theoretical information about the process of maps’ occurrence, basic information fields on them, their types, making catalogues and access will be given and the examples from the libraries, having rich map collections in Turkey, will be given.