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| | History and Background (Geography and Map Reading Room, Library of Congress) |
 | | Because surveying and mapping are significant U.S. government functions and responsibilities, approximately 60 percent of the maps and 20 percent of the atlases are received from offical sources. |
 | | The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress provides cartographic and geographic information for all parts of the world to the Congress, Federal agencies, state and local governments, the scholarly community, and to the general public. |
 | | It is the largest and most comprehensive cartographic collection in the world, numbering over 4.6 million maps, including 60,000 atlases, 6,000 reference works, numerous globes and three-dimensional plastic relief models, and a large number of cartographic materials in other formats, including electronic. |
| www.loc.gov /rr/geogmap/gmhist.html (863 words) |
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