Map Collection Users' Group

Minutes of Meeting
Friday 2 November 2001

1. Attendance

Richard Pennell - Chair (History), Nigel Flannigan (Archi & Planning), Peta Humphreys (Melbourne Branches), John Maidment (Library), Priscilla Stott (Collection Management), Lisa Sukkel (IAO), John Cain (Map Curator).

2. Apologies

Brian Finlayson (Geography), Joe Leach (Geomatics), Tim Meredith (Melbourne Branches), Leanne Howard (Telars), Bernie Joyce (Earth Sciences).

3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes were accepted.

4. Business Arising

Digitisation of Fire Insurance Plans - John Cain reported he has been told that it is not possible to fund this type of proposal under research support funds. John to discuss further with Richard.
Online Map Images interface - Richard asked if some improvements could be made to this. John noted that the person who did the original work had been moved to other duties and it did not seem there was much prospect for any improvements. However he would discuss Richard's precise requirements and see if they could come up with something.
Digital Aerials of Melbourne - unfortunately it seems this product, noted as a proposed order in the last minutes, is little more than vapourware.

5. Outcomes of the Map Collection 2001 Operational Plan

Highlights include:

• Over 150 historical aerial photos of inner Melbourne, dated 1945, have now been digitised. These can now be viewed and downloaded from our digital maps site: http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/maps/digital/
• Forty outline maps of Australia and Australian States are now available for downloading at the same location.
• A selection of attractive images of historical maps from the Map Collection is now available for downloading as computer desktop wallpapers at the same site.
• A review of security of the Map Collection has been completed. Arising from this, Melbourne Branches funded the installation of a security system including motion sensors in the collection, and physical locks are being installed directly on cabinets with valuable maps.
• Digital data services have been enhanced and are now well used, including our 'data on demand' service where specific data is obtained on request to support teaching and research.
• Scanning of aerial photos and maps is increasingly popular; a special license to allow this has been agreed with the photography vendor.
• The rare maps (mx) sequence within the Map Collection has been sorted and re-spaced and duplicates removed and disposed of.

6. Draft Map Collection 2002 Operational Plan

A summary of proposed actions was circulated. Suggestions for any further actions are welcome.

7. Additions to the Collection

Noteworthy recent arrivals include:

• Hardcopy 1:5000 aerial photos of inner Melbourne - 16 enlarged aerials; a license to copy these for educational and research purposes has been negotiated with QASCO.
• Former Soviet Union 1:1 000 000 - we have received a large order which completes our holdings of this map series for the former Soviet Union.
• Australia 1:250 000 topographic - AUSLIG (Commonwealth govt) has donated approximately 200 new maps from this map series.
• Vicmap Digital - large amounts of new data continue to be ordered and received from Land Victoria under our research and education license. While some data is ordered on the initiative of Map Collection staff, mostly we order data as requested by library users.

8. Departmental Map Needs (standing item)

Any requests for maps or spatial data can be emailed to John Cain at any time.

9. Other Business

None was raised.

10. Next meeting

The next meeting will be at 2:15 pm on Wednesday 13 March 2002 in the Map Collection.

John Cain, 29 January 2002. e:\maps\mcug\2001nov-minutes.doc