-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Imus Geographics (UNCLASSIFIED)
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 18:54:06 +0000
From: Hadden, Robert L AGC <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]>
CC: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Ken-
This criticism of Imus Geographics comes from a basic misunderstanding
of the different roles of cartographer and publisher. The cartographer
makes maps, and has a professional basis for their work, especially the
idea of "The commonweal is paramount". In short, cartographers are paid
to make maps.
But publishers have to make a profit. The commonweal is not paramount-
the bottom line is paramount. If they don't sell their product at a
profit, the technical name for that condition is "bankrupt." So they
sell their product.
Now, maps made by map publishers are not sold only to cartographers.
They are also sold to the general population, many of whom have little
knowledge of cartography. By using hype, the publisher can attract the
customer's eye, usually for only a second or so. Thus, they need to
quickly attract attention to their product, and attract attention away
from their competitors'.
The more profits they make, the more maps they can publish. But maps go
out of date very quickly, and the competition for profits in a
relatively small market is intense.
So they hype the map. If you look at the hype at:
http://imusgeographics.com/, you will also notice that everything is
quoted. Thus, it is not "Imus Geographics" which says "The Greatest
Paper Map of the United States You'll Ever See.....The longer you look
at Imus' map, the more deeply you feel the complexity and the
artistry.....It is delightful to look at. Edifying to study." - it is
quoted from Slate.com. The salesman's job is not only to sell the
product, but also to find other people who will sell it for them as
well. Book publishers get other people to review the book, and then
publish the reviews to increase sales and profits. Map publishers do the
same thing.
And for a folded copy for $12.95, it is cheap at the price.
When I was a book jobber, I sold books from a number of different
publishers to schools and public libraries. There, my job as a salesman
was not only to sell the books, but also to sell the company, so the
librarians would buy the books from us rather than directly from the
publishers or other jobbers. We had to have integrity, but we also
needed to sell our product. It is a different life from being a map
librarian.
However, with budgets being cut today, we are finding more and more map
libraries are justifying themselves to avoid budget cuts, and not a few
of them are beginning to look for some hype themselves.
My advice? Buy a copy of the map, print out the compliments, and post
both on a bulletin board, and then ask your own patrons if they think
the hype is worthwhile. You should at least enjoy the conversations
among the map lovers in your library.
Lee Hadden
R. Lee Hadden
Army Geospatial Center
ATTN: WSGRLH (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315
(703) 428-9206
[log in to unmask]
"Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas
habebunt!" (When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have
catapults.) See: http://latinsayings.info/LatSayings.php
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Essential Geography of the United States
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 16:55:48 -0500
From: Grabach, Kenneth A. Mr. < >
To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Imus Geographics, of Eugene, Oregon, published a wonderful, very
attractive map of the United States in 2010. U recently purchased a copy
of it, and I am glad I did. So why am I posting something here? Because
I think the promotion of it by the publisher is a bit overdone.
An accompanying user guide, a PDF, shows comparisons to other published
maps to demonstrate the portrayal of:
1, global position, 2, relative elevation, 3, landforms, 4, land cover,
5, water, and a variety of other features and qualities. The comparisons
are to National Geographic, Michelin, Rand McNally, and some other major
publishers of maps and atlases of the US. I am left rather scratching my
head about what is new about this.
I have, and you probably do as well, a couple of recently published maps
that are also excellent cartographic works, and esthetically are very
pleasing to the eye. One of these is the General Reference map of the
United States of America, in the National Atlas series by U.S.
Geological Survey. The Imus map is at scale of 1:4,000,000. The General
Reference map is at 1:5,000,000 scale. To me there is a great deal of
similarity between the two. The same portrayal of relative elevation and
landforms (in cataloging parlance, shaded relief, not a really new
concept) appears on both. Land cover also appears in green, forest
cover, really, not all land cover, as grassland and other vegetation is
not portrayed , again not a new concept. Land cover is dealt with very
nicely in another National Atlas map, Geographic Face of the Nation.
A second map came to my mind, The United States, except Alaska and
Hawaii, by Allan Cartography and printed by Raven Maps & Images, 1992.
This one beautifully portrays the relief and landforms. It does not
include land cover.
But the combination of position, elevation, cities with symbology for
population sizes, transportation routes, water, etc. is so basic to
general mapping that I am surprised they call attention to it as some
transformative aspect of map publishing. The scale and size are larger
than many similar maps. The map is clear and easy to read. But those are
the innovations I can see. Another, and important, the title, legend and
some other information are in English, Spanish, and French.
I am interested to read from others to see if you have further insights
on this map and its promotion. Again, this is not a critique of the map,
but rather of the promotion of it.
Ken Grabach <[log in to unmask]>
Maps Librarian Phone: 513-529-1726
Miami University Libraries
Oxford, Ohio 45056 USA
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