National Atlases: A Bibliographic Index

Summary

This bibliographic index, compiled by A. G. Kozubenko at the Cartographic Scientific Information Laboratory of the Production Cartographic Association “Kartografiya” and published in Moscow in 1990, surveys national atlases of foreign countries issued after 1950, with coverage current to December 1989. Drawing on the collections and union catalogue of the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, other Soviet libraries and institutions, the holdings of “Kartografiya,” and Soviet and international publications, it records more than 130 comprehensive scientific-reference atlases. Where no formal national atlas existed, representative reference or popular-reference atlases produced within the country were included; major comprehensive works were also listed when a national atlas was still being prepared or published. Entries are arranged alphabetically by country within five continental divisions—Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia and Oceania—and chronologically when several atlases are available for one country. Following Soviet standards for the bibliographic description of cartographic works, each record provides the original title and a Russian translation, responsible institutions, edition information, principal scales, publication details, physical characteristics, supplementary texts and graphics, format, notes, ISBN where available, thematic contents, and holding institution, shelf mark, or documentary source. Institutional names are reproduced in full, and map subjects are classified according to a cartographic information-retrieval system intended to support standardized and automated documentation. The index demonstrates substantial international growth in national atlas production. European countries completed numerous long-term projects during the 1970s and continued revised or serial editions in the 1980s. Asian production included repeated editions and new projects, while African atlases reflected growing needs for information on natural and labor resources, although their scholarly and practical quality varied considerably. Most countries in the Americas possessed comprehensive atlases, with several issuing supplements, revised editions, or individual updating sheets. Australia and Oceania were represented by resource and national-reference atlases of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Papua New Guinea. Across regions, the works commonly address physical geography, geology, climate, soils, vegetation, population, history, administration, agriculture, industry, resources, transport, communications, trade, culture, education, health, tourism, and regional geography. The survey concludes that national atlases were becoming more numerous, more frequently revised, and broader in application. Newer atlases increasingly incorporated synthetic, evaluative, and predictive maps designed to support economic planning, territorial development, and rational resource use. The index therefore serves cartographic agencies, planning and survey organizations, research and educational institutions, libraries, and specialists studying foreign territories, while also documenting disparities in national cartographic capacity, geographic knowledge, and socioeconomic development.