Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada, Volume 3, number/numéro 1 (summer/été 1996)
Review / Compte rendu

Geomatics Canada1

Alberta Auringer Wood 2
Memorial University of Newfoundland


The Geomatics Canada/Geomatique Canada web page presents a welcoming appearance of several multicoloured icons on a standard grey Netscape background. It loads promptly on the computers that I used, 486s and Pentiums with from 8 to 32 MB RAM. The information is presented in both English and French. It is given together on the same page if short, or the links take one to all French or all English pages in the subsections. The pages were looked at using the graphical browser Netscape, and a non-graphical one, Lynx. Although the site is readable in Lynx, it is much more interesting to see in Netscape. In the Lynx version, the main sections did not list properly as one went through them.

The first page gives links to Products and Services, Centres and Divisions, Other Information and QuickList. There are also links to related information on Geomatics in the Era of RADARSAT, the Inter-Agency Committee on Geomatics, and Excellence in Geomatics. These are all activities in which Geomatics Canada participates.

As expected, this is a complex site, and it is possible to follow links through several levels. In many cases, there are links back to the home page, but not in all. One example of this was the Centre for Topographic Information (Sherbrooke). The Centre for Topographic Information has several interesting sections, such as "Basic Information" where one can find answers to common questions, tips on how to get the most out of a topographic map, an explanation of 17 topographic terms, and the symbols used to depict popular features. The "Questions" area includes one of "how do I know which map sheet covers my area of interest" and tells readers that index maps are available through the Canada Map Office. Another one is "where can I purchase . . . ," which refers the viewer to the local map dealer ("Yellow Pages under Maps'") and the Canada Map Office. It would also be useful to refer people to their local library and perhaps have a listing of the depository libraries where people can look at indexes and maps in preparation for buying their own maps. There is a connection to the geographic names database, but it worked erratically in my seven tries. For one name, Carbonear, information was given, but the map image (101e8.gif) did not work. The one for Toronto did work and had three map listings given. Upon checking these, I found that the maps were of very small scale and one didn't include Toronto, probably due to the scale. There were also links to lists of 1:250 000 and 1:50 000 sheets by name, but not quite at the proper name, nor was it highlighted to facilitate finding it. The National Atlas Information Service had a particularly pleasing layout and appearance with interesting icons and sample map images. There one can find a listing of Canadian atlases. This is a very comprehensive analysis of atlases published in Canada since 1945, grouped by subject, such as urban atlases. I found that this included the Census Atlas of Newfoundland. Among the historic atlases, I located the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives volume containing facsimiles 1-50, but not the other three volumes.

The Products and Services section includes pages for digital and conventional materials, as well as a section for ordering. There is a reference to a free copy of a 1:50 000 demonstration data file covering Huntingdon in Quebec to be available shortly via FTP. The choice of delivery methods includes specification of operating systems, compression mode, "transfert" [sic] format, systems, version or software, and media.

The "Other Information" section included another link to Geomatics in the Era of RADARSAT, a link to the Canadian Cartographic Exhibit, Sources of Geomatics Information, and Other Internet Resources. The latter included societies and organizations, but I was surprised not to find the Canadian Institute of Geomatics among them. This page was last revised on September 27, 1995. With this date in mind, it was also not too surprising to find that the information on the ICA 1999 meeting was from last September, indicating that Canada was bidding for it, but not updated with the fact that the bid was won! The Sources of Geomatics Information included links to the Inter-Agency Committee on Geomatics (IACG), Provincial Government Geomatics Services, the Canadian Geomatics Industry, Other Geomatics Information on the Internet, contact information, the "Information Desks," a way to send comments, and a "What's New" page. Some of these pages were last updated in late 1995, and in the case of the provincial government information, out-of-date as a result, such as not having the current Newfoundland geomatics agency. The most up-to-date was the "What's New" page which was last revised on Aug. 29, 1996. On that page were listed the links for materials on RADARSAT, the IACG, and Excellence in Geomatics, as well as the Cadastral Surveys Division. The latter linked to a page that provided links to information on the Legal Surveys Division instead. The IACG page was quite recent, May 1996, and very pleasant to view in green and red with links in white and visited links in a lighter green. The page included links to the Federal Geomatics Bulletin, the Canadian GIS Sourcebook, and a report on Federal digital data, in addition to information about the committee.

The QuickList section provides an overview of the whole site. There are detailed listings/links to information on various parts of the agency. It is divided into two major sections, "Products and Services" and "Organizational Structure," with a shorter section of other information. Some of this provided a short cut to certain areas. However, a few links ended up being dead ends or at the wrong information. A listing for "Business Development" led to information on the Geodetic Survey Division, as did the listing for the Geodetic Survey Division, while the sub-heading of "Business Development Home Page" did lead to that page. On the other hand, the sub-heading "GSD Home Page" led to a "Not Found" page, which had a link back to the "referring page" and said that the "link is either outdated, inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it."

Overall, the pages are informative and detailed. The presentation is easy on the eye and easy to use. There could be more back links to where one began (which may not always be possible when linking to such diverse sources) and more dating of pages. It is a problem that most of the pages have not been revised in nearly a year. There could have been an up-to-date organization chart and more detailed contact information, such as produced for the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives meeting in June.


Notes

[1] May be cited as/On peut citer comme suit:

"Geomatics Canada: Review," Alberta Auringer Wood Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada 3, no. 1.
<http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v3n1/wood/wood.html>
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[2]

Alberta Auringer Wood
Maps, Data and Media Librarian
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, Newfoundland
A1B 3Y1
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