Hi Ethan, > Are these examples in LCSH the most common way to textually record places, > or are there other examples I should look at? In the "other examples I should look at" category, you might want to take a gander at the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN): http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/ -- Michael # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian # University of Texas at Arlington # 817-272-5326 office # 817-688-1926 mobile # [log in to unmask] # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/ > -----Original Message----- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ethan > Gruber > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 10:02 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [CODE4LIB] A "right" way for recording a place name? > > Hi all, > > I've just about completed a new XForms-based interface for querying > geonames.org to populate the <geogname> element in EAD. An XML > representation of a geographical place returned by the geonames APIs > includes its name, e.g., Springfield, country name, and several levels > administrative names (Sangamon County, Illinois). Is there some sort of > official way of textually representing a place? In LCSH, one finds: > > 1 Springfield (Bucks County, Pa.) > 2 Springfield (Bucks County, Pa. : Township) > 3 Springfield (Burlington County, N.J.) > > Why 1 and 2 are distinct terms in LCSH, I don't know. The mode for dealing > with American place names seems to be "[name of place] ([administrative name > - lower level], [administrative name - upper level])". For a European city, > we find "Berlin (Germany)" > > Are these examples in LCSH the most common way to textually record places, > or are there other examples I should look at? > > Thanks, > Ethan