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FINAL CUAC Annual Meeting ---- April 25-26, 2013 |
The Cartographic Users Advisory Council (CUAC) is an organization made up of representatives from six national and regional library organizations dedicated to cartographic interests: the Map and Geospatial Information Round Table (MAGIRT) and Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association; the Geoscience Information Society (GSIS); the Geography and Map Section of the Special Libraries Association (SLA); the North East Map Organization (NEMO); and the Western Association of Map Libraries (WAML). CUAC, and the various organizations it represents, work on behalf of public, academic, and special libraries as well as the commercial interests represented by the membership.
CUAC was formed to provide a unified effort to enhance the distribution and knowledge of the cartographic products of U.S. government agencies. The unique nature of cartographic materials requires special attention. CUAC endeavors to improve public access to these materials through a more thorough understanding of agency products and publishing policies, and to heighten agencies’ awareness of the value of their cartographic products to the public. CUAC encourages agencies to include their published cartographic materials in the Depository Library program and to provide specific indexes and acquisition tools for public use.
CUAC functions in an advocacy capacity as a liaison between the U.S. agencies producing cartographic information and CUAC's constituency. CUAC's representatives meet in Washington, D.C. annually with most of these agencies. Each representative establishes and reaffirms contact with one or more agencies. These contacts are continued throughout the year by phone and mail. Questions are directed to CUAC from each organization as a group or individually and responses and reports are made back to each organization formally and through MAPS-L.
Initial encouragement to form CUAC came from U.S. Geological Survey, the Defense Mapping Agency, and the Government Printing Office, which recognized the benefits of unified representation. Other agencies such as Bureau of Land Management, NOAA/National Ocean Service, State Department, Forest Service, Census Bureau, Library of Congress, and CIA have been contacted and usually provide a status report on the progress being made toward more complete participation in the depository program. Federal agencies have no direct obligation to work with CUAC, but most do so eagerly and accept CUAC as an extension of their public constituency.
CUAC is an independent body with its own Constitution, which is responsible to its constituency. Representatives to CUAC are appointed for three-year terms.
Linda Newman 10/92
Revised: Donna Koepp 10/01
Linda Zellmer 04/05
Revisions 01/10