There are traditionally a few things which Universities really need to do. Firstly, to educate our next generation of citizens and leaders, secondly to push back the boundaries of human knowledge through research and scholarship, and finally, to speak truth to power.
HERE is a superb example of high quality humanities scholarship. It is a six volume History of Cartography, published by the University of Chicago press as a series of high quality physical books, and also made available as a set of PDF documents to download. The material is created by a University of Wisconsin project team (HERE).
The first volume was published in 1987 and the three books that constitute Volume Two appeared over the following eleven years. Since 1998 the publishers have taken the opportunities afforded by the digital revolution in the production and dissemination of scholarly work. The large format high quality image reproduction afforded by a printed book is still available for those who need it, for everyone else, the online availability of the material allows scholars and map enthusiasts to learn without limitation or cost.
