...from Dave Sollersoll, National Geologic Mapping Database..... Good afternoon - Speaking on behalf of all NGMDB project colleagues, it's a distinct honor to invite you to the new "TopoView" site. Why is it an honor? Because TopoView highlights what many consider to be the USGS's flagship product, the topographic map. TopoView is intended to serve the immediate need for the older, conventionally printed topographic maps to become easily searched, viewed, and downloaded. The ~163,000 maps available through this interface were scanned by the USGS Historical Topographic Mapping Collection (HTMC) project. In terms of design, TopoView is an outgrowth of the NGMDB's MapView application. It was developed with guidance and support of the HTMC project, and the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP), and we're grateful for their cooperation and support. TopoView was developed relatively quickly and may continue to evolve in cooperation with the NGP. We're not yet sure where it's headed, but here are some possible directions it might take: - extending TopoView to also show current (and superseded) maps that are produced by the US TOPO project - providing links to downloadable geoTIFFs, and map sales - replacing bounding boxes with historical quadrangle map images - providing access to any paper topographic maps missing from this Collection that may, in the future, be found and scanned. For TopoView's development, I gladly acknowledge the fine work from NGMDB colleagues, principally Chris Garrity, with assistance by Rob Wardwell and Nancy Stamm. And of course, a sincere thanks to Greg Allord, for developing and executing the HTMC project. We hope you find TopoView useful, and look forward to comments that will improve it. Please see http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/**TopoView/<http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/TopoView/> . Highest regards. Dave Soller ***************************** Dan Walters Geospatial Liaison for ME, MA & RI USGS NSDI Partnership Office 196 Whitten Road Augusta, Maine 04330 207-776-1293 [log in to unmask] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list Maine GeoNews (GEOLIBRARY-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all Maine GIS Users. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove your name and email address yourself at the this web address: http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?SUBED1=geolibrary-l&A=1 Or,you may also request that your name be removed by sending email to: [log in to unmask]