General Meeting - Annual Federal Agencies Presentations General Meeting FY 2007  FY 2006 FY 2005 FY 2004 FY 2003 FY 2002 FY 2001 FY 2000 FY 1999 FY 1998 CARTOGRAPHIC USERS ADVISORY COUNCIL (CUAC) 2008 MEETING MINUTES  1998 Thursday, May 7, 1998 The 1998 annual meeting of the Cartographic Users Advisory Council took place on the campus of the United States Geological Survey headquarters in Reston, Virginia. Rae Mueller of the Earth Science Information Center and Hedy Rossmeissl had graciously provided local arrangements. Between 10:00 and 11:30 in the morning, the Council was taken on a tour of the Survey's headquarters and of the USGS Printing Plant by William A. Radlinski, a retired associate director of the U.S. Geological Survey. After lunch, CUAC members were given a demonstration of the U.S. Geological Survey’s prototype National Atlas of the United States web site. Mr. Jay Donnelley of the Survey began the demonstration by examining the hard copy 1970 National Atlas. Approximately 16,000 copies of the atlas were produced. Of these, 60% were distributed to libraries; 26% to governments; 14% to the public. At $100.00 in 1970 dollars, the percentage sold to the general public was quite high. The atlas was a product of the 1960s and included only 1 plate on crime and no maps on the national health--topics of considerable interest today. Through focus groups, e-mail solicitations, and polls, the USGS has found that the citizens, businesses, and government want a National Atlas to provide a wider variety of information than presented in the atlas of 1970. First and foremost, they want graphic information illustrating quality of life issues such as health, crime, and the environment. They want to compare one region of the country to another to understand "How am I doing?" on such topics as distribution of federal tax dollars to the states or the quality of public schools. Also, there are "Geography for Life" standards issued by the National Council for Geographic Education that the USGS hopes to support through the new National Atlas program. The USGS plans to incorporate these desires and interests into the new National Atlas. The Survey will also take advantage of the great advances made in electronic access, information management, and delivery technologies that did not exist in 1970 in the new atlas’ maps. As an example of how the Survey has used new multi-media technology in information delivery, Donnelly presented a map of the United States showing the monthly change in vegetation which resembled a film strip of 12 scenes automatically moving from one month/season to another. At the present time, the Survey is working to make the National Atlas available on the web. The Atlas probably will not appear as a bound atlas and a CD-ROM version has not been entirely ruled out. The National Atlas as demonstrated is not merely a collection of maps. The Atlas has a high degree of interactivity that allows users to select and view various data layers and to build queries around place names and thematic data. Links to data and other data sites abound. In the 1960s the USGS cooperated with several governmental agencies to bring a variety of thematic data to the 1970 edition of the National Alas. This tradition will be continued in the new National Atlas, but with even more cooperating agencies, such as the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Mr. Donnelly also talked about the possibility soliciting data from the governments of Canada and Mexico in order to produce authoritative North American maps. Beyond the government, the Survey hopes to bring in private partners to help develop appropriate software to view the atlas and the marketing expertise in order to distribute the atlas as widely as possible--software development and marketing, two arenas where the federal government has lagged behind the private sector. What the Survey and other federal agencies want to concentrate on is their strength: accuracy and authoritative data. The first offering of National Atlas maps on the World Wide Web should be available by June 1. In order to properly read and build maps, you will need Netscape 4 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 with frames enabled. The site’s address is: http://www.usgs.gov/atlas. Another federal web site of note to map librarians that Jay Donnelly demonstrated is the "Recreation.gov" site: http://www.recreation.gov/. On the web site, one can build an inquiry by choosing a state, activities (hiking, winter sports, hunting, etc.) and, if necessary, selecting a federal agency. A visitor to the site can also select the recreation area itself (Crater Lake national Park, Helena National Forest, etc.) and find what recreation possibilities exist in that unit. Recreation.gov is linked to the National Atlas. National Atlas maps can be downloaded in the form of a "shape file" which can supported by a variety of GIS systems. Map professionals are encouraged to visit both the National Atlas site and the Recreation.gov site and to send comments through the web page. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hedy Rossmeissl Hedy began the USGS presentation with information on the DRGs and the DOQs. For the Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs), the scanned map data is complete for the entire country. Two areas will not be offered by the USGS- California will be handled by Tiel Data Center which is semi-state government and the Tennessee Valley Authority will make additional changes to the data for their region. The first generation DRG CD project will be abandoned because of software problems. The DRGs are available now on CD for $32.00 per 1 degree by 1 degree block and are accessible through the Global Land Information System (GLIS). USGS and GPO will work on a mechanism to get the data out to depository libraries. USGS is not planning to send data to state ESICs. Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and a few other states have posted their state's DRGs to the Web. The Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles are about a quarter to a third done for the U.S. Only limited areas are being completed in county CD format (North Carolina, Minnesota, and parts of Pennsylvania and Kentucky). USGS is looking at other formats and is committed to getting copy to GPO. All of U.S. will be done by 2001 or 2002. Data for areas that are complete are available from the EROS Data Center by the quarter quad for a base price plus $7.00 per file. These are large files: 55-60 Mb, uncompressed. The data is also available in compressed form, however, full resolution is needed for some applications. USGS has joined in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Microsoft to provide compressed DOQs on the Web in late June. Microsoft's TerraServer site (http://www.terraserver.com), will allow users to "find you house on the Internet". Users can download a piece of data in GIF format. USGS is collaborating with the Library of Congress to get historic topographic maps into their scanning project. There are over 300,000 USGS maps in the LC archives. USGS will be producing fewer folded maps in series. For folded geologic maps authorized after August 1996 in the "I" series (Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations) will be named Geologic Investigations Series. Any project approved before this date will have the old series name, so maps in the "I" series will have mixed series names for a few years. Most thematic maps will now be issued as "I" maps. As an aside, books will be mostly Professional Papers and fact sheets with fewer of other series. WRIs will continue to be issued. To update information on the 7.5 topographic maps, Hedy mentioned that the USGS will create new topographic maps digitally and keep digital flies, but continue to distribute in paper format. Revision is done by a raster process that allows USGS to revise more products. USGS hopes to step up revisions to 1,000+ by 1999. Cooperation with state agencies will drive revision program. High demand quadrangles will also be revised. USGS and Forest Service will cooperate to make revisions in Forest Service areas. There will be no jump into producing maps on demand at the present time. Update on map distribution. The brown catalogs will be phased out. Map lists will have longitude and latitude, plus order numbers, added. An independent printer produces those maps, which are distributed through GPO, and those printed by USGS are distributed via Denver. USGS will be working with GPO to put shipping lists on the Web. When claiming, claim USGS produced maps from USGS and GPO produced maps from GPO. Denver inventory will have each title barcoded. Reprint maps will have no date change, but will have barcode added. If maps undergo the photoinspection process and have minor corrections, there will be a date change. USGS is considering scanning historical aerial photography as a project in the near future. U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) Robin Haun-Mohamed Robin Haun-Mohamed, U.S. Government Printing Office, Library Program Service, was the first speaker at the Friday, May 8^th meeting. She began with an explanation of AskLPS on GPO Access, which pulls together several areas at GPO. It includes the inquiry form, Web Tech Notes, FAQs and News, FDLP contacts page, and the LPS Directory. There is passworded version and a non-passworded version. The non-passworded part will ask for an email address. It is primarily designed for use by the public, but professionals may use it also. The passworded part will default to our depository number and institution name, so that we will not have to fill in that information. Inquires on AskLPS@GPO.gov will be given priority over paper forms. Responses to questions should come within 10 business days to our inquiry. An immediate message will automatically be sent to acknowledge that an inquiry has been received. Web Tech Notes includes "whatever happened to…" updated weekly. FAQs and News consists of more news than FAQs. In the past this type information would have been put on GOVDOC-L, but now this information will be put on News. The FDLP Directory is the official GPO Library Program Service Directory. Robin recommends that we check Tech Notes and FAQs weekly before sending in an AskLPS inquiry to see if our question may have already been answered. The shipping list files are now electronic and timely. They are currently in WP6.0 format. They will eventually be in Word, which is in DBF format. There has been a Memorandum of Understanding signed with NIMA to bring material back into GPO for distribution. GPOs DDIS (Depository Distribution Information System) was not being matched at NIMA, so depository selections were not being kept up to date. This means that NIMA will send maps and other material to GPO for distribution with other depository material. This will go into effect later this month. In an update on the electronic transition, Robin reported that GPO is now ahead of the pack, or even with some agencies. On the administrative side a lot has been done to make the transition to a more electronic program. The shipping lists are now on the web. Item selections are now being made by selective depositories online. New passwords will be used for the next update and these passwords will not be given to any outside agencies. The item lister has been available for about a year. It is updated monthly. The Union List of items selected is updated on the Federal Bulletin Board monthly. There has been considerable activity in establishing partnerships. There are service and product partnerships. One service partnership is the Documents Data Miner (DDM). This service allows the users to create custom inquiries with a variety of GPO databases. For instance, list of holding libraries in a given state or region could be created for a particular GPO item number. The DDM is in partnership with Wichita State University. Examples of a product partnership can be found in the variety of Department of State documents mounted at the University of Illinois, Chicago Library and in the Department of Energy's Infobridge. Since a meeting following the Federal Depository Conference with Donna Koepp, Brent Allison, Hedy Rossmeissl, Rea Muller, and Barbara Poore, Robin has talked again with Hedy and Rea about a consortium to provide access to the DOQs. She expressed the importance of working on this to GPO. Permanent, long term access is a big concern to GPO. There are two states that are almost finished loading the DOQs on the Internet: Minnesota and North Carolina. Kentucky and Pennsylvania are working on it but are not sure they are going to continue in this format. There is a probable need for compression software, but not relying on propriety software, because GPO would have to pay the licensing fee for that software. DOE Infobridge, a product partnership that will make Department of Energy reports available on the Internet will soon be in place. GPO picked up the cost of building of the bridge, which is the actual distribution mechanism. Any agreement of this kind will have to go through the Congressional Joint Committee on Printing or the Oversite Committee for approval. Robin reported that the Digital map of the World (V Map level 0) from NIMA will be in the depository library program. Robin sent a request to Jim Lusby again recently for a status report on this product. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2020 CD-ROM will be in the program also, but LPS has not received this yet. Robin distributed new Recommended Specifications for Public Access Work Stations in Federal Depository Libraries for 1998. There is a May 15 deadline for getting our comments back. This is also on the Web. NOAA has moved to print-on-demand distribution only. In the past, 200-300 charts a year were distributed. They are going to update more often and this will result in about 6000 charts a year. Do we really want to receive that many paper charts? NOAA is doing this under a CRADA. GPO wants to build into the CRADA the ability for depositories to contact NOAA for charts on demand, so that we don’t have to have 6000 charts a year. We could request on demand as often as we would need. We have until October to give GPO feedback on this issue. Robin asked us to consider what is best for our institution and what is best for the depository program. GPO's offering of government information products available via the Internet through its Pathways Services "Browse Electronic Titles" was discussed (http://www.acccess.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/btitles.html). URLs on this service are updated weekly. There are 19 pages now, and it is much faster than it used to be. There are about 3000+ titles. Agencies don’t always let GPO know when things change. Internet resources are being worked on by two fulltime people. There are more fugitives in electronic resources than in paper. Part of the problem is changing URLs or things that disappear or appear without the approval process. If we have an electronic product, can we get rid of physical product? This issue is going to general counsel. If we are getting something in physical format, it will continue in physical format for the moment, even if the information is available on the Internet. This is according to the recommendation of the Depository Library Council. The Serial Set will continue coming in paper through the 104^th Congress. After that, except for Regional depository libraries, it will come in fiche. Regionals, posterity libraries, etc. will still get the Serial Set in paper. It will continue in fiche for others. Fiche still costs the same as it did 20 years ago. Robin then fielded questions from the Council. Richard Spohn asked why more delicate paper being used for CIA maps? Robin was not aware of this, but will check on it. There are paper specs that should be adhered to. Dan Seldin brought up the subject of NOAA maps and their program of electrostatic copies of nautical charts on demand. Aeronautical charts are not being considered for on-demand printing at this time. Libraries could set up a standing order with NOAA, perhaps under GPO auspices but administered by NOAA. Robin expressed her concern about how GPO would catalog the charts. Another concern was about turn around time for on-demand NOAA nautical charts. Fred Anderson might have more information on this later this afternoon. NOAA wants to do the right thing by depository libraries and is putting a lot of effort into planning at this time. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is trying to establish a subscription service for their reports. U.S. Bureau of the Census Tim Trainor Census Bureau products are "changing dramatically" according to Timothy Trainor, Chief, Cartographic Operations Branch. He discussed development and dissemination of current and future products of the Bureau. Chief among these programs now underway is Census 2000. Some initial changes in Census geography have been instituted including doing away with the BNA (Block Numbering Areas) in favor of Census Tracts. Census Designated Places (CDP) will have no minimum population threshold and census blocks will have 4 digit codes with an estimate of 8-10 million blocks in 2000. One of the principal means of dissemination for both the decennial and 1997 economic censuses is DADS, the Data Access and Dissemination System, an electronic system, based on internet technologies to deliver the information to the public. DADS was first developed as a prototype in 1996 using a small dataset to test its architecture. Since then it has been updated substantially through suggestions from focus and user groups. DADS 1997 was the first to deal with geospatial data and included a geographic browser. Further advancements are proceeding and datasets will not be incorporated into DADS unless accompanied by metadata. It will be the main data delivery vehicle for Census 2000 data to the public. Tim envisions a three tiered system. Tier one presenting basic summary data will be free. Tier two will consist of predefined data tables and will probably be fee based. Tier three will involve massive amounts of processing and cover the smallest level of data on a national level and will also probably be fee based. DADS will be the access mechanism for the 1997 Economic Survey and there will not be many printed reports. The American Community Survey (ACS) has been designed to replace the information collected on the long form that should have its last appearance in 2000. The ACS is not a headcount and is not intended to replace the decennial census. When fully implemented in 2003, data collection for the entire country will be collected on an annual basis and compiled into annual and multiyear products. A prototype CD was completed in April including a mapping component. Mapping products including Tiger/Line will be available on both CD and DADS. Maps for block counties and government units will be available in MIM and PDF file formats and use color. Census maps will be accessed through CD Roms, and hard copies will be available on demand from various sources. Work is currently underway on an electronic 105^th Congressional District Atlas. It will be available on CD-Rom and will print on both color and black & white printers. The Bureau is currently working on making available on their web page, examples of the map products, however, the examples will not reflect everything that is produced or available. The Map Gallery site is accessible off of the Tiger Line page. Federal Geograhic Data Committee (FGDC) Barbara Poore The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is working to make the sharing of data easier through the establishment of clearinghouse nodes and the organization of metadata. Use of a clearinghouse helps advertise the quality of your datasets and can address issues of quality in the metadata. The reasons for not using Web indexes are that they are limited. They are not able to target specific searches, have limited support for concept searches and search engines don’t support fielded searching (e.g. date, coordinate, other numeric). And finally, many databases used are not accessible through the web and a clearinghouse would help make them accessible. Establishment of nodes makes data available locally and the assumption is that most requests for geographical data are of your local area. A clearinghouse node uses a Z39.50 protocol server. All federal agencies are required to document their data based on metadata standards. Implementation has been spotty with a better response from state and local agencies. There are 75 servers on the clearinghouse and the number is growing every day. Metadata forms the basic vocabulary for searching within the clearinghouse. It is possible to perform a fielded search. Metadata performs different roles including those of inventory, a catalog for search and retrieval with a format similar to MARC, and documentation. The metadata standard contains 300 data elements of which many are compound and others have their own value. One problem is that many believe it to be too complicated. As a result, there is a struggle with the user community who, on one hand believes it to be too complicated and on the other hand are saying "but we need this". Metadata standards have been taken up by the ISO (International Standards Organization) and there is committee draft in review now. It is expected that the FGDC standard will be adopted by the end of the year by ISO and will have even more widespread use than now. To have it be machine readable, it is necessary to standardize fields. SGML (standardized general markup language) is being used to enforce structure and help in presentation, while XML (eXtensible Markup Language) offers more flexibility in terms of programming and provides control over fields and tagging. Ms. Poore indicated that they would like to see a more active role by the Library community, especially Map Librarians on metadata issues. Reasons include our knowledge of cataloging; we know what our users want; and our focus on service. In addition, they would like to see some of the depository libraries become regional clearinghouse nodes with responsibilities of collecting information about local datasets and serving them to a more national audience or pointing users to national data. Gateways possibly could be located at GPO or USGS that would allow users to access the datasets we are holding. The benefit to federal agencies is that national agencies would have access to local datasets but would not have the cost of storing nationally. Clearinghouse Grants In order to continue to promote interest and participation in the regional approach to managing large collections of geospatial data, the FGDC continues it partnership-funding program. Awards have been given for four years and consist of three programs: the Cooperative Agreements Program, the Framework Demonstration Projects Program and the NSDI Benefits Program. The Cooperative Agreements Program supports development of clearinghouse nodes. Grants in the range of $40,000 fund projects "to create clearinghouses of geographic data linked to the Internet, to advance the NSDI through education, to develop, NSDI standards, and to help organize and strengthen state-wide or regional programs for geographic data sharing". Programs are directed at different audiences with the primary goals of having this metadata collected and distributed effectively and efficiently to users. Listings of current NSDI Clearinghouse Projects with libraries or universities can be found on FGDC webpage at the address: www.fgdc.gov/Cooperative_Partnerships/ includes the state, year of grant, organization involved and project contact. The Cooperative Agreements Program awards require some matching funding from the recipient. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) Jim Lusby After a demonstration of Microsoft’s Terra Server, CUAC reassembled in the conference room to hear James Lusby’s report about the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. NIMA’s mission is to provide timely, relevant, and accurate imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information in support of national security objectives. The core NIMA business is to perform imagery analysis and geospatial information production, to manage and task the collection operations, and to ensure dissemination of primary and secondary imagery, imagery products and geospatial information. Organizationally NIMA resides between and is comprised of elements, of both the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. There are thirteen different teams within NIMA and Mr. Lusby is part of the National and Civil Agencies Team. Mr. Lusby is working with Robin Haun-Mohamed at G.P.O. to improve distribution of NIMA map products. In May of 1998 the distribution center for nautical and aeronautical products in Philadelphia will close and the Defense Logistics Agency in Richmond, Virginia will become responsible for distribution. In the future it is likely that depository libraries will be re-surveyed for NIMA products and GPO will oversee the maintenance of library selection records and distribution to depositories. The Defense Logistics Agency will supply GPO with the needed numbers of products. There is a trend within NIMA to put more products into the depository program, including 1: 250,000 scale maps of various places around the world. The U.S. Geological Survey now offers for public sale, topographic maps of Vietnam. Current thinking is that the 1:250,000 mapping could also be sold by U.S.G.S., provided indexes/catalog entries are available too. NIMA like many other federal agencies are moving away from paper to electronic formats. As such, a decision has been made by the Board in Geographic Names and NIMA to discontinue printing the foreign gazetteers in paper. Microfiche will also be discontinued. Instead, names will be available through CD-ROM and the Internet. In answer to a question, Mr. Lusby said that even though 1:250,000-scale mapping will soon be available, the restrictions that applied to earlier quarter million scale series 1501 "JOGs" still hold, namely, the copying and circulation prohibition. National Park Service (NPS) Nancy Haack Nancy Haack, from the Division of Publications at the Harpers Ferry Center represented the NPS. The National Park Service has two service centers to assist the 375 parks across the country. The first is the Division of Publications at Harpers Ferry, WV and it produces visitor maps and maps current park information, roads, trails and other features. The NPS Technical Information Center in Denver (http://www.nps.gov/dsc/tic/) is responsible for planning, buildings, landscapes, and GIS activities. The NPS makes maps of all NPS parks and sites that include a visitor guide on the reverse side. The NPS Cartographic Resources URL is: www.nps.gov/carto The Harpers Ferry facility provides interpretative Media, information about the individual Parks, creates exhibits for the parks, outdoor exhibits, park films, and provides preservation of objects. Their facilities include a conservation laboratory. Preservation of historical objects includes things like George Washington’s uniform, historic paintings, equipment, and flags. The goal of historic preservation is to stabilize and preserve for proper interpretation. The web page contains additional information on their activities. In earlier times, there was not consistency in format, size, or content of the NPS site folders. A New York graphics designer and folks at the Harpers Ferry facility designed and developed Unigrid, to standardize graphics and production components. As a result maps have gone to a very high graphic look, and have come a great distance from the days of scribing and peel coats. Maps are done in a graphic program using Adobe Illustrator 6.0, resulting in colors and screens of a higher quality. They have experienced problems using Adobe Illustrator 7.0, so they plan to continue using 6.0. In the old days, their products were based on original maps, but now the NPS simply downloads DLG files and cleans up line work. They are able to portray shaded relief nicely using Adobe Illustrator. Eighty-five percent of the NPS visitor maps are digitized or are in process of being digitized and available through the website and are available to download in the original adobe format or pdf format. The remaining fifteen percent have not been scheduled for different reasons, including the case of the Channel Islands, a question of how best to portray them given how spread out they are and the diversity of island sizes. Converting to the digital format and posting on the website is happening at a rapid rate. The National Park System Map and Guide has been revised and the new version is available. The publication Index to the National Parks reflects NPS holdings based at the time of a particular Congress in session. Therefore, the index does not reflect changes that have taken place under a different Congress. Maps that are produced jointly by the USGS and NPS are determined by the NPS Washington Scientific Office, not the Harpers Ferry Unit. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Ocean Survey (NOS) Fred Anderson Fred Anderson of the National Ocean Survey’s Office of Aeronautical Charting and Cartography (AC&C) discussed the move of AC&C to the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Administrative and Service Center (TASC), the NOS Nautical Chart print on demand CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement), and AC&C’s direct distribution to depository libraries. AC&C move to DOT The National Ocean Survey wants to concentrate on coastal issues. Aeronautical Charting does not fit this focus. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) asked the Inspector Generals of the Departments of Commerce (of which NOAA is part), and Transportation to see where AC&C should go. The Inspector Generals recommended that AC&C should go to the FAA. It was decided that the FAA was not a good fit either because the FAA is a regulatory agency and AC&C is a service agency. TASC was a better location. The legislation is at OMB and will go to Congress at the end of the fiscal year. The move will take place on October 1, 1998 if Congress approves. One of the main advantages of TASC is that AC&C will retain the revenues from sales that now must be returned to the U.S. Treasury. This additional funding will allow the development of new products. Through agreement, AC&C will continue to print and distribute nautical charts through FY 1999. AC&C will implement its modernization plan that will allow for a fully digital production process from chart compilation to the generation of negatives for printing. By 2002, the four locations of AC&C will be co-located along Metro’s Green Line in College Park of Greenbelt. This new building will require 90,000 square feet of office space and 110,000 square feet of industrial space. This new building will include a government owned, contractor operated warehousing and distribution operation. TASC encourages expansion of business practices. This will allow AC&C to expand its customer base and product lines. AC&C will take over NIMA public sales. They envision a "National Navigation Information Center", where they would provide distribution of various government publications on navigation. NOS will continue to compile the nautical charts and AC&C will be a contractor to print and distribute the charts. Printer Demand CRADA Since AC&C will no longer be part of NOAA, they want to get out of the printing business. The plan is to give the raster files to a private third party who will reproduce them on a high-speed raster plotter. An overnight shipper will then send the charts to sales agents around the world. The prices will increase and the sales agents’ discounts may decrease. Through FY 1999 AC&C and the CRADA partner will compete in nautical chart sales. The partner will do a market survey during this year. Large vessels are required to have the latest charts. Recreational boaters and other small craft are not required to have the latest charts. This market survey will see what the demand for nautical charts is and a pricing structure. At the end of 1999, there will be an evaluation to determine where they are in the process. Richard Wilcox of NOAA is the project leader of the CRADA team. A team member, Barbara Grey, is working with Robin Hahn Mohamed of GPO to see if a plan to keep the nautical charts in the Depository Program. It is not certain that nautical charts produced by the CRADA partner are government publications. NOAA will continue to be legally responsible for the data in case of accident. AC&C wants to initiate direct distribution to Depository Libraries. For several years, NOS has wanted to take over the distribution to Depository Libraries. This will allow receipt before the charts effective date. AC&C is also willing to distribute NIMA charts since they are already responsible for public sales. Additional Items The new chart catalogs will not come out until December 1998 because AC&C cannot put the Department of Transportation logo on anything until Congress approves. A new product is a Nautical Chart User’s Guide, which will be in this summer’s GPO survey. Coast Pilots will be upgraded with color graphics. Paper aeronautical charts will continue for the foreseeable future. NIMA has stated that it will need paper charts through the year 2007. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (LC G&M) Ralph Ehrenberg The G & M Division acquired about 100,000 items last year, of which about 87,000 have been added to the collections. Many duplicates will need to be given away through the Summer Program, although there are only two participants this year. Last year’s acquisitions included many topographic maps from captured documents, especially 1930’s era topographic maps of primarily Eastern Europe and Asia. The Division has acquired many 1:200,000 Soviet topos covering Asia, Africa, and Soviet satellites, and has ordered 1:100,000 coverage of China. These are used heavily in the reading room, and ironically aren’t restricted like many of the large-scale AMS/DMA series. The division also received a donation of drawings of mid-nineteenth century Pacific Railroad Surveys done by Gustavus Sohan from a descendant of Mr. Sohan. Another project underway is to remove maps from copies of the American State Papers and the Serial Set, with plans to scan then in the future. The Geography & Map Division has already removed some 17,000 sheets from the Serial Set and placed them in flat files. Veterans Associations have been contacted as part of a solicitation program to acquire donations of World War II maps held by ex-military personnel. The Geography and Map Division as a collection of about 4500 CD ROM’s and is working to increase it. In the area of processing and cataloging, the Cataloging Unit is now fully staffed with 15 catalogers. Digital cartographic data is now being cataloged using USMARC. NIMA is converting its cataloging to MARC, and LC is working with them to help in sharing cataloging duties. Betsy Mangan is revising the Cartographic Materials Manual used for interpretation of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules II (AACR2). The main changes are in the area of digital cartographic data. The AACR2 Committee will be meeting at LC in September. The Division is using "adequate level" cataloging to process the backlog in the "single-sheet" or "title" collection, focusing currently on U.S. maps. The Heezen-Tharp collection of about 10,000 maps relating to plate tectonics is being processed with contract help. Maps removed from books and journals during the brittle book program are being transferred to the Division, about 6,000 maps so far. Many of these are late nineteenth and early twentieth century thematic (e.g. geologic) maps. They are relatively unique items, not normally found in Map Collections. Reference services were fully staffed again. There may have been a slight decline in walk-in use, but email questions have increased. GIS facilities, created within the last few years reside in the Reading Room. The facilities were funded by corporate donations and provide access to Freehand, Magellan, and Arc View. A reference technician has the duty to create maps for Congress and the Congressional Research Services (CRS). Contractors are assisting in setting up Arc View. The National Digital Library Program has the goal of making five million items available on the Internet. It went online last June 9 with 26 maps and during the first week received 70,000 hits. The site has averaged 30,000 hits a month since. This compares with 2,000 readers per year and 10,000 phone and written requests for information. There are nearly 1000 Panoramic Maps on the site. Five fulltime staff are focusing on scanning map projects relating to Americana and genealogy. Scanned maps are saved in three basic formats: huge TIFF files for archival purposes; much smaller GIF files for display on the screen; and compressed files utilizing MrSID, (Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database). MrSID reduces the large TIFF files down to about 5-7 Mb. This June, Lizard Tech will be giving away the MrSID viewer allowing users to download compressed images to their computer and view them, recreate the original TIFF files, or print them. (The Panoramic Maps are part of the public domain). The American Memory Project is targeting K-12 and future G&M scanning projects will include the City Ward Maps, National Park Service Maps and County Land Ownership Maps. A recent CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement) with the E.D.R. Sanborn Company will allow them to scan the several hundred thousand sheets of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps in the Division’s collections, along with the 250,000 in the company’s collections, and put these on the Internet over the next 10 years. Users will be able to print a screen view or order a full copy from Sanborn. LC will archive the database after scanning is completed. The first images will go online this summer. They have scanned about 1,900 so far. Two support groups actively helping the Division are the Philip Lee Philips Society, now publishing a newsletter and an Occasional Paper series, and the Center for Geographic Information, whose corporate members provide hardware, software, and technical assistance support to the Division. This technical support has included a workflow analysis that will allow the increase in scanning from 7 to 24 maps per day. back to top