Tunnel vision

Focusing on one map as being the most important for librarians to understand puts one into a dangerous position of judgment, where actions taken from analyzing one single map can create drastic, unforeseen problems. Geographic areas are composed of complex interrelationships of elements being characteristics and attributes, relating to cultural and physical geography. One of the advantages of GIS, which we'll need to argue for later in this course, is its ability to layer attributes onto a map in order to expand one's perspective of that geographic region. Only the right combination of variables can shed light on one particular problem. Nevertheless, if I am to choose a map that is most relevant for library professionals in this day in age, I will choose the "Newest Arrivals" map on page 28. The reason is because recent immigrants are often the most in need of the services that libraries can provide, being at no cost to them. The dynamic nature of societies necessitates an awareness of librarians to those changes. As in the case of New York Public Libraries, there are programs offered to a multitude of ethnic backgrounds. These populations should have assistance in acclimating into our society, and libraries can provide much of this assistance. A close runner-up to this map, though, following Marxist criticism slightly, is the "Notable Strikes and Lockouts" map on page 75. I believe that one can tell a lot about a geographic region by the industries that the region supports. Additional information is needed, of course, but one can draw inferences from some of these trades, such as income-level, political activity, natural resources, and population densities.