public + accessible, circa 1980

In 1980 the National Research Council published a study titled "Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre." Many important studies on the topic have been produced since this one, but it stands as a kind of ur-document for multijurisdictional, large area cadastral planning in this country. From this study, a critical quote:

“The land-transfer process in North America is founded on the principle of publicity, the concept that all information relating to the nature and extent of interests vesting in a legal parcel of land must be available for public inspection” (NRC, 1980, p. 9).

This is by no means universally understood to be true here in America and Maine.