This summer the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division hosted a group of college students who were asked to process some 20,000 nautical charts from all over the world. According to Mike Buscher, team leader of the Collections Management Team, many of these charts were obtained recently from various federal agencies that purged their files during the past year, as well as from recently acquired collections of Russian and Chinese maps.
A monumental endeavor, the project required the interns to devote much time and energy to sorting the charts by country and filtering out the duplicates. The processed maps spanned some 30 countries, large and small, including Canada, Australia, Taiwan and Israel. Many dated as far back as the 1840s, while others were as recent as 2006.
Summer G&M interns included Toni Horne (left) and Sam Stevens (right). - Michaela McNichol
"Upon arriving to start work, we found tens of thousands of maps that had to be moved and then sorted by country of origin with the aim of pulling out duplicates to create room for filing new entries," said Andrew Flatness, a senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.
In order to create space in which to process the nautical chart collection, the students had to shift the Heezen-Tharp Collection from one end of the division to the other. Almost two-and-a-half football fields' worth of drawers – 375, to be exact – the collection, dating from the 1940s to the present, is based on the work of Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp, who were pioneers in the exploration and mapping of ocean floors. Tharp, who died on Aug. 23, 2006, donated her collection of more than 40,000 oceanic maps and related items to the Library in 1995.
The students managed to move the entire collection in fewer than three days by working out a system of rolling carts from one end of the collection space to the other. They also set up a system for sorting, arranging, labeling and filing the backlog of nautical charts, as well as inputting the information into an online inventory.
According to Buscher, the newly cataloged nautical charts, along with the Heezen-Tharp Collection, will be sent to the Library's off-site storage facility in Fort Meade, Md.
"What we did this summer took some effort, and we're proud of what we have accomplished," said Sam Stevens, a freshman at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Another summer intern, Casey Crawford - Michaela McNichol
Casey Crawford, a third-year graphic design major at Howard University in Washington, D.C., said, "I can relate to the demand for detail and precision. After the first couple of days, I began to see how interesting maps could be. The creators of these charts and maps are truly artists in my mind. Being an artist myself, having the opportunity to work with what I consider artwork created a positive and productive outcome for me."
"Smart," "enthusiastic" and "highly motivated" were just a few choice words Buscher used to describe the group, saying they "plowed right in" to the tasks assigned to them.
"I was really impressed with this group, and I could not have been more pleased with what they accomplished," he said. "Best of all, they asked if they could come back next summer."
Although none of the group's specific majors related to geography or world history, the students seemed to find relevance between their work at the Library and their studies.
"Most people would not understand how one could gather inspiration from maps, but that's the beauty of the imagination," concluded Toni Horne, a junior at Howard University. "Working for the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress was a great opportunity. I was able to see the world!"
