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CARTOGRAPHIC
USERS ADVISORY COUNCIL (CUAC) 2001 MEETING MINUTES
April 17-18, 2001
LC G&M
Washington, D. C.
CUAC
representatives:
Janet Collins, Western Washington University (WAML)
Mike Furlough, University of Virginia (MAGERT)
Donna Koepp, University of Kansas (GODORT)
Clara McLeod, Washington University (GIS)
Bruce Obenhaus, Virginia Tech (SLA G&M)
Celia Pratt, University of North Carolina (SLA G&M) 0
Dan Seldin, Indiana University (NACIS)
Richard Spohn, University of Cincinnati (GIS)
Paul Stout, Ball State University (NACIS)
Christopher JJ Thiry, Colorado School of Mines (WAML)
Mark Thomas, Duke University (MAGERT)
Agency Presenters:
Robin Haun-Mohamed (GPO)
Tad Downing (GPO)
Rea Mueller (USGS)
John Hebert (LC G&M)
Jim Lusby (NIMA)
Tim Trainor (Census)
Roger Payne (US BGN)
Nancy Haack (NPS)
Christine Clarke (NRCS)
Doug Vandegraft (F&WS)
Attendees
Vi Moorhead (LC Cataloging)
Chip Woodward (LC Cataloging)
Wilford Daniels (LC Cataloging)
Patricia Banks (NOAA)
Sharon Kemp (NOAA)
Presentations:
CUAC Members
- Copyright
and Free Access Issues- Mark Thomas
- CRADAS and
Free Access- Janet Collins
- Preservation
and Public Access- Donna Koepp
- GIS in
Libraries - Mike Furlough
- Summary-
Christopher Thiry
Agencies
- Government
Printing Office- Robin Huan-Mohamed, Tad Downing
- Geological
Survey- Rea Mueller
- Library of
Congress Geography and Map Division- John Hebert
- National
Imagery and Mapping Agency- Jim Lusby
- Census
Bureau- Tim Trainor
- Board of
Geographic Names- Roger Payne
- National
Park Service- Nancy Haack
- National
Resources Conservation Services- Christine Clarke
- Fish and
Wildlife Service- Doug Vandegraft
COPYRIGHT
AND FREE ACCESS ISSUES
Mark Thomas
Copyright
The United States
has a long tradition of government-funded basic research to provide the
infrastructure needed for an informed citizenry and to provide the building
blocks for academic and private research. It also has a tradition of
copyright-free government publications, based on the belief that the
property rights of government information resides with the people as a
whole. This is something that sets this country apart from
others—it’s a tradition of which we should be proud and should
try to preserve.
Free
Access
Public money has paid for the collection and compilation of the
information. A corollary to this is the implication that government
agencies have the obligation to provide some sort of results or output to
the public who funded it: giving the deliverables to the sponsors, as it
were. Dissemination is just the final step; free access should be funded at
this point as an integral portion of the government research process.
The
concept of depository libraries—the idea that government information
should be deposited in repositories for the use of the public—goes
back to the early 19th century. By the late 1850s, the feature
of congressional designation of depositories in districts or states had
developed. The Printing Act of 1895 moved the Superintendent of Documents
to the Government Printing Office (GPO) and ushered in the modern era of
depositories. Title 44, chapters 19 and 13, of the United States Code
requires agencies to provide material to the public through the Federal
Depository Library Program (FDLP).
Benefits
to the Agency
Freely available data, whether tangible products distributed through
libraries or material provided free on the Internet, is good publicity for
the agency. In many cases, such as with topographic maps or nautical
charts, the library acts as a "showroom," since librarians
frequently tell patrons how to purchase the products for themselves. Best
selling commercial books are held by public libraries, often in multiple
volumes, but this doesn’t prevent them from becoming best sellers.
For convenience or to have more control, many users always prefer to
acquire material directly for themselves.
Even in
cases, such as with many electronic products, where the a government agency
disseminates material for free, the open access model has benefits for the
agency. Besides advertising specific products, it "advertises"
the agency; good publicity can never hurt when it’s time for funding
to be renewed. Familiarizing users with the products and services of the
agency will build and expand the user base for that agency’s services
and info.
The
Census Bureau has sold, for instance, CDs of 1990 Census data. Nonetheless,
these were also available for free to libraries through the Federal
Depository Library Program (FDLP). They eventually, with the advent of the
World Wide Web, put this material on the Internet. This is a good model for
all agencies.
For all
the reasons listed above, benefiting the general public and the issuing
agency alike, we urge the federal producers of maps and geospatial data to
maintain this nation’s longstanding tradition of free access to
government-funded information.
USEFUL
REFERENCES
Government Information
American Library Association (ALA).
Government Documents Round Table (GODORT). Principles on Government
Information
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/prin_GODORT.html
National
Commission on Library and Information Science (NCLIS).NCLIS Principles
of Public Information
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/prin_nclis.html
Federal
Depository Library Program
ALA GODORT.The Federal depository Library Program (fact sheet) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/9704fact.html
ALA Washington Office.
Federal Depository Library Program Fact Sheet
http://www.ala.org/washoff/fdlpbackground.html
United States Code. Title 44.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong013.html
United
States Government Printing Office (GPO)
Snapshots of the Federal Depository Library Program (historical
overview)
http://ww1.access.gpo.gov/gpoaccess/fdlp/history/snapshot.html
CRADAS
AND FREE ACCESS
Janet
Collins
- A trend with
your agency?
- How do you
see it changing what you do within your agency?
- What are the
potential impacts to the depository program?
- Will we
still have free access to the information through the depository program?
For how long? In what format?
- Will the
information be copyrighted? Potential costs?
- How do we
respond to the public that questions taxpayer-based information being
copyrighted?
- Can we work
together to assure free access to government information, ongoing
participation in the depository program, and benefit everyone?
PPA
FOR CARTOGRAPHIC AND SPATIAL ELECTRONIC DATA
Donna Koepp
- What is your
agency doing to archive your products? Will these archives be public
and freely available?
- Are snap
shots at regular intervals being taken of products that are
continually being updated in an electronic environment?
- If some of
your agencies products are being produced cooperatively—either
with another federal agency or with a commercial sector partner
(CRADA) are these products being archived in a way that they will
continue to be freely accessible to the public?
- Have you
considered, when negotiating a CRADA, fitting into the agreement
enough copies of your product to fulfill the need of the GPO
depository library program?
- The
Cartographic/GIS library community is an excellent way to advertise
the availability of your products and how they can be used. Is there
any way you can think of that we might assist you in meeting your
goals or mission?
GIS
IN LIBRARIES
Mike Furlough
Constituencies
- Not just the
academic users
- State and
local government users
- General
public
Information
Needs
- Basic
geographic information
- Raw data
- Assistance
in converting data to information
Models
of service
- Data
provider
- Assistance
in interpretation and use of data
- No single
model works for all libraries
- Campus-wide
GIS support may come from other units, but frequently doesn't
- Statewide
clearinghouses are not as well positioned to support public data users
Levels
of expertise
- Within
libraries: often home-grown or self-trained
- Within
public: largely novices
- Within
researchers: increasingly more novices
Metadata
and Cataloging
- A struggle:
- How to best
catalog resources (MARC compliance)?
- How to best
make use of available FGDC style metadata?
- Does the
"clearinghouse" model work for all concerned?
- Who is
getting left out?
- Encourage
the production and distribution of metadata in standard forms
- Consider the
distribution of metadata in easier to use forms for general public
Industry
- Concern over
industry-driven standards in format and software
- Support the
development of open-standards
- Copyrights
should belong to the public wherever it is possible
Cautions
- Spatial data
tends to have wider uses than that for which it was orginally created.
- We cannot
always envision how data products will/should be used.
- Do not
mistake delivery of geographic information for delivery of spatial
data
Web-mapping
is not the same as spatial analysis.
- GIS software
industry is focused on government and business, not on education and
the public.
SUMMARY
Christopher Thiry
This is
a summary of the responses CUAC received from the questions asked last year
to us by Robin Haun-Mohamed. The "X" signifies the number of
times the response was given. In general, the responses came from academic
libraries with large map collections.
Most
mentioned concerns:
- Lack of
printing facilities.
- High costs
plotters or oversized printers.
- Purchase of,
maintenance of, and lack of expertise in computer software and
hardware.
- Archiving
of, or lack thereof, data.
- Difficulty
in finding many maps on the web.
Questions:
- What is the
impact on libraries when mapping is online?
- Can't support
paper printing because of cost. X13
- Need for
better equipment and software. X6
- Limited
expertise in software and hardware. X4
- Complexity
of data and software ties up computers. X4
- Archiving
of maps? X3
- Format
stability? Will we be able to ready CD-ROMs 20 years from now? X2
- Difficult
to find on-line. X2
- Library may
be by-passed. X2
- Requires
less time to file and maintenance. X2
- Increased
map use in general.
- Lose of
ability to become aware of new maps.
- Easier to
keep track of.
- Finding on-line
often takes more time than finding in paper.
- Raises
expectations of what is available on-line.
- Many
patrons only interested in digital products and forget/don’t
know about printed maps.
- Patrons not
skilled in using them.
- Cannot use.
- Libraries
of lesser means cannot keep up.
- Move
collection from ownership to access.
- More
up-to-date maps.
- Older items
(15’ topos) not on-line.
- Serious
problem. Getting worse.
- Plotters/printers
do not have acid-free paper or permanent ink.
- How do we use
online spatial/cartographic data?
- Direct
patron to web site—organize them on our web site. X4
- Depends on
request. X3
- Don’t.
X2
- Download as
needed. X2
- Used to
supplement collection. X2
- Many thesis
have maps in them. X2
- Not very
useful to most patrons.
- Do catalog
relevant web sites.
- Used at all
levels.
- Public want
very specialized data.
- Students
want Arc-formatted data.
- Make maps
to display topical information.
- Do we
download things, save things, archive them, or do we go back to the
original source material each time?
- Go to
source each time, but problems with broken links. X6
- Save if
items cover own region. X4
- Depends. X2
- Save
sometimes if patrons use it multiple times. X2
- Download
especially if large file or popular site.
- Usually
don’t.
- Do we handle
electronic map needs in the library or do we send our users someplace
else?
- Do not send
elsewhere because we have expertise. X10
- Both. X6
- Help when
possible, but limited expertise. X6
- Send to GIS
lab. X3
- Let them
check out CDs. X3
- They must
go elsewhere because there is no place to print. X3
- Don’t
have GIS lab on campus.
- Patrons
want to take data away.
- Do we use
the airport charts, obstruction charts, approach charts, etc.?
- Little use.
X8
- Some use.
X8
- Yes.
- Haven’t
received any in years.
- Use VFR
Terminal charts.
- What will be
the impact if the USGS Open File Reports go online only?
- No
consistent format. X6
- Question of
archiving. X6
- Difficult
to locate—not all in one place. X5
- Better than
fiche. X4
- Both fiche
and digital difficult to print large maps. X3
- No
comprehensive index of online OFRs (in any format). X3
- More use?
X2
- Save space.
X2
- Requires
less time to file and maintenance. X2
- Need for
better equipment.
- Depends
what's in OFRs. Criteria has changed.
- Same
difficulty to use as fiche.
- Cannot
afford to start if charge.
GOVERNMENT
PRINTING OFFICE
Robin Haun-Mohamed
Tad Downing
Robin announced that this would probably be her last CUAC meeting, since
there had been reorganization and reassignments at GPO, and that with the
next meeting Tad Downing would officially take her place. At this meeting
Tad would be learning about CUAC and commenting where he could.
Since
Robin spoke to us last, GPO has experienced many changes. It was a very
chaotic summer due to proposed budget cuts by Congress. There was an
initial proposed cut by the House of 61%. The library community rallied
with a letter campaign, testifying to Congress, newspaper articles, and in
the end the GPO’s budget was cut by about 6%. Throughout the summer,
however, in this environment of uncertainty, the Library Program Service
moved very quickly on some initiatives that they were committed to
completing.
At the
Depository Library Council meeting in October 2000, GPO presented a
Superintendent of Documents directive (SOD 71) which sets policy for
dissemination and distribution of materials in the Federal Depository
Library Program (FDLP). Cartographic materials and their use were taken
into consideration when these criteria were decided upon. A list of essential
titles, which will continue to be published in paper, has also been
developed. (See Administrative Notes January 15, 2001).
There
have been many personnel changes at GPO. Sheila McGarr resigned in
September to become the Director of the National Education Library. Robin
has become the Chief of Depository Services. Tad is now wearing two hats:
Acting Chief of Depository Administration Branch and Head of Cataloging
Department. Coleen Davis is now heading the Depository Distribution Branch,
and Vicki Barber is on special detail to the Superintendent of
Document’s office.
Even
with the move to an electronic transition, LPS continues to distribute a
number of physical products. The numbers, however, continue to decrease. In
FY2000 there were 13,660 paper titles distributed or 22.3% of all FDLP
titles. This number includes USGS maps. Microfiche distribution was 14,572
titles, or 23.8% of total distribution. Online titles on GPO Access account
for 11,715 titles or 19.2% distributed. Online titles from other agency
websites account for 20,591 titles or 33.7% of FDLP titles distributed. The
CD-ROM or DVD titles totaled 617 or just 1% of the total.
The
total number of USGS map sheets distributed in FY2000 was 357,907. In 1999
it was 381,282. A title count was not available.
There is
a new FDLP administrative page which is now called the FDLP Desktop.
This contains cataloging and locator tools, as well as other useful tools
for libraries. For example, Depository Shipping Lists are now available
here in PDF format. These tools can be used for cla | 
