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        I'm a map librarian new to the profession and have a question
about the availabilty of maps in electronic form, specifically USGS maps.
It's been proposed at our library that we "deselect" all USGS maps except
Tennessee and surrounding states. I would like to know if the USGS has
any graphical map data on CD-ROM that could be used by the public (read:
is it user friendly!). I am familiar with the Digital Orthophoto
Quadrangle (DOQ) Data CD-ROMs, but have not found them to be very easy to
use. Ideally, I am looking for something that can be made available for
public use. For instance, if someone comes in the library looking for a
map of Wapello County in Iowa, I would like to be in the position to
just pop a CD into the driver and have the map magically appear. Since
there are so many different maps to be dealt with, I just wouldn't have
the time to do much configuring for each CD-ROM to be used, as seems to
be the case with the DOQ CDs. Is this a pipe dream? Any comments would be
appreciated.
        Thank you.
 
 
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                                John Noel
 
                        Head, Government Publications,
                       Maps, and Microforms Department
 
Tennessee Technological University  |   Phone: (615)372-3841
     University Library             |   Fax:   (615)372-6112
          Box 5066                  |   Email: [log in to unmask]
     Cookville, TN 38505            |          [log in to unmask]
 
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