--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 11:25:42 -0400
From: mike furlough <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: more comments on Sanborn
Sender: mike furlough <[log in to unmask]>



A little late, but....

We have subscribed to Virginia for the year; I hope to round  up
the funds for purchase  this year.

I recognize the problems with this database that others have
raised, but I apparently had very low initial expectations because
I am less concerned about some of them than others are.  Partly
this is because user response  has been good, and because we do not
have an extensive collection of originals to work with.

Overall the users have been *very* pleased just to have these
resources available in a digital format.   The planners and
architects have been very glad to have the PDF versions because
they can open these in Photoshop, edit them or incorporate  them in
other documents, scale them to larger print sizes, etc.

We'd  all like to have them in color, but that is many years off
now that the LC project has been abandoned.  Considering that these
are scans of microfilm, I think the quality is actually pretty
good--and much better  than when Chadwyck Healy initially offered
this.  And no matter how irritating or lacking you find the
interface or search methods, it beats the interface of the
microfilm reader.

So the users are happy, and that makes me happy.  BUT, I think the
cost is way too high for us to be able to get much more than
Virginia.  Like David, we have users  requesting cities areas all
over the east  coast, and seeing Virginia  makes users  wonder  why
they can't get New York too.  I would like to be able to aquire on
a locality basis (eg cherry pick major cities), but that was not an
option last I checked.

One other thing to keep in mind--these are the maps included in the
LC checklist, which were published on microfilm by Chadwyck Healy a
while back.  The B&H product does NOT include  the maps on the
UPA/CIS/Lexis-Nexis/Whoeveritisthisweek Microfilm reels.

mike







--------------------------------------
Mike Furlough
Geospatial and Statistical Data Center
University of Virginia Library
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu
(434) 924-3169

--- End Forwarded Message ---