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Perhaps the shame is not on the current mapping agencies, but on the funding
sources for the appropriate curatorial agencies such as the National Archives
cartographic collections or LC's G& M Division, e.g., Congress and all those
people who don't want to support Federal agencies via their pocketbooks, e.g.,
taxpayers...Somehow the importance of Federal libraries and archives is not
made clear to the person on the proverbial street...and we end up with dumped
topos in Denver, which however, have ended up in the private sector, and
someone is getting rich, who will have to pay more taxes...Reagonomics lives!
Or is that Clintonomics...oh well...Just remember this all goes back,
probably, to the orders that came down to USGS years ago to save $$, and
forced the overnight move to Denver in the first place, as a way to
consolidate their operations.
 
The solution is for libraries in each region, or state, to make the commitment
to conserve, deacidify, MYLAR encapsulate, etc. their own coverage as Harvard
is doing, and as NYPL did several years ago (we had money then...)
Further, we need for our professional associations to be lobbying for funding
support for federal mapping agencies and libraries. And we can, as
individuals, write letters to our congressional reps and tell them what for.
 
To clarify, we encapsulated the old 15' sheets for NY and New England. The
rest of the country is cooking in our Hamiltons.