----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Alice, The University of Florida Map & Imagery Library has a representativ col- lection of satellite imagery contact prints for the Bahamas. These are LANDST images acquired in the 1970's and 1980's before the US program was privitized. They are mainly band 5 & Color InfraRed in 36" format (@1:250,000). The Caribbean is one of the specialities of our Library and the Bahamas are near neighbors. Thus we collect any books and spatial materials we can acquire. Since the changeover, the prints have become so expensive that we update the collection only when research projects require it. Because of the fragile nature of the imagery and it's replacement expense, the imagery does not leave the library. However, anyone is welcomed to view it. One alternative to explore is the WWW site that NASA has established for imagery. There are numerous images but I as of yet I have not searched for non-U.S. areas. Supposedly you can down load the image. These are older images from the 1970's and early 80's. Hopefully someone else has the Web site address as we currently are experiencing connection problems. If your patron wishes to purchase their own imagery, there has been extensive satellite imagery produced by the U.S. LANDSAT program as well as the French satellite, SPOT. These are both available for purchase in the U.S. If the user wants to know what is available for the Bahamas from the US program, he should contact the EROS Data Center, US Geological Survey in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The toll free number for User Services is 1-800-367- 2801. He should have the Lat and Long. ready to give to the representative with desired dates and cloud cover percentage that would be acceptable. This information will result usually in a number of computer printouts. He should be sure and ask for an explanation of terms if image acquistion is unfamilar to him. The patron should be told that purchasing satellite imagery in digital form is quite expensive. Adding the cost of making a negative and printing the image can often run several thousand dollars for larger format and/or Color InfraRed images. We often buy a slide of the image before we acquire the print. This eliminates expensive surprises such as the 10% cloud cover being over the only area you need. If currentness is not an absolute necessity, the imagery from the early 80's, before privatization, used to be much cheaper. I have not had to buy older images for a while so this may have changed. As you can see ordering imagery can be confusing for the first timer. When Mary Larsgaard and I did an inventory of libraries in the United States that had remote sensing imagery, there were several that were mainly satellite images of earth or space. However, most libraries in the US held aerial photography and usually satellite imagery was non-existant or limited to their own state or a teaching set. One suggestion in New York is to try Syracuse University. They had a good aerial photograph collection and were considering adding satellite imagery. However, this information is four years old. Of course, the Canadians also have excellent imagery and have worked extensively in the Caribbean. Unfortunately our survey had to be limited to US academic and research libraries. I have not included the SPOT Image company phone number, etc. as my time just became limited. However, it sounds like the patron just wishes to see the images and purchase them anyway. One factor which will affect his viewing the images is that that most researchers prefer acquiring the imagery in dig- ital form which they can manipulate with programs such as ERDAS for the desired results. Thus "photographs" are infrequently purchased for their purposes. If I can provide any other details or you wish to know more detailed results of the survey, please contact me. HelenJane Armstrong, Map & Imagery Library University of Florida HJARMS-NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU