BookletChart Publishing

The Office of Coast Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) makes the official nautical charts for the United States. These charts are used aboard all commercial vessels, federal vessels, and by many recreational boats to enhance the safety and efficiency of navigation, and for other purposes.

The traditional version of the nautical chart is a large format document that is printed and then sold through retail outlets. As such it may be inconvenient in size, availability and price for many recreational boaters and consequently an estimated two-thirds of such boaters use no charting product at all. The lack of such basic navigation safety information may be a contributing factor to the over 700 boating fatalities plus additional injuries and property damage that occur annually.

To increase the use of official nautical charts, NOAA has reformatted its charts into an 8 ½" x 11" booklet format that can be conveniently printed on standard color inkjet or color laser printers. These BookletChartsTM are made available over the Internet in .PDF format for individuals to print at home for free (http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/BookletChart.html ).

To further increase the distribution of BookletCharts, NOAA intends to establish a network of official Publishing Agents. These Agents would be permitted to print and sell official BookletCharts and would be compensated from the resulting sales. They would be responsible for establishing their own network of retail outlets. Their products would meet NOAA's standards and they be identified by NOAA as official Agents. At NOAA's suggested retail price of $10 it is expected that Agent-printed BookletCharts available from convenient retail outlets, e.g. marinas, would be competitive with the print-at-home-for-free alternative.

NOAA is soliciting questions and comments on its intention, on the Agent Agreement (available from this FedBizOps site), and is soliciting non-binding statements of interest from entities interested in becoming a BookletChart Publishing Agent. Respond by e-mail to BookletChart@noaa.gov; by fax to 301-713-4019; by letter to Director, Office of Coast Survey, NOAA (N/CS), 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD, 20910; or by phone to David Enabnit, 301-713-2770 x132.