Page 221 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes nations, or area of the world or state-district, city, etc. They usually have base maps
upon which topographical or thematic information is published. They are produced
to give an overview of the national environment.

Notes They cover different features, viz., physical, industrial, socio-economic, historical,
economical demographic, etc. They require careful planning and years of effort to compile
accurate and reliable maps.

Example: The National Atlas of United States of America. Washington: U.S. Geological
Survey, 1970.
It contains 765 maps, index of 41,000 entries, and sources of information referred,
and used for the special subject maps. It is designed to be of practical use to decision
makers in Government and business, planners, research scholars, etc.
An Atlas of India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990. (with 212 maps)

It claims to be the most comprehensive atlas of India in which each state and union
territory has nine maps. All India maps cover physical, political, climate, soil, power
projects, religious distribution, literacy area, and population. There are five tables
one each on: rainfall, population, crop production, mineral production, and industrial
location.
National Atlas of India. Calcutta: National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation,
1980. 2 Vol.

This is the most comprehensive atlas of India and contains in all 264 plates. In the
first volume, there are 109 plates depicting, administrative, physical, forest types,
parliamentary constituencies, and physiographic divisions. There are insets for major
cities of the country such as Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Trivandrum, etc.
The plates in the second volume begin from No. 110 and cover, among other topics,
population, transport and tourism, posts and telecommunication, industry, foods
crops, handicrafts, languages, and health.
National Atlas of India. Calcutta: National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation, 1984.
A massive work, it took 25 years in the making (in 8 large loose leaf volumes):
1. General and political maps, 2. Physical and geomorphological, 3. Climatic and
biogeographical, 4. Population and transport, 5. Land use and industrial region,
6. Agricultural and economic, 7. Social and regional, 8. Historical and cultural.
(iii) Local Maps and Atlases: To portray the physical features and thematic specifications
each country produces in addition to state or country maps, atlases and local maps.

Given below are some examples of such local atlases published by the different
State Governments of India.
Eicher City Map: Delhi, include Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida. New Delhi: Eicher-
Good Earth, 1996.
The map in the format of A to Z books available for major cities of the world has a
brief historical background of the city. Spread over 175 pages each, background of
the city and the areas neighbouring Delhi have been shown (where the border of
Delhi merges with part of the cities, falling in the National Capital Region). Separate
alphabetical indexes are provided for each district separately and are, within each

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