----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear All, It is a while since I was last able to update you, but herewith some of the latest development: HarperCollins Cartographic now has two operating components, which cover conventional publishing under the Times Books and Collins brands and everything else under the Bartholomew Mapping Services brand. This means that almost all our paper products will gradually lose their Bartholomew and Nicholson branding and reappear under either Times or Collins as the publishers see fit. While I think it is very sad to see the loss of the Bartholomew name on these maps, I would have to admit that it had all got rather confusing and no-one was quite sure whether we were Times, Nicholson, Collins or Bartholomew. Hopefully haveing most things appear in a similar Collins style will lead to greater impact on the bookshop shelves. Bartholomew Mapping Services is now a service provider both internally to the Publishers and externally to co-edition and contract customers. For example, although our paper products may appear as Collins titles, they should contain a note to the effect that the maps have been created by Bartholomew Mapping Services (assuming that the Publishers source the maps from us). This restores exactly the situation that used to prevail between Times Books and Bartholomew before the two companies merged ten years ago. Bartholomew Mapping Services will also deal with all new technology ventures, and so will continue to sell Bartholomew Digital Map Data, administer a Web site, provide services to Internet customers, and so forth. Bartholomew Digital Data has recently announced a variety of new and improved products: 1 Great Britain 1:200 000 scale data At the moment the existing 1:250 000 data set is being completely over- hauled in Canada using Landsat images to ensure that all features are reregistered to lie within +/- 150m of their WGS84 (GPS) locations. This should remove once and for all the historical problem we have had of a poor fit between this data set and the products from a major UK competitor. In fact ours will be the only data set at this scale to have nee n registered in the GPS datum rather than OS GB 1936. The data will, though, continue to be provided in the National Grid projection. To mark the substantial improvement in the postional accuracy of the data it is being relaunched at the slightly larger scale of 1:200 000. Work should be complete in January 1998. 2 Version 2 of the Bartholomew World Gazetteer This is now available with the number of entries increased to 257 000, and with new information on population and heights of mountains. The accuracy of Lat/Long postions is much improved and all entries have been regenerated from our GIS rather than the Times Comprehensive Atlas. 3 The Greater London Street Atlas on CD The well known title will be available on CD in a couple of weeks. The product also contains a database of London Places (hotels, shops, etc), and a full set of tools for creating your own databases and graphic overlays. 4 Version 1.1 of GB Maps on CD-ROM The next version of this popular product (updating all the vector layers - for example 1997 local authority boundaries) is available within the next week or two. The Bartholomew Web Site (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/maps) continues to develop. I have just placed FREE samples on our London, Great Britain and Europe datasets onto the site. These are in ArcView and MapInfo format. GB and London also include TIFF raster images. I don't know what is good and what is bad, but we are now getting about 300 visitors per week (anyone want to comment?). We also now have a technical support section, so in future I will place the answers to common questions here. That is about all for the moment, except to say that 1996/97 was our best year yet for Data Products, and things seem to be coming together nicely on the Publishing side - all this after a few very difficult years for Map Companies (witness the recent sale of RandMcNally and so on). regards, and thank you for your time, Tim Rideout Bartholomew Mapping Services