the disclaimer. It is a much better idea to include the disclaimer as a text element over the web map in a corner or to include it in an “About” page. On paper maps, the common practice of printing the disclaimer in small, but legible text on the layout with the other metadata elements is pretty much the only way to go. Unfortunately, the disclaimer can be quite long; resulting in a huge text box relative to the other elements, and it is left to the layout designer to figure out how to print such a large block of text in an unobtrusive fashion. Using a gray font color or less than single-spacing between lines may help. Also, pushing it to the edge of a layout as opposed to placing it between two other margin elements may help minimize it.
Data Sources
The names of the originating agencies for the map data are reported in the data sources section of the printed layout, the “About” page of the digital web map, or the corner of the digital web map. Include the agency and company names for each dataset, the name or a short description of the data, and the date of the data. This is a classic metadata element.
Best practices: The data sources element is very common and indeed, extremely useful for both the intended audience as well as for the future reference of the layout originator or project successor. Care needs to be taken that no abbreviations are used. For example, the layout designer may place something like this on the layout, “Data is from USGS EROS and NAIP 2006,” which is scarcely better than not putting anything on there at all. While those may be common acronyms in the designer’s office, the external map audience will certainly not understand them, the designer may forget what was meant a year from the printing, and the designer’s successor on the project may not be acquainted with them. Furthermore, it is a common assumption that people who work in your close workgroup understand what the acronyms mean as well, and it would probably surprise most of us to learn that even they haven’t deciphered these things! A better way of stating the above example is shown in Figure 3.17.
Style: The style guidelines for the data sources element are similar to all the other metadata text elements: keep it unobtrusive and minimal. However, the data sources have a slightly higher place than the disclaimer and network
FIGURE 3.17
An example of correct data source text: all acronyms except “US” are spelled out and no other abbreviations are used. This ensures that your map viewer (or even yourself several months down the line) can understand it.