--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 11:46:13 -0600
From: "Locke, Bill" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: Fwd: GPO FUNDING FOR FY 2001, IMPACT OF PROPOSD CUTS <fwd>
Sender: "Locke, Bill" <[log in to unmask]>

Folks,
        I can't resist responding regarding the funding of the GPO and
Depository Libraries.  For the record, I oversee a marginalized Map Library
(one 10-hr work-study student during the academic year).
        Paper maps are individually little more permanent than digital
products - they are subject to flood, fire and other catastrophes.  What
defines "permanence" is the number of people who hold them and their
commitment to collection maintenance.
        The cost of printing, shipping, archiving and inventorying the paper
maps is huge.  In the long run the costs of technology to disseminate
digital products can be traded off against the space and time saved in the
other steps - time alone will tell if the tradeoff is a fair one.
        The US Government and the USGS in particular have a checkered
history with both maps and technology - who can forget the metric series
topographic maps?  The USGS' stream gauging data is arguable the Web's best
data application, merging historical and near-real-time data in a spatial
context.  Yet you can't order a USGS product by credit card on-line (or at
least I haven't figured out how).  The National Atlas of the United States
(1970) - http://www-atlas.usgs.gov/ - is probably the best single reference
the USGS has ever produced, yet it has not been systematically updated and
provided digitally.  Imagine animations of annual or decadal data - it would
be a Killer Web App!  I would want to see a dependable track record and
short- and long-term plans for ensuring data availability before I voted for
short-term cost "savings" through layoffs in the GPO.  We don't even know
what an optimal format for digital products is - SDTS isn't user-friendly,
but GIF and JPEG have drawbacks in information transmission because of their
simplicity and compression.
        Perhaps the inevitability of the trend to digital maps is best
exemplified by my students, who buy and use private sector applications like
DeLorme's TopoUSA, and myself, who uses www.topozone.com , in preference to
paper topographic maps for a majority of applications.  Let's direct the
discussion towards how to make the evolution as painless as possible.

Bill Locke

William Locke; Professor, Geology       E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Department of Earth Sciences    Phone: (406) 994-6918
Montana State University        Fax: (406) 994-6923
Bozeman, MT  59717  USA Web: http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~ueswl/
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