[MapHist] Map collections on the web: Only images is not enough

[John Woram]

hillshaw at aol.com wrote: "If the cost of 
maintaining enough webspace to post a 
decent-resolution image of 1,000s of maps is 
excessive, why not a rotating programme?"

Unfortunately, the cost of web space is not the 
problem here. The problem is, the permissions fee 
to post an image owned by some major institutions 
is prohibitive. As I mentioned earlier, the 
annual cost for that set of 16 images would 
exceed £3,000 per year. And in another 
situtation, if one set of images were rotated 
with another, the permission costs would be even greater.

So, we have a bit of a dilemma here. The 
institution can't justify the cost of posting the 
images on its own website, due to limited 
interest. Or even if the images were posted, it 
can't justify the expense of writing some 
appropriate text, for the same reason.

An outside specialist could do both, at no cost 
to the institution or to him/herself, other than 
the labor involved. But the institution won't 
permit that, unless a very stiff fee is paid. So, 
the images remain "buried", no papers are 
written, and only those who know of their 
existence, AND can afford to visit the institution, can enjoy access.

Seems to me this is a situation in which everyone loses.