Awards 2013        50 Year Anniversary        New Book on pre-order until end June        Win an iPad        Black Country Experience        50 Year Anniversary Sponsors: Cadcorp, ESRI UK, The GeoInformation Group, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, STAR-APIC, Victoria Litho About Cartography Cartopics What is it like to be a cartographer? Forum Careers in Cartography Job Vacancies > RAF - Air Cartographer Navtech - Aeronautical Analyst I - Charting Pindar Creative - Freelance Cartographers GIS Consultant - ERM Senior Cartographer (via Platinum Search) Cartographer (via Platinum Search) Army Reservist unit - Geographic Technicians Defence Geographic Centre (DGC), MOD - GEOSPATIAL ANALYSTS CAE - Graduate Visual Database Modeller Staffordshire University - Research Assistant in GIS Landscape Analysis Mfatech Maps - Cartographic/GIS Staff About the Society Join the Society Renew your membership Who we are > Who's who Members Directories History of The BCS The BCS Reports What we do > The Awards Events Publications Groups and Committees Members Area Frequently Asked Questions Subscribe to BCS News BCS in the Press Latest Twitter The Gallery Junior Mapmakers Careers in Cartography > View of Cartographers Introduction :: Definitions :: Statements :: Disciplines :: Key skills :: Education :: View of Cartographers This section includes personal statements from variety of people working within the subject of cartography. The individuals listed range from recent graduates to experienced academics. One thing they all have in common is an obvious enthusiasm for their subject. * Mike Wood - Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Aberdeen University Mike Wood Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Aberdeen University I was always fond of drawing and painting as a child, from my earliest memories, and output ranged from watercolour landscapes to technical images of aircraft and even space battles! Primary Schools were in villages in Aberdeen-shire and then Inverness-shire. Secondary education was Grammar School in Aberdeen. Inevitably favourite school subjects were Geography and Art, but I also enjoyed Science and English (and athletics, rugby, mountaineering…!). I had an excellent Geography master who taught us by creating what would now be called Mind Maps on the blackboard. These we copied on to scrap paper (normally large brown envelopes which had been split open!). Also I am sure that I spent a disproportionate time embellishing the maps used to illustrate geography notes. (I think I still have them somewhere!). My hobby interests still included drawing and modelling aircraft and I had aspirations to go into aeronautical engineering (!). Although I was earlier offered, through a family friend, an apprenticeship at Short Brothers, the world's oldest aircraft manufacturer, my grammar school rector reckoned that my maths were not up to it as a professional career, and thought I was best suited to become a '… country school 'dominie' (i.e. headmaster)…' By the time I left school I was split between Geography and Architecture, and was offered places in both colleges. But I chose the former.. and the rest is history! Geography at Aberdeen University was not heavily map-oriented, although I was inspired by the Departmental Cartographer (a fine lady called Mrs Barnet) and Professor Roy Mellor, who had worked for the Clarendon Press. On graduating he arranged for me to visit the Press (which I did in 1963) but there were no opportunities then. Then a chance meeting with Gordon Petrie in Aberdeen led to my introduction to John Keates who had just established his Diploma Course in Cartography in Glasgow. John Keates was an Oxford Graduate (see my Obituary of JSK in the CJ) and had also worked at the Clarendon Press. I was the first student on John's diploma and he effectively taught me in Oxford tutorial style. During most of that year I was also employed as a cartographer at the Glasgow Herald. This involved going to the Herald office every weeknight between 7 and 8.30 pm to draw the weather maps. I was also called, from time to time, to produce instant news maps to illustrate news items which had emerged during the day. All this was done with a Rotring pen and hand lettering! My biggest Herald job was a full newspaper double-page spread of the proposals for the Glasgow Inner Ring Road. John actually arranged this for me when I was still in Aberdeen and before joining the Glasgow course (I think it was meant to be a test!). After obtaining the Diploma I was immediately given the opportunity to stay on as a Research Assistant and compiled and completed all the drawing and production work for a new population dot map of Scotland (1961 data) and later an urban land use map of Glasgow City. I also took on numerous published map projects during these years. Following 2 years as an RA I was then made an assistant lecturer and helped to develop and teach various courses within the new field of Topographic Science. During Glasgow days I had also worked (and did some teaching) over one summer in Imhof's Cartographic Institute in Zurich. This eventually led to part-time consultancy work (mainly doing hill-shading) with Collins-Longman) and this work continued, on and off for over 20 years. I decided to leave Glasgow University in 1969 and investigate other mapping opportunities. There were two main options: one was to join David Bickmore at the Experimental Cartography Unit. I turned this down as it was only short term. I also considered various atlas jobs (e.g. with Phillips) but applied for and was offered an assistant editorship at Collins Publishers. I was on the point of accepting this when I received an invitation to apply for a new Lectureship at Aberdeen University…. And I have been here ever since! There is obviously much more, but this is more than enough!!!! * Nick Millea - Map Libraian, Bodleian Library, Oxford Nick Millea Map Libraian, Bodleian Library, Oxford Degree in Geography from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1981); Postgraduate diploma in Library and Information Studies from Manchester Polytechnic (1988); Map Librarian at the Bodleian Library since 1992; Map Curator, University of Sussex, 1990-92; Reference Librarian, Northumberland County Library, 1989-90; Earlier stints as Archives Assistant and Library Assistant, Manchester Central Library. Member of British Cartographic Society Map Curators' Group, (1985- ), editor of Cartographiti, (1991-94), member of the editorial board of Cartographic journal, (2001- ); Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (1993- ); Member of BRICMICS (British and Irish Committee for Map Information and Cataloguing Systems (1992- ); Chairman of the Groupe des CartothÈcaires de LIBER Working Group for Education (2000- ) [European map librarians]; Member of the Digimap Advisory Group (2002- ); Founder member of The Oxford Seminars in Cartography organising team (1993- ). The job of Map Librarian involves: Supervision of "Map Servicing" - the Library's income-generating land use consultancy service; Project managing schemes such as the 3.5 year HEFCE-funded Todhunter Allen Collection cataloguing project; and the seven-site RSLP-funded "Mapping the World" 3-year retrospective conversion project; Control of the Map Room and Map Servicing budgets; Constantly maintaining and updating one of the World's ten largest map collections; Making Library material available for publications; Promoting the collection by way of lectures, presentations and articles in journals / chapters in books; Launching "Digimap" - OS digital data into the higher education community as a pilot site from 1996;Striving to identify how to preserve digital data for posterity; Organising training days for UK map librarians. Basically, to get a map librarian job, you really do need librarianship qualifications. Nowhere in the UK offers a specific map librarianship course, but if my experience is anything to go by, I made it clear I was only doing the librarianship course to become a map librarian, so they allowed me to do virtually all my project work and placements with maps - an understanding bunch, that Manchester lot. * Jon Poulton - Cartographic Editor, Oxford Cartographers, Eynsham Jon Poulton Cartographic Editor, Oxford Cartographers, Eynsham I am a cartographic editor working for Oxford Cartographers in Eynsham. My role within the company is to compile, edit and oversee the production of map, graphic and text elements on a variety of maps, ranging from small scale topographic atlas sheets to large scale diagrammatic maps. The role requires strong communications skills, organisation and a close eye for detail, maintaining the high standards demanded by the company. My first year within the field of cartography has proven to be a testing experience. Two redundancies, followed by a period of uncertain freelance work has been a baptism of fire. However, the variety of positions I have held over these twelve months have provided a great insight into the world of mapping, and allowed me to gain experience in both project management and graphic design. A love of maps from an early age culminated in the why not do it for a living decision, having grown tired of the travelling lifestyle. However, a range of terrible A level results required me to take a Foundation Course at Oxford Brookes to earn my place at the university. This extra year proved to be invaluable, teaching many learning skills that helped my progress through the cartography degree. Because of the nature of the course provided at Oxford Brookes, the career paths open to me are relatively varied. Training in GIS and surveying, alongside conventional cartography, has left me with numerous options in the future, while the prospects ahead of me are for a job that provides a new and interesting challenge every day, though the satisfaction is far greater than the salary. * Mary Spence MBE - Cartographic Consultant and Project Manager Mary Spence MBE Cartographic Consultant and Project Manager A graduate geographer and cartographer with over 30 years in cartographic publishing. Mary graduated in Geography from Aberdeen University in 1971 taking the Diploma in Cartography under John Keates in Glasgow the following year. In her own words:- 'My 6th form geography jotters with their carefully hand drawn maps are a reminder that cartography was for me the start point of geography - first draw the map then write about its content. At that time I had little concept of career opportunities in cartography so it was with the intention of becoming a geography teacher that I embarked upon a degree course in Aberdeen. At some stage I became uncertain about my choice of teaching as a career and was steered towards the course in Glasgow by Michael Wood, my Cartography tutor. And the rest, as they say, is history. Armed with my degree and diploma I declined the offer of a job as a Cartographic Editor with John Bartholomew in Edinburgh in favour of moving to Pergamon Press in Oxford 'for a couple of years' - principally because I hadn't ventured out of Scotland at that stage and I wanted to see something of the world. Nowadays it is commonplace for students to take a year out and literally travel the world, though back then I was at the cutting edge of adventure in moving so far south. But things didn't go to plan; Robert Maxwell came back from the States towards the end of my planned sojourn and closed the Cartographic Department rendering all the staff redundant. It was then that I joined David Fryer and Co in Henley-on-Thames and it was there that I began to develop my passion for cartography. David Fryer himself was an innovative map designer, far ahead of other publishers at the time, and his Cartographic Manager was Bob Hawkins whose Royal Engineers' training ensured that I had a basic grounding in the serious discipline of map making. His exacting standards laid the foundations of the future success I was to achieve in the industry. In 1982 David Fryer & Co became GEOprojects (UK) Ltd under Lebanese ownership. Soon after this I was promoted to Chief Cartographic Editor and in 1999 was appointed General Manager having mastered every aspect of the business over the years. Ultimately it was the Arab connection that afforded me the opportunity to fulfil my ambition to travel the world, the Middle East in particular. After 28 years with GEOprojects I joined Global Mapping Ltd as Project Manager in 2002. Global Mapping is a company that provides solutions for the cartographic industry - what this means in everyday language is that we provide mapping in any form, whatever best suits the client's requirement. Products range from maps for print, CD or GIS to interactive websites for local authorities as well as our own range of wall maps and posters. My day-to-day work includes original research and preparation of new products as well as editorial input and design of existing geographical datasets - specifically ensuring that everything meets the highest cartographic standards. Throughout my career I have been involved in the production of some wonderful maps, some of which have been recognised for their cartographic excellence but the highlight has to be when I was awarded an MBE in 2004 for Services to Cartographic Design. In my role as President of the British Cartographic Society I am keen to promote the requirement for good cartographic design in the preparation of maps. Without it maps can give a confusing or even wrong message - good cartography is essential to the accurate and effective communication of geographic information.' * Susie Jones (Hart) - Lecturer in Cartography, Royal School of Military Survey, Berkshire Susie Jones (Hart), Lecturer in Cartography, Royal School of Military Survey, Berkshire I personally always wanted to lecture in cartography. From about the age of thirteen I wanted to teach, and maps seemed to combine both my love of geography and my interest in art. I did not however know what cartography was, nor that you could study the subject, so I focussed on geography, noting that the courses I selected from the university prospectuses contained some elements of mapping and map making. It was by pure chance that I discovered the cartography degree course I undertook and then went on to teach. I found studying cartography a rewarding experience, as I had the opportunity to study not only geography and map production (both manual and digital), but also the psychology behind our interpretation of the world, graphic design, typography, surveying, photography and desk-top-publishing. Nowadays the subject involves a lot more digital technology with the growth of GIS and of web based mapping, although you do not have to specialise in computing to have a very successful career in cartography, it is just one area in which you can excel. Cartography, although spreading into so many subjects and maps being used in so many aspects of our lives, is still a very 'friendly' field. It is a subject that seems to transcend geographical, social and political boundaries. I have met so many people, with such a diversity of experiences, that I firmly believe that no other path would have offered me such an enjoyable and rewarding career. * Clare Seldon (Neal) - Senior Consultant, Steer Davies Gleave, London Tweets from @bcsweb