Map Store Has Trouble Keeping Up With World : Geography: Cartographers grapple with unified Germany, the Soviet breakup and turmoil in Yugoslavia.

SANTA MONICA â€”  World events have taken their toll on the Map & Travel Center store in Santa Monica.

You could call it geographic obsolescence. Recently, it seems that as soon as new maps are ordered, they are outdated.

“We are at the mercy of what (the map-makers) have on hand,� said Sheldon Mars, who owns the store with his wife, Barbara. Cartographers have had to work overtime to keep up with the ever-changing world and political strife has kept them guessing.

Although most of their maps reflect the reunification of Germany and the breakup of the Soviet Union, cartographers have had to take a wait-and-see attitude toward Yugoslavia, which is still represented as a single entity on most maps.

The Marses have had their hands full trying to keep the store stocked with maps that reflect the world as it is today. “But the funny thing,� Sheldon Mars said, “is that most people want the old maps anyway. They think they might be valuable some day.�

Even so, the Marses have decided to get rid of the old and bring in the new, which could be a boon to schools that want to use materials as teaching tools. They plan to give away 50 maps and 50 globes that are slightly damaged or outdated.

Fortunately for the store’s owners, they don’t specialize in world maps. The Marses bought the store four years ago and expanded it to make it a one-stop travel center that also sells camping equipment, atlases, travel books, travel videos, wall maps and street maps.

The store is a mix of quirky and practical geographical products. Greeting customers at the door is a figure with a globe for a head and coat of many maps.

“People come in and spend an average of about an hour,� Barbara Mars said. “I think they’re really surprised with how much stuff we have in here. It’s a little like being in a museum.�

There are inflatable globes, magnetic globes, black, white and blue Lucite globes, environmental awareness globes, endangered species globes, terrarium globes, hug-a-globes, globes with neon bases, dinosaur inflatable globes, and globes that double as soccer balls, lamps, pencil sharpeners, Frisbees, earrings and wallets.

And maps come in all varieties as well: fishing maps, hiking and biking maps, desert maps, maps that are clocks, handmade wood puzzle maps, lunch-bag maps, map jackets and T-shirts, star maps (of both the human and astronomy variety), backpack maps, bathtub puzzle maps, and maps with views of Earth from space and vice versa.

“We like it as a place where families can come and look around and not have to buy anything,� Barbara Mars said. “This is really a map-lovers’ paradise.�