Ordnance Survey Digital Data in UK Legal Deposit Libraries

Fleet, Christopher

Ordnance Survey Digital Data in UK Legal Deposit Libraries

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Journal article

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Fleet, Christopher

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Date published

April 1, 2099

Abstract

In common with many other national mapping organizations, the British Ordnance Survey (OS) has increasingly shifted away from paper publications to digital methods of production over the last twenty years. Indeed, the OS has been a pioneer in this process, exploring early digital techniques in the 1960s and converting all its basic scale mapping to digital form by 1995. Unlike many other national mapping agencies, this basic scale mapping is highly detailed, with urban areas mapped at a 1:1,250 scale, lowland rural areas at 1:2,500, and all other areas at 1:10,000. For anyone interested in Great Britain's landscape over the last two hundred years, this mapping represents an essential and detailed archive of national topography. It is widely used by a range of private and public organizations and individuals. Among the six legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, this mapping is the most frequently consulted material, with their archives of OS maps dating back to the inception of the OS, and comprehensive legal deposit established from 1911. However, in recent years, the mapping has increasingly shifted away from paper publication. From the late 1970s, the primary new media for archiving large-scale mapping were Survey Information on Microfilm (SIM), and this format grew to encompass all 1:2,500 and 1:1,250 mapping. With the OS's confirmation that SIM could no longer be produced after March 1999, the search began for a completely digital method of receiving OS mapping.