Save the maps!

As of January 2007, Natural Resources Canada will discontinue the
printing of paper topographic maps and will close the Canada Map Office.
Our government wants to get out of the business of producing maps..

Many Canadians place a priority on the paper map service the Government
currently provides. Natural Resources Canada's digital mapping policy
will effectively cut off access to the majority of Canadians. However,
our politicians see this issue as a minor one. ACMLA, which represents
both the public and research communities, would like to convince them
otherwise. This policy will have an enormous impact on the Canadian
public and our map users. The Minister of Natural Resources has a
responsibility to listen to our point of view. This is not a minor
policy amendment but a major change that has implications not just for
map librarians but for the ordinary Canadian who is looking for a map
for their cottage or who wants to go snowmobiling or hiking. Canada can
be a vast and unforgiving country without a map in hand.

How you can help:

This is a political issue and we must get the message out to as many
Canadians and organizations as soon as possible. An independent website
has been set up to lobby and inform Canadians. ACMLA asks its members to
support this initiative by sending emails to inform associations,
university departments, schools, individuals, etc. of the Government of
Canada's decision to abandon printing paper topographic maps. Let your
M.P. and your Minister of Natural Resources know what their constituents
think of this decision.

Support Access to Maps for Canadians mapsforcanadians.ca

Welcome!

Welcome to the unofficial blog for the Access to Government Information Interest Group! The interest group is part of the Canadian Library Association. This will be a blog to share information: government news, new documents and a place to discuss issues affecting government documents librarians. If you’d like to have permissions to contribute, please contact Krista Godfrey at godfrey@mcmaster.ca.

Ransom Wanted!

An interesting story involving government documents in the US. Jared Benedict bought 56 000 public domain maps on CD-Rom for $1600 form the USDG and held them ransom. He said he would release them once he had recouped the cost of the maps and when it was raised he would place all of the maps on the Internet Archive for all to use. The money was raised in a day and plans are underway to put them online.

News from the DSP

As a result of changes to departmental publishing policies, access to
the DSP's restricted electronic publication collection is now no longer
restricted. Consequently, IP address registration by depository
libraries is no longer required to access any part of this collection.

Note that URL's that currently include the "Collection-R or "Collection"
directories in the pathway will not be changed in the short-term and
certainly not without appropriate advance notification to DSP clients.

As a further result of these changes, the DSP has decided that as a
matter policy, it will not establish or maintain electronic collections
that require restricted access.

Should you have any questions/concerns about this, please contact the
DSP at :

Customer Service / Service à la clientèle Publishing and Depository
Services / Les Éditions et Services de dépôt Government
Information Services Branch / Direction générale des services
d'information du gouvernement
Public Works and Government Services Canada / Travaux publics et
Services gouvernementaux Canada
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0S5
Telephone / Téléphone : 1-800-635-7943
Facsimile / Télécopieur : 1-800-565-7757