----------------------------Original message----------------------------
April;
The International Map Trade Association's last convention was in Denver last
month, and we had two workshops with the USGS people. While the workshops
were primarily aimed at the USGS dealers, some information arose that is
pertinent to your questions.
Supposedly the entire US has been surveyed at 1:24,000 and a preliminary map
prepared - thus the 15-minute quad series was discontinued and all 15' stock
destroyed. As far as I know, not all sheets have actually been printed, but
I would guess that ozalid copies of the not-yet-printed sheets are
available. All "printed" orthophotoquads are now considered out of print
and will not be reprinted. However, ozalid copies will continue to be
available as before (through ESIC or NCIC I guess - not having ordered
ozalid orthophotos before).
In private discussions I was told that revisions are being done more
infrequently, and since budgets have been cut, fewer sheets are being
revised and sheets are revised in priority order. I assume this means that
you'll get 15 revisions of Florida quads and no revisions for South Dakota.
Also, the US Forest Service is now responsible for producing all quads
falling within a national forest, thus eliminating the dual update efforts
that used to occur.
The USGS is trying to put together a priority listing for reprinting maps
that are out of stock, such as geologic map of the state of..., geologic map
of XYZ National Park, etc. Any input on this priority is welcome and can be
sent to K. Lea Gannado at [log in to unmask] .
Interesting statistics are the sales figures for all USGS topo quads. USGS
has divided the quads into three categories, low, moderate, high sellers;
low sellers - less than 100 copies per year - 40,000 quadrangles
moderate sellers - 100-200 copies per year - 11,000 quadrangles
high sellers - 200+ copies per year - 9,000 quadrangles
Of the low sellers, "alot" (whatever that means) sell less than 25 copies
per year.
I was also told that the long-term goal was to have sheets available
on-line for downloading, but that there would be a 7-1/2' paper map issued
for all lower 48 quads. Really, this is because the paper maps would be
produced before all sheets were available on-line.
The USGS has contracted with Land Information International (in Denver), to
scan all 7-1/2' quads. Land Info has about 25% of the quads scanned and
georeferenced. These are available as raster files (not vector files) for
$25 (more info available if interested). 3M and USGS are teamed to produce
a "maps on demand" system using the Land Info digital files. 3M has
introduced a 200 dpi plotter for $8,000 (+/-) with software to print the
maps from the digital files.
Another question that arose at the WAML meeting was the "inventory reduction
program" that is currently under discussion between the USGS and the States
Geologist. I was told that this program will "not" include topographic maps
of any type, but will most likely include the various hard-to-sell thematic
mapping such as GQ-, MF-, etc.
Hope this is useful and sorry for the long answer.
Russell Guy
OMNI Resources
[log in to unmask]
At 02:12 PM 10/10/96 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I wonder if we can expand on the discussion today and yesterday about
> the recent drop in the numbers of shipments of topos and other materials
> from USGS, particularly for the benefit of those not directly in the
> line of fire (or far away)? I believe we also had a message in the last
> fortnight or so with a possible explanation, and hopefully our friends
> at USGS can help us.
>
> Is it government cut-backs, distribution problems, or are we reaching the
> point now where topo maps for the entire country have been produced? About
> three years ago I remember Gary North (now-retired liason between USGS and
> the map library community) happily announcing that mapping of the United
> States had finally been completed, some hundred years after it was begun.
> He was talking about the original surveying, but it follows that sooner or
> later the products of that surveying would also be completed. Is this
> what's happened?
>
> Of course, there are still the questions of new editions, photorevisions
> and photoinspections (pardon my references to the 'old' technology
> --paper). But that brings us to that old saw--will 'new' maps be
> produced digitally rather than on paper, only on demand, what?
>
> Perhaps we should confine our discussion to the standard 7 1/2-minute
> topographic sheets. Will there be at least one paper map for everywhere
> (and will the last of them be arriving at your local depository library
> soon?), with the format of future editions yet to be discovered? Does
> that mean thirteen editions of the Central Park quad and one provisional
> of some poor stretch of desert in Nevada?
>
> Sorry, but I'm not interested in making a speech on the evils of
> computer technology, just wondering if we can sort out the status of
> paper map distribution right now.
>
> Thanks.
>
> **********************************************************************
> April Carlucci [log in to unmask]
> The British Library Voice +44 171 412 7000x4167
> Map Library +44 171 412 7703
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> London WC1B 3DG
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