Managing Ordnance Survey
geospatial data in the UK legal
deposit libraries
Chris Fleet
Deputy Map Curator
National Library of Scotland
Kimberly Kowal
Curator of Digital Mapping
The British Library
Maintaining Long-term Access to Geospatial Data workshop
27 October 2006
UK Legal Deposit Libraries
•
•
•
•
•
•
The British Library
Bodleian Library, Oxford
Cambridge University Library
National Library of Scotland
National Library of Wales
Trinity College, Dublin
UK Legal Deposit Libraries Act
2003
• For the deposit of digital materials, this was an
‘Enabling Act': i.e. it gives the force of law to
suitable future Regulations, but has no effect
until these have been drawn up and approved.
• No precise timetable for when Regulations for
different types of material will be passed
Voluntary Deposit (VDep)
OS digital data contracts
Repositories in the Legal Deposit Libraries
Isn’t this data already being archived?
– The Ordnance Survey?
– The National Archives?
– EDINA?
Repositories in the Legal Deposit Libraries
The Digital Object Management Programme (DOM)
Providing a generic and cost-effective infrastructure
for the Library’s digital material that will
 take in material of many types
 take in material coming from many sources
 store it all securely for the long term
 allow controlled access
 endure
The current budget is £1.5m per year.
Repositories in the Legal Deposit Libraries
Trusted Digital Repository (TDR)
July 2006: project initiated with funding from the Scottish
Executive
A range of digital data, including items:
• received under legal deposit legislation
• from other Scottish cultural institutions
• digital images of NLS collections NLS TDR
The current budget is £1.8 million for development over two
years.
Repositories in the Legal Deposit Libraries
• Cambridge DSpace
• FEDORA at the National Library of Wales
Software 1 - standalone customised version of MapInfo –
1999-2006
•Background - OS microfilm technology not Millennium Compliant
•Customisation of original Land-Line Viewer in 1998
•Standalone desktop application - customised version of MapInfo
•Annual snapshots received from OS - after complete snapshot in 1999,
only amended/changed tiles converted to MapInfo in application
•Metadata / Data management through MapInfo catalogue table
•Storage of original National Transfer Format (NTF) data and converted
MapInfo TAB files (using TranspOSe)
Software 1 - standalone customised version of MapInfo –
1999-2006
•Background - OS microfilm technology not Millennium Compliant
•Customisation of original Land-Line Viewer in 1998
•Standalone desktop application - customised version of MapInfo
•Annual snapshots received from OS - after complete snapshot in 1999,
only amended/changed tiles converted to MapInfo in application
•Storage of original National Transfer Format (NTF) data and converted
MapInfo TAB files (using TranspOSe)
•Metadata / Data management through MapInfo catalogue table
Software 2 - networked customised version of ResponseMX
- 2006•Background - need to migrate from Land-Line to OS
MasterMap
•Detailed review of software, hosting and archiving options 2005
•Need for formal LDL approval and importance of minimising
costs
•European Union procurement - 'restricted procedure' - Jan May 2006
•Dotted Eyes' ResponseMX - based on MapXtreme and using
Flash.
OS MasterMap application model architecture
Software
Purcha
se
Price
Maintenanc
e Price (in
£1,000s
Standar
ds GML
Standar
ds OGC
Relevant
Experien
ce
East of
customisation
/
maintenance/
support
Proven/
long-term
future of
company
Long-term
durability/
migration
of
applicatio
Simplicity of
architecture
Scalability/
Robustness
Autodesk
£108185
+DB
£20








Cadcorp
£7677
+DB
£25
£13








£5








£8








GDC
£5667
+DB
£86
£17-19








GeoConc
ept
£3848
£3








Innogistic
£4952
£5








Intergraph
£97
+DB
£17








IONIC
£8898
£10








LaserScan
£120
£20-30








MapInfo
£4751
+DB
£13
+DB
£10








£13








£4043
+DB
£8-10








Dotted
Eyes
ESRI
SIA
STARAPIC
Software 2 - networked customised version of ResponseMX 2006•Background - need to migrate from Land-Line to OS MasterMap
•Detailed review of software, hosting and archiving options - 2005
•Need for formal LDL approval and importance of minimising costs
•European Union procurement - 'restricted procedure' - Jan - May
2006
•Dotted Eyes' ResponseMX – also using MapXtreme and Flash.
Software 2 - functionality and content – 2006•Negotiation with OS on functionality, use of small-scale
mapping and OS MasterMap layers
•NTF (1999-2005) and GML (2006-) annual snapshots
converted to MapInfo TAB files (using TranspOSe and
InterpOSe)
•Duplicated annual snapshots - not a growing database of
feature-level information
Data Formats - Archival qualities of Land-Line and
OS MasterMap formats for storage and use
Open
Land-Line (NTF)
OS MasterMap (GML)

Non-proprietary
Authentic
Flexible







Proprietary GIS




Database (flat-file NTF)




Database (objects GML)




Some Questions!
•Are snapshots acceptable 
archivally compared to a
growing, managed repository of tiles and features?
•Is an annual snapshot a sufficiently comprehensive
record of landscape change?
•When should we migrate NTF data, and to what?
•What metadata should be used for geospatial data in
our LDL repositories?