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Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 17:17:38 -0500
From: Patrick McGlamery <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: #38 again <fwd>
Sender: Patrick McGlamery <[log in to unmask]>



Dear Alice;

Bless you for going back and being thoughtful.

I have admit to some of the same feelings after reading the article.  But
let's look at it another way.  Mr. Keller has taken the time to write a
thoughtful, articulate commentary on the state of the map library FROM THE
USER'S POINT OF VIEW.  Let us remember that NACIS is a multi-whatever bunch
who all care passionately about maps.  And Mr. Keller, as a map library
user, has given this a lot of thought, and cares enough to put it down on
paper and share.  I daresay he has stated, though not as a librarian, some
of our deepest fears.  It deserves a careful reading.

Can we parse his article into a number of themes and comment, collectively,
on them?

Patrick

-----Original Message-----
From: Johnnie Sutherland [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 3:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: #38 again <fwd>


--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 14:41:47 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: #38 again
Sender: [log in to unmask]


Apologies, because of an interruption, I hit the send button before I got
to say anything positive!

What might be more useful here is for the map library/GIS resource center
communities to work together creating a grid of planning/design
opportunities which reflect the varying situations from Library systems to
University campuses of small, medium and large collections/centers in
rural, suburban and urban areas, with annual budgets of $20,000-$1,000,000,
and staffs from 1 to 3 in the map libraries, and more, no doubt, in the GIS
centers.

What are the models that already exist that we can chunk into this grid? If
the actual model is not there, who has dreams/suggestions/plans to put into
the grid?

I do not use the word "standards" here, as those tend to be fixed, but I
think of a model as flexible over time. Granted my grid idea is structured,
and not, bless me, post-modern, but something has to hold the
ideas/dreams/plans/models together.

The word community is important in my thinking, for as a librarian I have
never thought of myself as an imperialist, and am amazed and proud to be
thought of in that way. [Go, Victoria!] [ahem, pardon the pun!]  Most map
librarians I know network with other librarians, GIS folk, geography
departments, city-state-national agencies. We do not always succeed, and
lots of time the map library is left on the cutting room floor, or was that
barn floor, when the money is handed out. That, of course, must be our own
fault, because we are so incompetent.

Anyway, one very important thing to note here, is the in most libraries,
the map library is the smallest public service unit. That means that in a
larger institution, the map collection may have very little power,
authority or vision to make the positive changes which are being called for
in CP #38. Creative ideas may trickle up from the lone map librarian in an
institution, but the budget lines and authority to make dramatic changes
come from the administration of the larger institution. This article is so
negative and condemnatory, I could never use it with my administration as a
tool for more support. So, I guess I am left with the question of how this
piece of work can be used. If it spurs positive, useful, creative ideas
which practically minded map librarians and real world GIS folk can use to
enhance their services, then some good might actually result.

Oops, my paradigm is shifting, gotta go call AARP to see if they can send
me shovels. Lots more stuff arrived in the mail this morning...

[Meanwhile, can we work on something like that grid? I can use all the good
ideas you younger and wiser folk have to offer the map library/gis
community.]

Alice C. Hudson
Chief, Map Division
The Humanities and Social Sciences Library
The New York Public Library
5th Avenue & 42nd Street, Room 117
New York, NY 10018-2788

[log in to unmask]; 212-930-0589; fax 212-930-0027
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