IMTA (EAME) Conference & Trade Show 2010

Tomorrow sees the start of the International Map Trade Association (IMTA): Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME) annual Conference and Trade Show, held in Bayonne, France, 25-26 Feb.

This popular event includes keynote speakers from IGN and Michelin, ESRI workshops and seminars, trade show with exhibitors and the IMTA (EAME) Best Map Awards 2010.

Full details and program from the IMTA website Upcoming Events

Map of the Month Feb 10 - The Surgical Sieve

This month’s map - The Surgical Sieve, is a concept in cartography, combining mapping and medicine. It is highly visual, simple, works on many levels, illustrates complex relationships and is potentially very practical.

Just before Christmas, my wife passed me her BMJ (British Medical Journal) and showed me a map about something called The Surgical Sieve (which meant nothing to me). After I looked a bit closer it seemed to be a brightly coloured, schematic transport map with a number of related ‘ailment’ stops, but what was it all about? Unfortunately there was no explanatory text, so hopefully after a bit of background research the following summary will help the lay-person:


BMJ 19-26 Dec 2009, Volume 339, page 1450, reproduced with permission from the BMJ Publishing Group. Click on the map to enlarge.

The map was created by Tom Turmezei, a specialist registrar in radiology who confesses to a fascination with maps, especially those with coloured schematic themes such as the underground networks. These inspired him to create this particular experimental map to visually represent the rather complex process of considering all the different possible causes of abdominal pain to see what it would look like, to see if it could be done!

In the map the circling line unites the concept in the form of a surgical sieve. In medical terms the surgical sieve is the systematic process of a structured examination with the aim of diagnosing and managing the illness correctly. It is especially useful in difficult cases. [This technique is often used by the maverick doctor House M.D. (Hugh Laurie) in the US TV series House]. For this map the sieve is used to identify the cause of the acute abdomen - ‘sore stomach’ or ’belly ache’ to the non-medical.

The idea is to enter the network at the left at ‘abdominal pain’ and travel around the yellow (aka Circle line – The Surgical Sieve) and then change lines at each of the intersections as appropriate for each of the different human biological systems. Travelling each of these system lines could then remind the user of each individual diagnosis and how they cross over. The red line is for absolute emergencies ‘Do Not Miss These’ – deal with immediately.

Some of the halts have a list of ‘differentials’ which are simply the alternatives or the other possible diagnoses. Differential diagnosis is another common technique used to narrow down the possibilities by first considering the most likely diagnosis and moving through the list removing unlikely options until (hopefully) one remains.

Another element on the map I noted was the ‘Medical/Surgical Dividing Waters’. This help to delineates when treatment by surgery (north of the river) is preferred to medical action (south of the river). But it is not so clear cut, there is no settled border here. The small subheading ‘NB: changes with the tide’ was included on the map to remind the user that there can be surgical causes of abdominal pain that are managed medically and some medical causes of abdominal pain that can be wrongly diagnosed (and even treated) as surgical.

So this map is more than a light-hearted item in the Christmas edition of the BMJ. More than a process diagram or flow chart. It is a complex process translated into a handy solution in the form of a map. But is it useful, does it work? It could become an aide memoir for clinical identification, a map on the GP’s surgery wall or even a page in a possible Collins Handy Pocket Atlas for the Treatment of Ailments?

Tom Turmezei created this map while he was writing some chapters for The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. He thought that the differential diagnosis for acute abdominal pain was a structure that could work in the style of an underground map and this seemed like a novel way of mapping it out. For further information contact tom@turmezei.com.

Surgical Sieve map on the BMJ website

Related item - Human Body as a Tube Map on Going Underground's Blog

Guam Name Change?

News is filtering through that the island territory of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean, could be renamed.

On 15 Feb, outgoing Governor Felix Camacho called for the name of Guam to be changed to the Chamorro language form Guahan (Guåhan). He issued an executive order for the name change to apply at a local level and said he would submit a bill for national approval which would require the official sanction of the lawmakers. Guam was predominantly referred to as Guahan from 1521 until 1898.

Some senators support the renaming proposal, other said it was purely a vanity project by Governor Camacho, to leave his mark in history.

A former senator, Katherine Aguon, who led a recent project to publish a new Chamorro-English dictionary, supports the idea. She said consideration should be given to the impact of the renaming and the actual name form used on maps, "Without that circle on the ‘a’ is it the same place? We have to think about all these things before an executive order is issued.”

Pacific Islands Report: Guam Residents Divided On Name Change
Guam Pacific Daily News.com: Camacho: Name change will affirm identity
Guam Visitors Bureau: www.visitguam.org

Saxon Map of Britain Raises Funds to Save the Staffordshire Hoard.

A limited number of prints of John Speed’s 1612-1627 Saxon Britain map have been created with the aim of raising money towards the campaign to save the Staffordshire Hoard.

In July 2009, near Lichfield, a metal detector enthusiast discovered over 1,500 pieces of beautifully crafted gold and silver from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. This became the most valuable treasure hoard ever discovered in the UK.



The Art Fund is the UK’s leading independent art charity, dedicated to saving important artworks and artifacts for the nation to enjoy. It is leading the campaign to buy and keep the Hoard in the West Midlands, where it was first discovered and has until 17 April 2010 to raise £3.3 million.

Mapseeker have scanned an antique original map by John Speed - Britain As It Was Divided In The Tyme of Englishe: Saxons, then spent many hours restoring it back to the original colours, removing creases, stains and ageing. John Speed’s famous map, subsequently copied by both Blaeu and Jansson, shows Britain in Anglo-Saxon times divided into its seven kingdoms, and is renowned for the flanking side border illustrations of historical scenes, featuring many Saxon Kings.



The print is being offered as part of the Staffordshire Hoard appeal Fund. From the 13th February the famous Saxon Treasure went on show at the Stoke Potteries Museum. The museum received a large gold framed print along with a number of smaller prints (20" x16") for people visiting the exhibition to purchase or order. For each print sold, £6 will go to the fund and for each framed print, £10 will be donated. The print and framed prints are also available from www.mapseeker.co.uk where the above payments will be set aside for the fund on orders placed.

New Ireland Road Maps and Atlases

In a busy month for new Collins Geo products, February also sees the publication of three new editions from our popular range of Ireland maps and atlases.

First up is the new edition of our 4 miles to 1 inch Northern Ireland Road Map. New features for this edition include Blue Flag Beaches and Green Coast Beaches. The map also features up-to-date speed camera locations. A wide range of popular places of interest are shown, as well as fully indexed street plans of Bangor, Belfast, Lisburn, Londonderry and Newry.

Buy from Amazon





The new edition of our Ireland Road Map (6.5 miles to 1 inch) is a full colour, general purpose map. It has layer colouring to show land height, places of tourist interest and a selection of town and city centre maps complete with their indexes. The map shows speed enforcement zones as well as safety camera locations.

Buy from Amazon






And lastly, we have also just published a new Touring Edition of our Road Atlas Ireland (5.2 miles to 1 inch), which features full colour mapping. The atlas includes a dedicated section on places of interest, complete with photographs of many features. Other items include tourist information centres, ferry and airport listings, depiction of speed cameras and Speed Enforcement Zones. 11 fully indexed street plans are also included.

Buy from Amazon



All three are available now.

The BCS John C Bartholomew Award for Small Scale Mapping 2010 Reminder

Just a gentle reminder that there is still time to submit an entry for the British Cartographic Society (BCS) John C Bartholomew Award for Small Scale Mapping, sponsored by Collins Bartholomew and The Bartholomew family.

The closing date is 26th February 2010.

See the earlier blog post for more details.

Collins Student’s Atlas of 1870

David Jamieson our archivist/librarian has just shown me this fascinating old atlas - The Student’s Atlas, published by William Collins, Sons & Company in 1870.

The dark green front cover includes the golden embossed wording ‘containing thirty six maps and consulting index’ and the price of 6/~.


[Click on images to enlarge]

The title page wonderfully promotes further details and information: Consisting of thirty-two maps of Modern Geography, embracing all the latest discoveries and changes in boundaries and six maps of Ancient and Historical Geography. Constructed and engraved by John Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.

The Contents page lists the plates under the headings of Modern Geography, and Ancient and Historical Geography and advertises the copious index.

This is probably one of the earliest associations of the famous Collins publishing and Bartholomew mapping firms. Their legacy continues today with ourselves Collins Geo.

For comparison of old and new see our recent award winning Collins Student World Atlas.

New Collins Scotland Whisky, Castles, Clans and Tartans Box Set

Today sees the publication of the new Collins Scotland Box Set which comprises three handy little pocket-sized guides: Whisky; Castles; Clans and Tartans - presented in an attractive slip case. And the really exciting thing is that each guide has a superb fold out map glued into the back cover showing locations for all the sites mentioned in the books.


This box set is ideal for visitors who want to capture the essence of Scotland.


The box set includes:
●Whisky Map and Guide: includes information on more than 100 whisky distilleries and has fascinating facts on how whisky is made.


●Castles Map and Guide: packed with colour photographs of some of Scotland’s finest castles. It also has details on public access and which castles are good for children as well as website and phone numbers.

●Clans and Tartans Map and Guide: includes over 1000 surnames with clan connections and shows the major tartans and clan badges.

Buy Collins Scotland Box Set from Amazon

New editions of Collins Mapstart and Mapstart Copymasters

This Thursday (4th Feb) sees the publication of new editions in the popular Collins Mapstart and Mapstart Copymaster series.


Children find maps intriguing and really want to know how to read them. They need a lot of practice with the basic map skills of locating places on a grid, estimating distances using scale, finding direction, using indexes, and understanding common map symbols. Collins Mapstart series helps to establish a sound foundation in spatial awareness using familiar objects, perspectives, locations, organisations, skills and vocabulary. Teachers' notes at the end of each book provide ideas for further enrichment.

Accompanying each Mapstart book is a set of Mapstart Copymasters which can be downloaded from Collins Education website. Each Copymaster provides a set of further exercises to reinforce and extend the ideas and skills introduced in the corresponding core book.

Mapstart teaches and develops children's geographical map and atlas skills using plans and maps on a variety of scales. This practical, structured map skills course meets the requirements of the Geography National Curriculum at KS1 and KS2 and uses a simple colourful layout to introduce pupils to using and drawing maps and plans.

• Provides step-by-step progression to using and understanding world maps
• Ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers
• Useful for developing map literacy and numeracy
• Teachers' notes, links and ideas are included for extension activities
• Uses a wide range of material such as photographs, picture maps, illustrations and satellite images.


Mapstart 1 Copymasters and Mapstart 2 Copymasters are downloadable file each containing a set of 40 pages of outlines of drawings, plans and maps used in Mapstart 1 and 2 core books. These can be used to give additional practice in the skills introduced in Mapstart books. Teachers' notes are included.

Anne Mahon, Managing Editor for Geo Education

Free Satnav for all!

For hundreds of years the presentation of maps and atlases remained largely unchanged in terms of technological advances. People relied on printed mapping - from detailed street maps to smaller scale atlases of the world.

By the late 20th century, everything was starting to go digital, including mapping. The recent trend for satnav systems is the most obvious application of this ‘technological progress’. They began to appear in cars everywhere as they became more affordable, consigning the trusty road atlas to the boot. The big satnav companies capitalized on this digital revolution, providing units that could pinpoint a destination on the screen and give the turn by turn instructions to get there.

But, they are not perfect. We have all heard and seen the horror stories of people driving down muddy tracks, or even to the edge of cliffs before getting that sinking feeling that they may have taken a wrong turn. Or a poor motorist has mistyped a place name without realising. Or typed the right name but picked another similarly named place hundreds of miles away. Also what happens if the maps used are out of date or the unit breaks?

In fact as sales of bargain road atlases have risen in the last few years, perhaps more people are starting to realise that a printed road atlas is still an essential motoring accessory?

However, as before, with ongoing advances in technology and the thirst for more subscribers/users, powering new business models there now comes a threat to the ‘traditional’ satnav business. As 2009 ended the likes of Google and Nokia announced free navigation software for your mobile phone.

Read more »

Bartholomew Map Advertising in the 1920s and 30s

Karla Baker, Bartholomew Archive Curator at the National Library of Scotland has just posted an item on the Archive blog regarding some of the advertising used to promote Bartholomew maps in the 1920s and 1930s. These include the classic style illustrations, flyers and some photographic images (proposed but probably not used).

Examples and explanations at Likable Advertising: An Oxymoron?

Image reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland.