Thanks for the shout-out Kathleen! Indeed, our collection is fully cataloged -- at the sheet level for Pennsylvania, at the state level for remaining states, but more importantly in some ways, and due to the need to have control over individual sheets in these kinds of collections should they be stored offsite, is that we have item-level records for every sheet in the collection. It is my understanding that that totals somewhere around 135,000 of these item records. Feel free to use to make accessibility to your holdings better!
Paige
From: "Kathleen Weessies" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 2:57:34 PM
Subject: Re: USGS Topo map survey, and an FYI
We have begun an inventory project (an enormous inventory project) to itemize every piece of our 7.5’ collection. It is surprisingly easy to copy the long list of item records from Penn State’s library catalog records and paste them into Google Sheets. State by State. Then student employees are comparing our holdings to the list and editing the list as needed. When the inventories are done, I have a mad scheme to either beg tech services to crosswalk the spreadsheet deails and drop item records into each bib record OR --if we get to the point of boxing them and moving them to remote storage-- make a bib record for each box of maps with item records for each piece.
I don’t think our ILS allows more than x number of item records per bib record, and our Texas collection has over 6,000 sheets in it. So a potential problem there.
We keep every edition so I estimate our topo collection to be around 90,000 sheets. Our 15’ topos were interfiled with the 7.5’ and we are separating them as we work through the inventory.
Kathleen Weessies
Geosciences Librarian; Head, Map Library
Michigan State University
366 W. Circle Drive, W308A
East Lansing, MI 48824
(517)884-0849
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From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [ mailto:[log in to unmask] ] On Behalf Of Carlos A Diaz
Sent: Thursday, October 13 , 2016 1:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: USGS Topo map survey, and an FYI
As I understand it, most map collections are not cataloged. Uploading map records onto the online catalog makes a big difference when it comes to usage.
Yes, it would take a long time to get then all cataloged, but it will be well worth it.
Carlos A Diaz
askcarlos.com
[log in to unmask]
On Oct 13 , 2016 12:39 PM, "Ken Grabach" < [log in to unmask] > wrote:
My own take on online access versus printed maps is the same as libraries offering other online resources. Journals available in online form, for example. We would not bother to print the articles that are accessible in digital form. That is for the reader to choose or not. I don't think it would make sense, considering the decision I had to make, to then print the maps that are available online, both older editions that I withdrew and newer ones created in digital form.
I had over 50,000 maps, covering all states and dating in most cases from the 1970s, and in local cases from the 1950s or earlier. The geography department, having undergone a renovated space themselves recently, have no room to house these frankly little used maps. The availability of the online versions, which are also available for free download, are to my mind the counterpart to online journals. We don't download or print those articles. Why should maps be different? I suggest that they are not. And again, where colleagues were making difficult decisions on what journals and other materials to retain, I could not professionally nor ethically justify a different treatment for maps that encompass as large of a footprint as shelves of journal volumes.
My very great thanks to the good folk at USGS who not only make new digital editions available through the maps site, but also older editions of 7.5-minute, 15-minute, and 100,000-scale maps. This is a tremendous gift to the public.
Ken Grabach
Maps Librarian
BEST Library, 219D
Miami University Libraries
Oxford, OH 45056 USA
[log in to unmask]
513-529-1726
On Thu, Oct 13 , 2016 at 12:14 PM, Carlos A Diaz < [log in to unmask] > wrote:
BQ_BEGIN
Yes, you can update USGS topo maps from their site but in order to print them out you will need a map plotter in order to do so.
I wouldn't dispose of the print maps. There's a great deal of value in them. The USTopo maps (especially the early editions) don't include the same information as its predecessor.
However, if this is a space issue and you have all 50 states, retain those states within your region and see if you can have a housing agreement for the rest of the maps with the geography department on campus or another such entity. I'm sure they would use them.
Carlos A Diaz
askcarlos.com
[log in to unmask]
On Oct 13 , 2016 9:56 AM, "Carlson, Tom" < [log in to unmask] > wrote:
BQ_BEGIN
Just an FYI for those who are interested. Many of you on this list and your libraries may have been repositories for our USGS quadrangles in the past. After we stopped printing those classic maps, (sad I know!) I received many calls about what libraries were to do about not getting copies anymore. At that time we also began deploying USTOPO, a digital version of our 7.5' quadrangles set in a Geopdf format. These are updated far more frequently than the paper maps, every three years on the average and are very popular today . They can be viewed on any device with a pdf viewer and are easy to plot on large format plotters. As a part of this project and found on the same site, are historic USGS quadrangles. We have scanned every old quad we could find and post those as either Geopdf or Geotiff. These scans of old maps are a wonderful resource and also very popular.
If you haven't seen USTOPOs or accessed them I'll put a few links below that will take you there. The "how to" videos that we have developed are very helpful as well.
Intro page to US TOPO is here http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/
To search for and download particular quadrangles: http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/?basemap=b1&category=ustopo&title=US%20Topo%20Download
To view "how to" videos on using US TOPO and other USGS mapping products look here: http://training.usgs.gov/TEL/TheNationalMap/TNM-TEL-Index.html
(The USTOPO videos are Lesson # 8 and 9)
Cheers,
Tom Carlson, PhD, GISP
Geographer
National Map Liaison for Washington, Oregon and Idaho
US Geological Survey
934 Broadway, Suite 300
Tacoma, WA 98402
253.552.1682 Office
253.552.1581 Fax
On Wed, Oct 12 , 2016 at 2:39 PM, Michael M Noga < [log in to unmask] > wrote:
BQ_BEGIN
Greetings,
I have seen a lot of offers of USGS topo sets on Maps-L for several years. I was wondering if you would answer this quick question.
My library is
1) Keeping all our print USGS topo maps. (perhaps storing all or some off-site)
2) Keeping only the print maps for the states (regions) that mainly interest my library’s community.
3) Withdrawing our print USGS topo map collection.
You can reply directly to me or respond to the list.
I will post the results.
Thanks.
Michael
________________
Michael M Noga
Collections Strategist
Earth and Planetary Sciences Librarian
MIT Libraries
[log in to unmask]
--
Tom Carlson, PhD, GISP
Geographer
National Map Liaison for Washington, Oregon and Idaho
US Geological Survey
934 Broadway, Suite 300
Tacoma, WA 98402
253.552.1682 Office
253.552.1581 Fax
The National Map - Your Source for Topographic Information
BQ_END
BQ_END
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