----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Greetings,
 
In regards to Claren Kidd's inquiry about displaying large multi-
sheet maps on walls, by coincidence, our map assistants recently
worked on such a project.
 
They took 15 of the USGS 7.5 min. topo quads that cover the island
of Oahu, trimmed the white borders, pasted the quads into four
separate long (5 quads max.) "strip maps", encapsulated the 4 strips,
and then mounted the maps onto a nice bare wall with a "semi-
permanent" spray adhesive.
 
The maps were encapsulated not because they were "valuable or
expensive", but because we thought that it will help deter people
from vandalizing it (the "I-wuz-here" phenomenon).
 
The "semi-permanent" spray adhesive can be bought at most hardware
stores.  We chose this over any more "permanent" adhesive because
we aren't sure how long we will be staying in this location and
want to move the map with us.  This type of adhesive will hopefully
not damage the wall too much if we should decide to remove the map
one day.  The fear of someone making off with 8' sections of the
map is remote, although a possibility, I suppose.  d:)
 
The display is quite impressive - 4 quads high, by 5 quads wide,
and takes up a good portion of the wall outside the Map Collection
door.  Hardly a day goes by since the map was set up that atleast
one person will come in and tell us what a neat map it is.
 
One word of warning.  Use extreme care in lining up the individual
map sheets.  A "little off" here, a "little crooked" there, may
have serious impact on putting together any multi-sheet map.  Our
assistants really did a great job on this oversize topographic map
of Oahu.
 
You probably know how frustrating it is to have the area of interest
on the edge (or corner) of two quad sheets.  Now we just go and look
at this map!
 
Aloha,
Ross Togashi
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Hamilton Library - Map Collection   mmmmm...sodium nitrate