Index Maps for the Digital Age.

Efforts to provide increased remote access to library materials have taken center stage over the last decade. Librarians can be justly proud of the results of their efforts to date, with most bibliographic indexing tools now available electronically and library catalogs accessible at all times via the Internet. Full-text materials are increasingly available on the Web and desktop delivery is more common than ever. Great progress in the cataloging of maps was also made during this time period and the use of maps concomitantly increased. Maps still lag behind other library resources, however, in the ability of the remote user to identify the needed item to the proper granularity. Unlike the remote user who, needing a journal article, can search any one of a number of bibliographic databases to identify articles down to the journal title, volume, issue, and page number, remote users who need a map have few electronic bibliographic tools to aid them. The inclusion of records for maps in online catalogs greatly increased during the last decade, so remote users have a good chance of determining that maps covering their geographic regions exist.