hello !

> ----------
> From:         Vanderwal, Ron
> Sent:         Wednesday, 4 June 1997 11:14 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Accession numbers, Ethnography and Country codes.
>
> I had the opportunity to examine a commercial product, a digital
> gazeteer on DC-Rom called GEOname, put out by GDESystems, address
> below.
> I found it to be excellent, though it was quite expensive and my
> institution (Museum of Victoria, Melbourne) was not able to afford it
> and the disk was returned.  However, the system provided a list of
> country names and codes and, most valuable,  historical information on
> all kinds of geographical features.
>
> Should anyone on the list wish to follow up on the database, the
> address
> for inquiries is:
>
> GDE Systems, Inc
> Geographic Information Department (MZ 1211-M)
> P.O. Box 509009
> San Diego, California  92150-9009
> U.S.A.
>
> (619) 675 2623   fax (619) 675 1721
> Home page: http://www.gdesystems.com
> EMail:  [log in to unmask]
>
> The person I dealt with was the GEOname Marketing Manager, Brett A.
> Carey
>
> *************************************
> Dr Ron Vanderwal
> Senior Curator, Oceanic Anthropology
> Museum of Victoria. P.O. Box 666E
> Melbourne, Vic, Australia  3000
> 61 03 9651 6796     Fax 61 03 9651 6129
> [log in to unmask]
> **************************************
>
> > ----------
> > From:         Leonard Will[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent:         Monday, 2 June 1997 5:18 PM
> > To:   [log in to unmask]
> > Subject:      Re: Accession numbers, Ethnography and Country codes.
> >
> > In article <v01540b04afb6fbd346f5@[194.90.120.193]>, "Susan Hazan,
> The
> > Ruth Youth Wing, Jerusalem" <[log in to unmask]> writes
> > >I am interested in finding a uniformed method (maybe refered to in
> a
> > >bibilography) of assigning catalogue numbers to an ethnography
> > collection.
> > >These numbers will serve us in our newly acquired database.  I have
> > found
> > >particular difficulties when dealing with the Eastern European
> > countries
> > >who have been over-run again and again.  Does a standard list of
> > codes
> > >denoting countries exist?
> >
> > The heading of this message may cause confusion, because
> > classification
> > codes for subjects or countries have, generally and preferably,
> > nothing
> > to do with accession numbers. (See the other threads headed (rather
> > unhelpfully) "Cataloguing information request" and "Catalogue
> > numbering"
> > in which we have been discussing accession numbers and the
> > desirability
> > of avoiding meaningful structure within them.)
> >
> > The best hope for a system to standardise indexing by country names,
> > taking account of historical changes, seems to be the promised Getty
> > "Thesaurus of geographical names", but as far as I know that has not
> > yet
> > appeared. (See http://www.gii.getty.edu/gii/proj_standards.html).
> Does
> > anyone have any news of it? Their January 1995 discussion paper gave
> a
> > good account of the way in which they planned to deal with the name
> > change problems: "Request for Comment Issued for New Vocabulary
> > Coordination System for Getty Information Institute Authorities: Art
> &
> > Architecture Thesaurus, Union List of Artist Names, and Thesaurus of
> > Geographic Names" It is mentioned, but not given in full, at
> > http://www.gii.getty.edu/gii/newsarch.html#article6
> >
> > There is an ISO list of country codes (ISO 3166 - though this may
> have
> > changed in later editions) but as far as I know it just gives a list
> > of
> > countries at the date of publication.
> >
> > If you just want to classify areas down to about the level of a
> > county,
> > you could also look at Table 2 of the Dewey Decimal Classification:
> > "Geographic areas, periods, persons". This also just represents the
> > status at the date of publication, though.
> >
> > There is no easy solution to tracking historical place name changes
> in
> > a
> > database, though there are several complex ones. Not only do the
> names
> > of countries change, but so do the political and administrative
> > hierarchies into which places fall. Boundaries change too, so the
> same
> > name does not always apply to the same area.
> >
> > Leonard Will
> > --
> > Willpower Information       (Partners: Dr Leonard D Will, Sheena E
> > Will)
> > Information Management Consultants                 Tel: +44 181 372
> > 0092
> > 27 Calshot Way, Enfield, Middlesex, EN2 7BQ, UK    Fax: +44 181 372
> > 0094
> > [log in to unmask]
> > [log in to unmask]
> > ------------------ http://www.willpower.demon.co.uk/
> > -------------------
> >
>