. . . before you buy because you might already own what is being auctioned off. This was the case with Library and Archives Canada with regards to Forlani’s map of 1562 that makes mention of Canada for the first time (see previous entry from May of this year). The Globe and Mail reports that Library and Archives Canada, currently working on getting funding for a new information management system, almost purchased Forlani’s map vefore realizing that it already owned a copy. Strangely, this map hadn’t been regulated to some dusty corner but had been acquired in 1981 and exhibited as one of the collection’s prize pieces. Ingrid Parent, Library and Archives Canada’s assistant deputy minister “points out that archives often have more than one edition of a rare book or map, and adds that it was difficult for the cartography division to tell from the auction house’s on-line description just how similar it was to the one at LAC.” In fact, Library and Archives Canada already had two copies of the map. The story briefly touches on the interesting shift that is occurring from the all-knowing curator to a more democratized and open approach to tracking what is in the collection.

By way of MapHist