Discussion: Archiving maps

Last weekend I tried to find a map and I had to go trough almost all of my map boxes before I finally found it.

I now really need to do something, and I'd like to hear some ideas from you. How do you archive your o-maps? By year? By location? By O-club? Or how? And what kind of boxes (or where do you keep them) you use?

Legal-size filing cabinet with hanging folders. Generally one folder per state, though a few states have more than one folder, and some states are combined. Also a folder for Canada, one for Nordic countries, and one for the rest of Europe. A few annual races (like the Billygoat) are filed separately. In addition, I have a map cabinet (large shallow drawers) where I keep special things like unfolded clean copies of maps. I also have a spreadsheet that lists all of the orienteering races that I run.

I go chronologically instead of geographically -- a three-ring binder for each year, plus an index of maps on a spreadsheet. Works just fine.

I like Peter's method. I think that will be my New Year's resolution (do people still do that kind of thing?) next year. I really need to start archiving my maps.

A year or so ago I started using glare-free sheet protectors and 3-ring binders for letter-sized maps, and "Art Profolios" by Itoya for bigger maps.

http://www.itoya.com/Catalogs/Profolio/Profolio_ht...

I think I have two 13x19s, an 11x17, and one 18x24. I keep looking for an inexpensive map drawer, but I'm beginning to think inexpensive ones don't exist.

The next time I go to Europe, I'm going to buy a 100-pack of really good (non-glare) A4 sheet protectors and a binder for them. (I might just repunch the holes to 3-ring.)

I'd guess that half of my maps are bigger than 3-ring size, so I use the portfolio to keep from folding them.

My New Year's resolution is to throw out my old maps since I never look at them. I'm not sure how easy this will be to do, psychologically...

I keep mine in a big heap under the kitchen table. Like a pile of dry leaves. A search for a particular map involves an exercise in stratigraphy and some historical geology. I think there's an iridium layer down there somewhere after my 3rd Billygoat.

>My New Year's resolution is to throw out my old maps since I never look at them. I'm not sure how easy this will be to do, psychologically...

Don't do it Will! I sold my 80's vinyl and about the same time I started to sprain my ankle more and my vision is getting worse. So if you chuck those maps you will most definately lose that top AP ranking....

I have a binder per year for race maps since '77 (although I am 6 years behind). The rest of my 'clean' maps are sorted by province/territory in Canada, east and west US, by country for the rest of the WOrld except Norway which is by region (having lived in Norway with my best friend's Father being the IOF mapping chair - I have more Norwegian maps that the rest of the World combined). I'm considering scanning the maps and filing them on a few CD's - especially since I now download a lot of maps from web sites around the World.

I will go geographical. My oldest maps are almost 30 years old (I got this disease at age of 7), Minna's oldest maps are from the end of 80's. It's too late for finding out years. Together is is about 2000 maps, and of course a lot of same maps with different courses on them. Do you archive all maps (courses) of just one copy of each map?

Well, now I got to start the dusty work....

I'd agree with Hammer about not throwing them out, just couldn't or wouldn't want to do it. They're like old photo albums, bring back all sorts of memories. Every once in a while I'll pull out a year and leaf through it. A great pleasure.

I'm just barely organized enough. Date, time, and route go on each map right away, then they're just put in a box. Every few months I fold them and punch holes and file them away. Really glad I've done it. Only regret is not having made more notes on the maps (weather, unusual circumstances, etc.).

I've been keeping electronic records for the last 3-4 years. The original plan was to scan in all my maps. So far all I've managed to do is a few selected ones. But it's still the plan....

I save them all. I've run just over 1000 races, and a quick count recently showed that I have about 970 race maps in the filing cabinet. Having the old courses is interesting to me. It's true that most of them will never get looked at again, but a few will, and I save the whole bunch for those few occasions, because I can't guess what will be interesting later. Someday, of course, my heirs will have to dispose of it all. But being in the filing cabinet makes it pretty easy to dump them into a recycling bin.

Hammer, you mean you found somebody to actually give you money for your old vinyl? When I took half of mine to the used record store, the guy was only interested in two records, and the rest got thrown out. (And I've since inherited two other collections, from Swampfox and walk).

I guess I'm not much of an archivist - not only do I not have old photo albums, I haven't even had a camera for the last four years...

Right now they live in a huge pile in a deep dresser drawer... however they've reached the top so I also find the search for alternative storage methods interesting. I'll be moving shortly and this seems like the perfect time to acquire new furnirture and rearrange things.

At one time they were stacked alphabetically, and maps from the same place were clipped together. They do all have the race date written on them, and I keep a computer text file which lists map, date, course, distance, climb, # controls, time, and placing. But since I actually do dig my maps out fairly often, they're all mixed together again. It can be quite a feat to find a particular one.

In a single chronological pile for maps I've raced on. The main challenge is to keep juryrigging the pile so they don't slide off as the pile grows taller and taller. That's why we should reverse the trend of going to the bigger scales -- for my system to work, the maps at the top have to keep getting smaller, not grow to horse blanket size ... Of course, being a geek, I keep a spreadsheet of each race that can be used as an index.

There are separate piles for other maps, such as previews, training, model events, gifts, etc., that are sorted by domestic/international and are kept in a closet -- these don't count for statistics and don't get logged or indexed.

I always try to get the actual map I raced on. Only twice have I had to settle for a map with a different course than the one I ran, and thus had to draw my course by hand, but I do have a map of every race I've run. At a race this year I had to go to some lengths to keep that streak intact -- I'll tell the story offline sometime. I've also had a race map at an exotic location totally destroyed by rain (such that I had to race from the overprint bleed thru the back of the paper), and was quite lucky the organizers had one unusued copy left to give me.

I've never drawn a route on a race map. I like to keep them intact. I scan them and draw my routes using a photoshop-like program. I do have a plan to get all my unique race maps online at some point.

I'm sure that's more than anyone needed to know ...

I pretty much have all my maps for 20 years, with one glaring exception. It goes like this:

... it was a World Cup, and I got a map autographed by the winner, Jörgen Mårtensson, and I stuck these maps together with a few others from a previous weekend, and I showed them to a good Russian friend, and he was so interested that he asked to keep them for a while, and I went back to the States and got fired for being gone orienteering so long, and this friend of mine turned out to be in the Mafia, and owed someone a bit of cash and couldn't pay, so he was scheduled for a whacking, but he disappeared and camped near rivers and ate mushrooms, and for seven years nobody heard about him, but last I heard he survived and emerged under a new name, which I don't know.

... and it ain't no dream. Believe it or not. I have no idea what happened to those maps.

Well, that's a better story than mine. The are a couple of maps that I know of that I'm missing, one from Silvermine and I think one from Mt. Tom. Took them with me on a European trip around 1980 to be able to show folks we had some interesting terrain in the US. One day I taped them up on the info board, I think it was at a meet in Norway, and when I came back from my run they were gone. I was pretty pissed.

At least i think it was Norway, though it might have been Sweden. I can't remember what the pecking order is between the two, which one has lower standards.... :-)

That would be Sweden.

One of my race maps that isn't actually my race map is from a weekend when there was a World Cup on Saturday, and I was running M21E (same course as WC, but later start window). It was one of those days when the organizers decide that they have to keep the maps over Saturday night, and not release them until after the last start on Sunday. Well, on Sunday they put out the pile of maps for people to pick up, and since I had a late start, I was still on my course. A friend of mine said that he saw a person from some unnamed Nordic country that starts with the letter 'S' walk over and take the entire pile of M21E/WC maps. When I got back, there were none. I went to the organizers to see if I could get an extra, and they said that I was out of luck, that it wasn't their fault that somebody swiped the maps. I think I finally talked them into selling me a slight misprint at a discount or something, so I did get a map to draw my route on. But by the time I finally got around to drawing my route that evening, enough time and such had gone by that there was one control that I couldn't remember at all. Couldn't remember the leg going to it, or the one leaving. But I did have the splits.

Over the years, I have tried many methods of map storage. For many years I tried the heap method but it was impossible to find a map without tons of looking and I was generally too lazy. It probably didn't help that the piles were not centrally located and were all over the house. I finally started a filling system that lasted about 10 minutes (about as long as I spent filling it). Well it was finally time to clean house and now I use a combination. All local maps Maryland, DC, Virginia (and some Pennsylvania maps are in big plastic bin). The other maps are sorted by states and alpabetical by state. Some states that I run in alot like New Year are split into separate zones. Since I most often want a specific map and not a specific race this works well as I can pull multiple races for the map without having to search multiple times. I don't reccommend the chronological order as I have heard that people can't remember when they ran where and spend a lot of time looking.
I should point out that there is one big flaw to any real ordering system you use, you have put away your maps instead of just throwing then in a room and hoping the room doesn't get full.
In terms of the old maps, I just loaned some of these to our club as the club was evaluating mapping some areas that hadn't been used for many years and these maps were all we had to initially see the suitability. The maps were about 28 years old.

unnamed Nordic country that starts with the letter 'S' ...

That must be "Suomi".

They used to be chronological with each year in the largest map case from that year and everything in a 9? gallon rubbermade bin. Many new years ago I resolved to sort them neatly, put on spreadsheets and file them. Even got some clear contact paper to protect them. Still have not done it. Now they are stored semi chronologically in two 18gal rubbermade bins. They pile up on the bookshelf, in the car and at work and occasionly I move the piles to the bin. Could be time for another resolution to store them propertly

It's been good to follow this discussion and realize that even in a crowd of far more experienced, talented and (undoubtedly, in other parts of their lives) organized orienteers, there are plenty of map storage systems at least as bad as mine. Thanks for the confidence boost. ;-)

Tim, don't use the contact paper. It'll suck the color out of the maps.

I'm with PG, I file chronologically. Linthicum got me started on that when I started orienteering, numbering each map. Missing a couple; one is from Texas that I lent to Dave Knight to study before the ICCs were there and I never got back. Oh well.

I buy some clear 8.5x11" sleeves from Staples/Office Depot with 3 hole punches that are just right for 3 ring binders. I fold the larger maps into sleeve. Often two can fit per sleeve with one facing each direction. I file by state and map name. Like many things, sorting geographically or chronologically can depend on your use. Chronological sorters I know can trace their progress over time and see a season come to life. Filing by state I can pull-up maps I want quickly. Duplicates are then filed chronologically so you can still see some progress over time on the same map. As binders get filled, new ones are needed and some shuffling of maps is needed.

Okay, I counted. Out of 1006 races, I've got 998 maps, roughly speaking (in a few cases there was a map exchange and I didn't get the first map back). Of the eight that are missing, four were B&W, two I didn't bring from the meet site (a motala where you'd drop off a map at the exchange and somebody else would pick it up, and a memory course), one was a crude color ski-O map, and one was from an A-meet.

I use a map cabinet. An actual piece of wood furniture which was designed to hold maps! I saw this at the Bundschuh's house in Hollis many years ago. At one time I had a metal flat file, which I had gotten from Jim and Mil Plant when they moved from MA to CO.
Then finally in 2002 (right after breaking my skate skis at the Stowe Derby) we stopped at a Yield House store in Stowe, VT and ordered the map drawer kit, double version.
So my maps are in the drawers alphabetically. Sometimes this makes it hard to find if you can't remember the name of the place, but easy to review a map when going back there for an upcoming meet.
NOt sure if Yield House still exists.............
Needless to say, we used to regularly acquire 4 maps per meet day in this family, so I have had to toss (or use for fire starter) many maps.

Sort of. Yield House. Map cabinet.

Nice, but not a bargain item.

Race maps: Chronological, every 5 years or so into a single large map case, recent on top. Separate bags for Brian, Abbi, Rachel (none yet for Trond).

Non-Race Maps: Organized by region ... Canada, US, Europe.

I use plastic "Fliptops" from Staples, bins for hanging files either of legal or standard paper size. Then put folders in the hanging files according to area, grouping all of a common area in one file. Frequently used areas, like our club events, get a file and usually 2 maps per event for us. Others are grouped geographically by state or club or 1000 Day or Canada. We've accumulated 3 of these boxes in our 10+ years. They nest nicely on top of each other in a corner. Just have to get around to stuffing the latest round of maps away.

Here's a possibility if anyone is interested (click on images for larger versions):





This piece of furniture is available for free to anyone in the northeast USA who might want it. It's currently in the attic of the building where I work in Melrose, MA, and will be tossed out if nobody is interested. The outside is covered with dust, but the inside looks pretty clean. Seems to be made of sheet metal with some kind of faux-woodgrain finish. The top surface is glass, so you can have one map on display, and the front panel is also glass, so you can see the front inch or so of the top map on each shelf. The back has two doors that swing open to access the inside. I assume this was originally intended to be some kind of retail display case, where the customers could see the contents through the glass, and the employees behind the counter could open the doors to access them. Is it useful for storing maps? Maybe.

This cabinet is available to the first person who speaks up. Most convenient for me would be if you could pick it up in Melrose, but I could also be persuaded to load it into my car and bring it to the upcoming EMPO A-meet or the Billygoat (or maybe West Point).

I store my maps chronologicaly in 3 ring binders. just finished my first binder and started my second. the date, my time, place, winners time, and rout go on each map before getting put away. sadly most often it takes a month or two before they actually get put away (or when i get sick of mom yelling at me to get them of the counter or dinner table)

i have almost all my maps. i think i'm missing about 5 from bring them to school or something like that. and i'm missing some of my splits. I really should start recording each race on the computar but i put them on my log so i guess that is good enough for now.

another alternative way of storing maps...

Compact storage

Don't expect your maps to last if you scan them and store them on CD. CD's are unreliable and suceptible to mold, decay and manufacturing defects among other things. Further, when offline records (in this case scanned maps) are often lost to software/operating system upgrades that would be prevented by keeping them in an electronic archive that is backed up offsite and, ideally, supported.

Best to properly preserve paper copies of maps in a light, temperature and humidity controlled environment and hope that quality acid-free paper and good ink was used to print them. We have, in this world, papayrus from ancient Egypt still intact and readable but are unable to access anything stored on a 15 year old 71/4 inch disk (for the most part).

My only missing maps are when the organizers don't print enough and I have to give mine up for later starts. :(

For digital storage, there are several ways to address the limitations of both laser and magnetic solutions.

15 years ago we were already on 3.5" floppies, but I can still read 5.25" floppies from as far back as 1982 if I have to (did so recently to help a guy out). And as new media comes along, you can just copy all of the old stuff onto the new stuff. I copied all of my floppies to a Zip disk years ago, and subsequently moved all my Zip disks to CD. It's also all on my hard drive, which is backed up on another off-site hard drive. When I get a new computer, I take the entire contents of my old drive and copy them to a folder on the new machine.

My maps don't need to last thousands of years, anyway. When I die, it's all going in the recycle bin.

The problem with filing chronologically instead of geographically is that you don't get to compare the various editions of a map. For us oldtimers, it's fascinating to see how both the area and the mapping have changed over years. I have three versions of a number of maps, often starting in black and white.

I have cut my maps down to a half a file drawer by keeping only one copy of each edition.

Here is a question maybe for another thread - what is the most number of editions an O map (worldwide, NAm, US) has gone through?