There was a typo error in this piece, Sales should have been stated
as 200, 000 not 2, 000 as given!
iain T.
At 12:53 PM -0300 10/4/05, Iain Taylor wrote:
> >Globe & Mail (Toronto) article forwarded by Marcel Fortin of
>>University of Toronto.
>
>If anyone is interested in the reaction from the mapping community in
>Canada to this plan I can send material off-list.
>
>Iain Taylor
>Halifax, NS
>
>
>>Ottawa plots making maps without paper
>>Plan to produce them on Internet leaves retailers,
>>librarians feeling lost
>>
>>By DAWN WALTON
>>
>>Tuesday, October 4, 2005 Posted at 5:59 AM EDT
>>
>>From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
>>
>>CALGARY - One of the first projects the fledging
>>Canadian government undertook after Confederation --
>>printing and storing topographic maps of the country --
>>may become the victim of cost-cutting, a possibility
>>that has prompted howls of outrage from map librarians
>>and retailers.
>>
>>The government isn't preparing to get out of the
>>cartography business entirely, but it plans to put its
>>topographic map data on the Internet where companies
>>and individuals would be able to access the
>>information, either free or for a fee, and then print
>>it or pay a professional printer to do it.
>>
>>"We're really at risk of losing a real national
>>treasure," warns Brad Green, president of World of Maps
>>Inc., in Ottawa.
>>
>>"I hope it's not an irreversible decision. Some people
>>will accept this is the digital age and they will roll
>>over," he said.
>>
>>Advertisements
>>
>>But not Mr. Green. He is spearheading a letter-writing
>>campaign to persuade the bureaucrats to change their
>>minds about topographic maps. (Nautical maps, produced
>>by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, are not
>>affected by the change.)
>>
>>Is the digital revolution making old-fashioned paper
>>maps obsolete or is this just another Luddite-style
>>worry among the kind of folk who also think computers
>>are preventing children from learning how to print?
>>
>>John Dawson, acting director of Natural Resources
>>Canada's Centre for Topographic Information, figures
>>that people are upset about the proposal because it is
>>the latest in a series of changes to the map-making
>>business that depart from the philosophy of the
>>original craftsmen who treated cartography and map
>>reading as an art.
>>
>>But Mr. Dawson says the change is also about the bottom
>>line. "Is there a better way to do this business? We
>>know there is a better way."
>>
>>About 1.5 million maps are now in storage.
>>
>>But Ottawa plans to close the map warehouse, which
>>costs $191,000 a year, in January, 2007, when the lease
>>expires. The government is trying to find a way to
>>better use that money and the warehouse space, Mr.
>>Dawson said. Ottawa is also trying to figure out what
>>it will do with all those maps.
>>
>>It may also get out of the business of printing
>>topographic maps. To make printing economical, there is
>>a press run of at least 1,000 copies of each map sheet.
>>The government can also print small orders by "plotting
>>on demand."
>>
>>The Natural Resources Department is supposed to
>>maintain the business on a break-even basis. But now it
>>wants to reallocate its funding to focus on data
>>collection and update its maps as they are placed on
>>the Internet, Mr. Dawson said.
>>
>>He said topographic distribution has been sliding over
>>the past few years as people have moved to digital
>>files or sought out more up-to-date maps. In the fiscal
>>year that ended March 31, 2003, Canada distributed
>>about 330,000 topographic maps. Over the next year,
>>that dropped to 261,000 and in the most recent year,
>>only 2,008 maps left the warehouse, he said. Some
>>people worry that without a warehouse of ready-made
>>maps, emergency services would not be able to react
>>quickly to natural disasters such as ice storms, floods
>>and earthquakes. But Mr. Dawson said Ottawa could
>>quickly plot and print maps in times of disaster.
> >
>>Others say paper maps are valuable tools to teach
>>students about Canada's cartographic and geographic
>>heritage.
>>
>>Mr. Green's World of Maps store is one of the country's
>>11 regional distribution centres, which sell
>>government-produced maps to the public and retailers.
>>He worries that if those maps go digital, the private
>>sector will be left to produce poor-quality maps at
>>unregulated prices. Government maps sell at a suggested
>>retail price of $11.45.
>>
>>Donna Nelson, co-owner of Gem Trek Publishing in
>>Cochrane, Alta., just west of Calgary, understands the
>>issues of cost. Her company designs topographic maps of
>>popular recreational areas in Alberta and British
>>Columbia, but it contracts out the printing, at press
>>runs of about 3,000, to keep the business financially
>>viable.
>>
>>There's no reason, she said, that another commercial
>>printer would not step in if Ottawa changed the way it
>>delivers map information. "Historically, their role is
>>to make the data available to the public," Ms. Nelson
>>said, "but not necessarily in the printed form."
>>
>>A similar proposal by the U.S. government in 1990 to
>>stop producing paper maps was met with "gasps of horror
>>and stunned silence" from map librarians at a meeting
>>in Washington, according to April Carlucci, who was
>>then assistant chief of the map division at the New
>>York Public Library.
>>
>>When the U.S. government maps arrived in digital
>>format, she recalled, librarians didn't know what to do
>>with them and didn't have the equipment to display them.
>>
>>Now, 15 years later, U.S. officials have started
>>consulting map librarians about what they need in terms
>>of government maps. The first response at a recent
>>meeting ("I like paper!") received a round of applause,
>>according to Ms. Carlucci, now cataloguing manager and
>>curator of modern maps with the British Library.
>>
>>That, she said, was a "development of major importance"
>>in the bid to see the return of U.S. government paper maps.
>>
>>--
>>Marcel Fortin
>>GIS and Map Librarian, University of Toronto
>>130 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A5
>>ph. 416.978.1958 fax 416.946.0522
>
>
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