As to the accuracy of a set of coordinates, of course that depends on the
source and I believe (Colleen, help me out here) that we are going to rely
on data primarily from trusted sources such as GNIS and GEOnet, but also are
gathering datasets from ESRI and other like institutions.
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Paige is correct that coordinate data will need to come from trusted
sources, but there are some that might be constrained from offering their
data. Since the Broad of Geographic Names is the body that establishs the
US officially recognized name for foreign places, they would hestitate to
give bounding box coordinates as this could be constrused to mean the
coordinates had some legal US definition of borders. It would also be
possible for coordinates to be added by the cataloger who is creating the
authority record an in some cases, this might be the best source for that
data, as they could have access to local information. If they are trusted to
establish the name, why not the coordinates, if easily found?
One thing to keep in mind is these are thematic coordinates, not legally
bindings ones. Like any authority data, they can be updated and corrected
as needed. Since their primary purpose is for subject searching, the
question of who is an authority needs to be tempered with that. And for
historical data, we are likely to have to look beyond GNIS, focuses on
current coordinate information.
Colleen
Colleen R. Cahill | [log in to unmask]
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