Cartographic information in the Library is collected in a range of formats - maps, atlases, gazetteers, charts and street directories, in particular, are important documentary sources of Victoria’s history. Manuscript maps are located in the Australian Manuscripts Collection and pre-1800 atlases are included in the Rare Books Collection.
The Maps Collection houses the majority of the Library’s collection of over 110,000 maps. About two- thirds of these are Australian, and include auctioneers’ plans, 19th-century Victorian township, parish and county plans, Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works drainage plans, and recent topographic and thematic maps.
Maps are acquired primarily in printed form but material is also collected in formats such as CD-ROM and digital output where appropriate, and the Library negotiates with key agencies for the provision of internet and other forms of digital access to their current digital spatial data. The Library will continue to digitise high-demand parts of the Maps Collection.
These include:
Another strength of the Collection is supporting reference material including:
All current and retrospective printed maps published in and about Victoria are acquired. For the remainder of Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific and Antarctica, the Library acquires material at research level. This involves:
The Library acquires sheets not already held of the United Kingdom and Ireland Ordnance Survey series at 1:50, 000. For the United Kingdom other than this series, Europe and the European states of the Russian Federation, the eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and East Asia, the Library acquires material which is adequate to support undergraduate and most graduate study. This includes:
For other regions (notably North and South America, Africa, the Asian section of the former USSR, and the remainder of West-Asia) the Library acquires current materials for ready reference and basic information. This generally includes:
