243

MAP KEEPERS’ SEMINAR AND WORKSHOP

A SEMINAR AND WORKSHOP for keepers of m a p was held at the National Library, Canberra, on the 12th and 13th April. This event should be of considerable significance to Australian Jibrarians, being the first of its kind to take place in this country. There were thirty participants from all over Australia, excepting Northern Territory, including librarians, cartographers, geographers, and a repre- sentative each from the Army, National Mapping and the Crown Lands and Survey Department of Victoria.

The most significant result of the meeting was the creation of the Australian Map Curators Circle. The aims of this body are to promote the development of map collections and their effective exploitation, to improve the skills and status of persons working with map collections, and to promote communication betwecn producers, users and curators of maps.

Various problem areas were identified and two subcommittees were set up to deal with them. The subcommittee on Boggs and Lewis’ has the task of revising, expanding and updating the classification schedules of the B o g s and Lewis system. The subcommittee on map acquisition will be concerned with the idcnti- fication and listing of map sources, it will continue the work of Mrs P. A. G . Alonso and Mrs N. Rauchlo, who will shortly complete a preliminary edition of Australian sources.

This first meeting was a great success from all points of view and it is hoped to follow it ug by a second to be held at Sydney in the summer of 1973-74.

DOROTHY F. PRESCOTT

Baillieu Library University oj Melbourne

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRAN.SPORTATION RESEARCH

The first International Conference on Transportation Rcsearch was held at Bruges, Belgium, in June 1973. It was cosponsored by the Transportation Research Forum of the US. and Canada, the College of Europe, the Council of Europe through the European Architectural Heritage Year, 1975, and the Com- mittec on New Systems and Technology, a part of the Highway Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering of the U.S.A.

The general theme of the conference was ‘Reaching for the eighties: changing transportation priorities’ and it was attended by approximately 400 persons from 20 countries. Papers and discussions ranged over both policy and research issues and referred to all modes, at all scales and from all points of view.

Following the plenary session there were six major symposia comprising 35 in- dividual sessions in which from three to six papers were presented. Briefly, the symposia and session themes were:

National policy issues: regulatory policy, pricing and investment strategies, environmental impact problems and national transportation planning.

I