Collecting to the Core-Critical Cartography Mark Bidney University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, [email protected]

Against the Grain Volume 25 | Issue 3 Article 39 June 2013 Collecting to the Core-Critical Cartography Mark Bidney University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, [email protected] Ann Doherty CHOICE/ACRL, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Bidney, Mark and Doherty, Ann (2013) "Collecting to the Core-Critical Cartography," Against the Grain: Vol. 25: Iss. 3, Article 39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.6546 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Collecting to the Core — Critical Cartography by Marcy Bidney (Curator, American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Geography Editor, Resources for College Libraries) <[email protected]> Column Editor: Anne Doherty (Resources for College Libraries Project Editor, CHOICE/ACRL) <[email protected]> Column Editor’s Note: The “Collecting A discussion of cartographic analysis, or you have knowledge about your surroundings, to the Core” column highlights monographic “critical cartography,” as it is known within you have the power to represent and possibly works that are essential to the academic li- the academic discipline, must begin with Ar- manipulate the space. Historically, mapmak- brary within a particular discipline, inspired thur Robinson. A longtime member of the ing was once concentrated in the dominant, by the Resources for College Libraries bib- Department of Geography at the University Western, state-based world powers — England, liography (online at http://www.rclweb.net). of Wisconsin-Madison, Robinson played a France, Germany, and the United States. It In each essay, subject specialists introduce leading role in the development of cartography was also embedded in major cartographic and explain the classic titles and topics that as a field of study. In his early career, he served companies like Rand McNally, the Nation- continue to remain relevant to the undergrad- as director of the map division for the Office of al Geographic Society, and even major oil uate curriculum and library collection. Dis- Strategic Services during the Second World companies. In 1991, Mark Monmonier au- ciplinary trends may shift, but some classics War. This work led him to argue for the for- thored How to Lie with Maps, the first book to never go out of style. — AD mulation of standards for map design, which introduce critical map-reading skills to a wider could prevent the often erroneous usage of and audience.2 Written in a less formal and more representations in maps. In 1976 he cowrote popular tone, How to Lie with Maps effectively aps represent human understanding with Barbara Bartz Petchenik The Nature of explains how maps can distort reality and “tell of the physical world and serve Maps, in which he discusses at length “some lies.” As Monmonier writes in the intro- as historical records of how those of the human cognitive characteristics that duction, “I want to make readers aware that M maps…are also subject to distortions arising representations and perceptions have changed lead to an understanding of mapping as one of over time. Also, people love maps, as I witness man’s basic forms of knowing and communi- from ignorance, greed, ideological blindness, every day when users access the American cating.”1 Until the late 1960s and early 1970s, or malice.” Despite being written for a broad Geographical Society Library and directly the study of cartography dealt primarily with audience, How to Lie with Maps quickly be- experience the geography, art, history, and the production and design of maps, came, and continues beauty presented on a single 24x36 piece of with very little research on users’ to be, an essential read paper. Maps can elicit incredibly evocative re- consumption and perceptions for undergraduate stu- sponses from users, who find themselves lost in of maps. Robinson quotes a dents of cartography the rich images and information. When I point Czech author as saying, in and geography because out some critiques of the information as it is a discussion on the state Monmonier clearly il- represented — that one country appears larger of current cartographic lustrates how maps can than another when in reality it isn’t, or that the thought, “in other words, be used for political color red is meant to evoke a certain emotion, the map user is ex- propaganda and cor- the user’s relationship with the map shifts, as pected to submit, more porate advertising, and one begins to think about how the information or less, to the cartog- how even the simple is presented, rather than approaching the map rapher’s conditions.” use of color can impact as a piece of art or a historical document. It This theory that the a map’s meaning. How is problematic when individuals view maps cartographer creates a to Lie with Maps was uncritically, allowing the data and visual rep- product to be accept- published in a second resentations provided to serve as fact, when ed without question edition in 1996 with they often are not the whole truth. Since the is one that Robinson the addition of two new mid-1990s there has been dramatic growth in and Petchenik’s work chapters, one of which the popularity of maps and other cartographic rebuffs, in part by coining addresses the growing use visualizations, fostered by Web technology the term “map percipient.” and manipulation of maps developments, cheaper computing systems, A map percipient is a viewer to whom the map using computers and multimedia tools. and more accessible software programs. As will convey information. The emergence of Shortly after the publication of How to Lie technology has expanded, so has the ability for this term and its definition was radical in that with Maps, Denis Wood expanded on Mon- anyone with access to information and map- it acknowledged that the map percipient played monier’s critical arguments in The Power of making tools to develop maps, increasing the a role in the interpretation of a map and could Maps, a highly theoretical and philosophical prevalence of maps in our everyday lives — on question the information presented. The most academic monograph.3 Wood radically television during the election cycle, in Web- important chapters in this book discuss how argues that maps communicate nothingness based infographics, through the widespread maps function as a communication system and as much as something real. In other words, adoption of map apps on smartphones, and compare the author-reader relationship with what they don’t show (by omission) is as il- in the academic research of scholars in fields that of the cartographer-percipient, making an lustrative as what they do show. He proposes ranging from religious studies to biology — argument that there are essential differences that maps are not simply pretty pictures, but and additionally increasing the need for critical between these communication systems and powerful tools which represent the cartog- map-reading skills. Given this growth, it is emphasizing how maps can, and should, be rapher’s construction of information. The timely to discuss foundational monographs that questioned by users. Power of Maps depicts how maps are used question the content and meanings embedded Following the publication of The Nature of as tools that serve the interests of those who in cartographic representations. This essay Maps, the scholarly debate around maps’ de- produce them, be it an individual cartogra- focuses on four works that embrace a critical signs, values, and representations grew and the pher, a corporation, or a government or other approach to reading maps: Arthur Robinson’s field of critical cartography was cemented as a social or political entity. The emphasis that The Nature of Maps, Mark Monmonier’s subdiscipline. Critical cartography addresses maps work by serving interests highlights How to Lie with Maps, Denis Wood’s The the power hierarchies and biases inherent in Wood’s thesis regarding the inherent bias of Power of Maps, and Alan MacEachren’s visual representations and embraces the idea these visual tools. Wood recently revisited How Maps Work. that geographic knowledge equals power; if continued on page 79 78 Against the Grain / June 2013 <http://www.against-the-grain.com> old, this book is every bit as relevant today as Collecting to the Core at its first publication. Are you working on a from page 78 Each of these books represents a founda- Replacement Project? tional work in the field of critical cartography this topic in his 2010 work Rethinking the and helps highlight the evolution of map anal- 4 Power of Maps. ysis. They all belong in the core collection of Let Busca, Inc. be your one In 1995, Alan MacEachren wrote How any academic library supporting programs in source for handling all the details Maps Work: Representation, Visualization, geography and any other discipline that relies and Design.5 How Maps Work is the most on maps and other geographic visualization from searching to delivery and comprehensive of the monographs discussed in models to represent data in teaching and re- invoicing. this essay, and a book which Monmonier calls search. a tour de force for academic cartography. In We can supply current editions over 500 pages, MacEachren presents a deep or out of print copies, paperback cognitive-semiotic discussion of cartography, when hardback is o.p., foreign proving that to fully understand maps and how Endnotes they work individuals need to know the many 1. Robinson, Arthur H., and Barbara editions or multimedia. We can divergent ways in which maps can represent Bartz Petchenik. The Nature of Maps. even supply an ebook version of Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, information.

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