The Maine Office of GIS and the GeoLibrary Board have provided a preliminary web mapping service for the digital USGS topographic map data.  We would like you to try it out and let us know how it works for you.

A WMS service is not a web application which you can see in a web browser, it requires you to add it to some GIS software.  For example in ArcGIS you would go to "Add Data - GIS Servers - Add WMS Server" and then paste in the URL below.  If you just click on the link below, you will get an error message in your web browser.

http://geolibportal.maine.gov/wms/mapserv.exe?map=c:/wms/topos.map&

The service provides the 1:250K topos at scales down to 1:175,000, then switches to 1:100K topos until 1:50,000, and then finally to 1:24,000 topos.

This service has been successfully tested in ArcGIS, MapInfo, Google Earth, QGIS, and gvSIG.  It currently does not work with MapWindow - we're looking into why.  Note to QGIS users - make sure you specify image type PNG or it will not look good.  Note to Google Earth users - if you zoom out to the whole world, it "covers" the world in white - but this seems to be a GE-specific issue.  It does not appear that anything is wrong with the WMS, and it works fine when zoomed in.  The service by default is provided in lat/long, but it will also work in UTM, State Plane, Lambert, Albers, and probably any other projection system. 

A note about printing this and any other WMS using ArcGIS - if you are printing very large maps (E-size and larger), you may find the WMS not printing or partially printing.  You can fix this by lowering the "image quality" in your printer settings to "normal" (1:3) or even lower.  Even printing at the lowest setting ("fast" or 1:5), it will look fine on a big map.

Any comments please direct them to me personally (off-list).

michael.smith(at)maine.gov

PS - Regarding some emails earlier today about MEGIS ArcIMS services, ArcIMS is a technology on the way out.  MEGIS hopes to replace the IMS basemap service and other services with MapServer/WMS.  NAIP and these topos are just the first ones.