So last night I spent about 3 hours preparing an e-mail to the head of acquisitions at the Library of Congress Geography & Mapping Division. It outlines why I should have a special collection and I think I provide some compelling reasons as to why my maps would be of interest to the library. On the LOC website states:

Division’s collecting goals include the acquisition of items and collections that:

broaden and enhance worldwide geographic and thematic coverage
fill identified gaps in existing collections and map series and upgrade the condidtion and quality
document the work of distinguished cartographers and map publishers, particularly American
document and illustrate historical events
illustrate the purely aesthetic value of cartographic products
illustrate the technical process of map making, including the variety of printing techniques
document and illustrate developments in thematic cartography
document non-Western/non-European cartographic traditions
support the collections and reference resource requirements of other areas of the Library.

I went through each applicable line above and explain how my maps qualified. I have not sent the e-mail yet. If I do I’ll bury it in this posting at a later date….

So why the Library of Congress? why not? I have painstakingly backed up every map 2 times and I think the LOC would be one of the best places to archive these maps. I don’t have the exact number, I lost track a long time ago, but my guess is that I’ve made around 200 maps in the last year and a half. At last check, I had backed up about 650 gigs worth of CDs and DVDs- make that 1.3 terabytes of data…..Terra….that’s Latin for land and well that also happens to be the same subject matter my maps employ. Nice duplicity :-)