The Spanish National Archives Collective Catalogue of Maps, Plans and Drawings: new projects at the Simancas General Archive

Abstract

The State Archives Maps, Plans and Drawings collective catalogue includes cartographic, graphic and three-dimensional materials existing in these archives. A project on the collection of the Archivo General de Simancas is described. In its first stage of development, the methodology for the creation of the new data base from what already exists, procedures manuals, data mapping and loading, OAI-PMH digital repository development and the creation of the web server have been finalized. The project has resulted in a greater "visibility" of these holdings, direct access to the information from search engines and the possibility of participating in cooperative projects (Europeana, Hispania...). The new challenge for our digital map library is achieving a better visualization of the geographic information, so we have started the georeferenciation of the cartographic collection and studied the possible dissemination of our holdings throughout the historical cartographic catalogues that use spatial data infrastructures.