Maps are an integral part of doing any genealogy or historical research. The following excerpt is from an interesting article at Mainebiz.biz.
Smaller is better for Historic Map Works. The company recently relocated from the former Portland Glass building in Westbrook to a 1,285-square-foot office in Portland’s Marine Trade Center, downsizing by two thirds.
The reason for the downgrade? Owner Charles Carpenter Sr. says the company has digitized millions of maps, atlases and images that previously took up space in the Westbrook location, a project that cost $5 million and took five years to complete.
Now that Historic Map Works has digitized its entire collection and holds the licenses to those products, Carpenter says the firm is ready to increase paid website subscriptions and will soon launch a Facebook application that will incorporate its search engine, Historic Earth. Carpenter expects both to be available by the end of this year.
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…Website users can also choose to download images for fees ranging from 99 cents to as much as $60 for a large size print similar to some of the framed maps of Portland and New York City from the 1800s displayed in Carpenter’s office.
The company has more than 2 million images of documents, fine prints, maps and other records online and more than 226,000 images that are geocoded, which means a user can drag an older map of a city or town over a current map to see how various communities have evolved over time. “We have the largest digital collection and online collection in the world,” he says. In a room adjacent to Carpenter’s office five servers run 240 to 250 terabytes of data, he says. A terabyte is equal to 1,024 gigabytes.
Read the full article at Mainebiz.biz
