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David Cobb writes:
 
> I also believe it is very important that we do NOT think of this technology as
> simply futuristic or the virtual library. This technology presents us with
> opportunity to look at our collections with vision.
 
In 1985, the British Cartographic Society and the Royal Scottish Geographic
Society held a joint meeting in Aberdeen on the theme "Cartography: the way
ahead".  The proceedings of this meeting were put together in a book of the
same title, edited by Michael Wood and published by Geo Books in 1987 (ISBN
0 86094 216 3). The discussions on the Geo-Data Policy Forum prompted me
to dig out my copy of the book, and it is interesting to see how many of
the same concerns, as voiced then, are now re-surfacing in new guise (if,
indeed, they ever really went away?).
 
Margaret Wilkes, for example, has a chapter in the book entitles "Brave new
world, brave new map curator: an overview", in which she says:
 
        "Map curators have acted as user-friendly interfaces between
        the cartographic products in their custody, and those requiring to
        consult them....The present development of automated cartographic
        databases will make the map curator's role far more fluid, as the
        databases will make cartographic information from all over the
        world far more accessible. The traditional patron of a map library
        will no longer need referring to another library many miles distant
        when on-line information can be made available at the pressing of a
        computer key, and when copies of earlier maps in one institution
        can be viewed on the equivalent of a television monitor in another
        map collection on the other side of the world...The map curators may
        see some of their traditional role disappearing, but...there will
        always be a need to conserve the original documents in the national
        archives and libraries...it is most important that map curators are
        in a position where they can keep abreast of the developments, sieze
        the initiative, and demonstrate that there is a need for the kind
        of specialised information work in which they are involved..."
 
Coming at us from eight years ago (i.e. the dim and distant past for many!)
these are prophetic words indeed! ... But I also wonder whether maybe it is
 a case of "plus ca change, plus ca ne change pas"?
 
Darius Bartlett