The modern student atlas: a multi-published approach

Student atlas publishing has a long history in Australia going back some 150 years to the publishing of Whiteheads Atlas of Australasia in 1870. In the Australian context, it is difficult to determine which came first, the desire from teachers for an atlas as a tool to teach geography, or entrepreneurial publishers creating the need for atlases to teach geography. Publishers have invested large amounts of money in the production of these atlases in the knowledge that they have a safe market in geography students, as long as geography is seen as a core subject to be taught in the Australian curriculum.<br><br>With the change from hard copy map production to digital delivery, how then has the design of maps adapted and the delivery of the student atlas content evolved to complement these new technologies? Will students no longer require a hard copy atlas? Will it become a curiosity sitting on a library shelf? If so, then what does the future hold for the student atlas?<br><br>Taking an optimistic view, there will always be a need for reference maps. The skill of map reading is one of the important reasons why a hard copy atlas is still relevant today. Understanding of map projections and seeing the world distorted on a two dimensional piece of paper is still important to students of geography. Typing a place name into a search engine and getting a result is still far quicker than thumbing through an atlas index. However the ability to search an index is a skill that shouldn’t be ignored. Paper-based atlases still hold a place in an educational context as a learning tool.<br><br>With the need for economy and reducing educational costs, some may see the student atlas as a luxury that can’t be afforded — a tool that can be replaced with technology. Software applications, mobile apps and web delivery of atlas and curriculum content are now being seen as the way forward.<br><br>This research proposes a way forward for atlas publishers to, in a timely and cost effective manner, take one cartographic design and push it through a multi-published workflow that still retains the sought-after design integrity across multiple media. In essence this research will propose a ‘design once, publish many’ workflow for atlas production.