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Jerry Kowalyk of U of Alberta wrote:
 
This is a hypothetical query to generate some discussion.
 
Supposing you have, in your library, digital data, or digitized
maps, broken down into numerous tiles, files, or directories
in some electronic format (disk, CDROM, tape, etc.).
 
Would you give serious consideration to processing an
Inter-Library-Loan (ILL) type of request from another academic
institution, for that data, in whole, or, in part?
 
Would you consider generating a request for digitized data,
in whole, or in part, from another academic institution, on
behalf of your library clients?
 
        As a cartographer and thus a  generator and user of digital map data
sets, this brings up a number of interesting questions. It has been presumed, up
until now, that anyone seeking to create or use a digital map must start the
project from scratch (by digitizing/scanning etc original paper map data) in
order to create the necessary data set. One does not usually consider a map
library as a potential resource for ready-made digital data sets.
        I should differentiate here between digital data sets and ready made, or
"canned" maps. A ready made map is anything available, usually on CD ROM, to
illustrate statistical, atlas, physiographic, whatever maps of various countries
or states. These maps are finished products, with all the design already
incorporated into the presentation, and digitally speaking, are usually locked
within their native format, be it a file type that cannot be readily translated,
or only available for printing without significant changes, etc.
        Digital data sets, on the other hand, is map information in a
non-cartographic format. It may be edited and processed for clean linework,
topology, free of errors etc., but may have had little or no cartographic
touches: lettering, line weights and colours, area fills and patterns,
symbology, marginalia, and so on. A good example may be a topographic map with
only centreline vectors for roads, and an attached feature table describing the
different linecodes or layers.
        For someone seeking to create a map free of the unnecessary data found in
a "canned" map, with maximum flexibility over their own design, feature
selection and generalization, the digital data set is ideal.
        Here's the problem: what if there is a desire to copyright that data set?
How do you loan out a data set which is perfectly mutable into something else
with the assurances that that won't happen? If it is indeed edited and changed
enough, is it now considered an original work, and therefore free of copyright?
Do you loan it out at all? What good is it if you can't loan it out?
         I don't have the answers to these questions, but I'd sure like to see
some discussion on it. As a cartographer, I'd both love access to free data
(saves me a lot of time and effort) and yet I'd hate to realize that something I
sweated over creating is now being used freely and profitably without a penny in
royalties for my efforts.
        I do know that the people at Bentley, creators of Microstation, have
created a software device which is aimed at preventing unlicensed use of their
software: whenever a design file is sent to a plotter, a message is
automatically included in the plotfile, and resulting plot, that clearly states
the user is not licensed. It can cause considerable embarrassment at
conventions, I'm told! Perhaps there are other software solutions out there
waiting to be applied.
 
                                        Sean D. Smith
                                        Cartographer
 
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