ANCHORAGE (AP) -- With a few taps on a touch screen, a machine at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center will print out customized topographic maps on tear-resistant waterproof paper.
The National Geographic Map Machine kiosk contains 65,000 U.S. Geological Survey maps and is one of three top-of-the-line units in the United States, said Mike Dyer, operations manager for National Geographic Map Technologies in Evergreen, Colo.
The machine at the center in downtown Anchorage was installed the first week of November thanks to the Alaska Natural History Association, which received the machine free from National Geographic for being a good customer of its maps. National Geographic has been in the cartography business for 110 years.
The machine contains topographical maps of all 50 states. Users can customize their maps to zero in on the area they want, whether it is their backyard or Alaska's backcountry. Maps sell for $7.95 each.
''If a guy is planning a fly fishing trip in Montana and lives in Chicago he could come in and find the exact stream he was planning his trip on,'' Dyer said Wednesday. ''The maps are in this really gorgeous shaded relief which makes them nice and easy to read.''
One of the key advantages of maps made in the machine is that they can be designed from more than one map quadrant. The center point of the map is established by sliding a finger across the screen, which moves a large red X.
''In the past it always seemed that no matter what your destination was, its location on a quad map would be in a corner, making it necessary to buy and carry four maps,'' said Moira Paddock, director of operations for the Alaska Natural History Association. ''Now with the Map Machine, anyone can choose their center point and have a custom map fitting their needs and have it personalized with their name on it.''
The National Geographic Society has 80 map kiosks installed throughout the United States, twice as many as last year. Plans call for updating the machines so they carry all 50 states in the next two months.
About 95 percent of the machines are in retail stores. The first map machine was installed in an REI outdoor equipment store in Berkeley, Calif., in September 1999. It held about 2,500 USGS maps, all of California. The machines cost between $400 and $500 per month to lease from National Geographic.
Dyer said the society sold about 40,000 maps through the machines last year, mostly to outdoor recreationists and professional groups such as environmentalists, miners, foresters, oil men and real estate agents.
National Geographic plans to expand the map service to attract the general travel market by providing, for instance, hiking maps of Nepal or a city map of Prague. Plans also call for introducing customized travel maps from front door to destination.
''The data will be added to the existing machines,'' Dyer said. ''The technology is designed to be very expandable.''
Customers should see more options added to the machines in the next six to eight months.
''This is fantastic technology,'' said Joe Springrose, operational coordinator for the REI store in Anchorage, which has been promised a machine sometime next year. ''There is so much country up here ... it is very important to have a map.''
