CartoTXT is dedicated to the promotion of the use of the cartographic heritage. It will be a tool to help the map curators in the cataloguing process. This tool will work online from numerical reproductions of the documents. CartoTXT will be developed by an association of CartoMundi with a research team specialized in the fields of Optical Characters Recognition – OCR and image treatment. The system will associate OCR processing with a references database which will record: the statements themselves with all their writings, the standard form for each statement, the corresponding field and also information about its position in the sheet, the type, the size and the color of the prints… For the dates or for the proper titles, it will record the form of the statement, independently of the text itself. The system will work by comparison of the statements founded on the documents and the records of the database. CartoTXT will operate on the cartographic series because they present several peculiarities that the system takes into account. 1. All the statements used for cataloguing are clearly out of the geographical representation: they are all in the frame or in the margins. 2. Most of the sheets of a series, or most of the statements of each sheet, are organized according to the same pattern. For example: The proper titles of the sheets are always in the same position, in the same type, in the same color... 3. Each sheet of a series bears several standard statements: the name of the editor, the proper title of the series… Each series has its own characteristics. For that reason the system will process by sets of documents: each set will correspond to a series. During the processing of the first sheets of each set, the map librarian will help the system in the spotting of these peculiarities. They will be recorded and organized by the system according to the librarians’s choices. Each treatment of a new set of maps will improve the database, particularly for the standard statements. For this reason it will work online. The CartoTXT tool will change very deeply the librarian practices. It will catch up the cataloguing delay that is the first aim of the project. But, it will also change the practices of cataloguing. With CartoTXT the access to the documents themselves won’t be required. So, it will be possible to manage the cataloguing process from any place, without any restriction and at any time. And that will be a revolution for the practices.

1. CartoTXT - Cataloguing the
series in a semi-automatic way
Jean-Luc ARNAUD
Senior researcher at the National Center for
Scientific Research – Aix-en-Provence
12 10 15
Université d'Aix-Marseille, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme, Telemme, CNRS

2. 1. Context
2. Project
- General presentation
- A tool dedicated to the series
- Process
3. New practices

3. A new era
For a few years, the cartographic documentation is entering in a new era thanks
to the development and the lowering of the cost of the large size scanners

4. A first experience

5. A first experience
Cataloguing series from pictures
of the margins of each document

6. 1. Context
2. Project
- General presentation
- A tool dedicated to the series
- Process
3. New practices

7. In most of the map libraries, the documents must be catalogued before being
reproduced. CartoTXT offers an inversion of this process

8. The sheets of the maps organised in series wear
three pecularities

9. 1. The statements are out of the cartographic
representation

10. 2. The statements are organised according to
a specific patern for each series

11. 3. Standard statements are numerous

12. CartoTXT will work by comparing statements with
Authority lists
The statements and their variations
IGN
I.G.N.
Inst. Géo. Nat.
Inst. géographique nat.
Inst. géographique National
…

13. CartoTXT will work by comparing statements with
Authority lists
The statements and their variations Standard form
IGN
I.G.N. Institut
Inst. Géo. Nat. géographique
Inst. géographique nat. national – IGN
Inst. géographique National (Paris)
…

14. CartoTXT will work by comparing statements with
Authority lists
The statements and their variations Standard form
IGN
I.G.N. Institut
Inst. Géo. Nat. géographique
Inst. géographique nat. national – IGN
Inst. géographique National (Paris)
…
But also : Institut géographique national – IGN (Bruxelles)

15. CartoTXT will work by comparing statements with
Authority lists
The statements and their variations Standard form
IGN
I.G.N. Institut
Inst. Géo. Nat. géographique
Inst. géographique nat. national – IGN
Inst. géographique National (Paris)
…
Statement of collective
responsibility

16. Forms of the dates statements
Standard dates
09-1918 7 signs Two first Positions 01 to 12
3rd Position « - » or « »
4th Position 1 or 2
5th to 7th Position any digit
IX-18
11 nov. 18
November 1918
…
Coded dates
11018 SGA code for 11 1918
8.6./8. KuK code for 06 08 1898
…

17. 1. Context
2. Project
- General presentation
- A tool dedicated to the series
- Process
3. New practices

18. CartoTXT works
from sets of
numerical reproductions
It is controled
by Authority lits

23. Jean-Luc ARNAUD
Senior researcher at the National Center for
Scientific Research – Aix-en-Provence
jlarnaud@mmsh.univ-aix.fr
http:// cartomundi.eu
Université d'Aix-Marseille, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme, Telemme,
CNRS