Cartography is much more than just map-making, however. It is also an academic discipline in its own right. It has its own professional associations (regional, national and international), journals, conferences, educational programs and its own identity. As a discipline, it embraces not only cartographers who make maps, but also cartographers who teach about maps and cartographers who do research on maps. Once seen as the products of a relatively straightforward practical exercise, maps are now viewed as complex intellectual images offering a rich potential for scientific investigation. Whether the thrust of the research is cognitive, mathematical, historical, perceptual or technological, cartographers are exploiting this potential to the fullest.