Digital Collections of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics, ELTE Faculty of Informatics – a Virtual “Treasury” of Rare Gems

Abstract

The Map Collection of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics at the Faculty of Informatics, Eötvös Loránd University celebrated its 70th anniversary last year. The library, established in 1954 by Dr. László Irmédi-Molnár, was originally founded to provide the department’s lecturers and students with the necessary literature and cartographic materials.

Over the past 70 years, the structure, function, and composition of the library have undergone many changes. This paper gives a brief overview of this development, up until the establishment of the Archive in 2023, which preserves the oldest items of our collection. The Archive houses old maps, atlases, and numerous other rare instruments.

Significant items are preserved from the categories of globes, relief models, and educational tools. Beyond presenting the historical development of this collection, the article introduces readers to the fate and current role of unique items preserved in its sub-collections.

In their original form, our collections are difficult to use and only partially capable of fulfilling the functions required by the modern era. To support education and research, the materials needed to be digitized. This was achieved in the past decade through three separate development projects: the creation of the Virtual Globes Museum (VGM), the Virtual Museum of Relief Models (VMRM), and the Collection of Instruments (Szertár).

The VGM is internationally recognized, not only because of the number of globes it presents but also due to the professional quality of their accompanying descriptions. The VMRM is also a virtual collection, showcasing valuable, often unique relief models found in the Institute’s Archive, published as three-dimensional virtual models. The Collection of Instruments currently features three educational tools, each presented with detailed usage instructions and high-resolution scanned images. Using modern web technologies, these have been renewed and made “interactive.”

The items of the institutional collection serve as excellent tools for education and public outreach. Their virtual representation is more than just a way of prolonging the life of the original objects. Without this process, the items would simply fall into oblivion, while digitization also plays an important role in preserving our cartographic heritage. This paper discusses in detail the methodology behind the creation of the virtual collections, their current accessibility, and their role in university and public education as well as in research.