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Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 15:23:16 -0600
From: Bill Thoen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Thesaurus for Geographic Infomration Systems? <fwd>
Sender: Bill Thoen <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Reply-To: Bill Thoen <[log in to unmask]>
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A couple of days ago I asked for help in locating a GIS-thesaurus or
other sources that would assist me in indexing a large collection of
GIS-related URLs.
Thanks to Alberta Auringer Wood, Doralyn H. Edwards, Michael A. Carson,
Mary Larsgaard, Ken Grabach, Enith Vardaman, and Dr. James R. Carter, I
have plenty to keep me busy for the foreseeable future.
Below I ve listed some online resources that looked particularly
promising (and provided some comments on them, so you can tell if
they re worth a visit should you follow this same path one day).
Following that is a bibliography of sources found in libraries with
walls.
I never did find a GIS-oriented thesaurus. About the closest to it
might be the Library of Congress Subject Headings, but I think 4,
five-pound volumes is more than I can handle (especially difficult to
get it next to my computer neither one can leave its home). It would be
nice if this was digital, online and free to the public. Another good
suggestion was to peruse the online catalogs of established libraries
with good GIS sections and see how they organize things. This seems like
a pretty good idea.
Thanks again,
- Bill Thoen
The AGI GIS Dictionary
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/agidict/welcome.html
The AGI GIS dictionary, sponsored by the Association for Geographic
Information (AGI) and the University of Edinburgh, is a rather good
resource of GIS-related words and their definitions. You can locate
words with a lookup search, or list by alphabetical or subject category.
A list of acronyms (LOA) is here too, as well as links to source
bibliographies and related sources of terminology.
Environmental On-Line Services (ERIN) Glossary of GIS and Metadata terms
http://www.erin.gov.au/gis/gis_gloss.html
(Citation: ERIN (1996). Glossary of Geographic Information Systems and
Metadata Terms. Canberra : Environmental On-Line Services.)
All words listed in alphabetical order with definitions. Link is
indexed by starting letter, and a search capability is provided as well.
Definitions are placed in an Australian context. From the web page: "The
glossary is not meant to be an exhaustive dictionary of spatial analysis
and cartographic terms, but rather to encourage a common understanding
of frequently used terminology related to GIS and data management."
Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (ESRI) GIS Glossary
http://www.esri.com/library/glossary/glossary.html
This is a list of GIS-related terms with emphasis on ESRI
software-specific ones (e.g. "dynamic segmentation", DBI, etc.). The
document can be downloaded as a PDF file or viewed online in
alphabetical order. Items include a brief, one-paragraph definition, and
are lightly cross-referenced. This server is nice and snappy too. (Note:
the links to this at AGI and ERIN are out of date)
The University of California's Dictionary of Abbreviations and Acronyms
in GIS, Cartography and Remote Sensing
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/abbrev.html
Here's quite a large collection of acronyms, and all in one "page", but
the machine that serves it was very sluggish. I had to wait a full
couple of minutes even using a T1 connection to find out the acronym for
"Zoom Transfer Scope" (which is ZTS). The terms are also indexed by
starting letter and sorted in alphabetical order. To search for
keywords, you use your browser s "find in page" capability.
The University of Texas at Austin Glossary of Cartographic Terms
http://habicht.bauv.unibw-muenchen.de/voser/geo_terms/perry_gloss.html
The Perry-Castaqeda Library at UT s web site lists terms alphabetically
with multi-line definitions on a single page. The resource is 39 "Page
Downs" long, and there is an index to starting letters or you can use
your browser to search.
The Glossary of Oceanography, Climatology and the Related Geosciences
http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/~baum/paleo/paleogloss/paleogloss.html
This is an extensive glossary of words, phrases, and acronyms primarily
related to oceanography, but it also includes the spheres of
paleoceanography, meteorology, climatology, geology, numerical analysis,
signal processing and statistics. A rather long preface explains the
methods and scope of the items listed. At the end of the preface are
links to 20 more related glossaries. Entries are indexed alphabetically
and include definitions and links to online sources. A lot of work went
into this resource!
A Glossary of Forest Policy Terms
http://www.rfa.gov.au/dfa/other_info/glossary.html
This is a small list of words, phrases and acronyms with definitions.
It is all on one page and organized alphabetically.
Harvard Geographical Information Systems User Group
http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~maps/hgis/lngis.htm
This is a nicely-done general GIS resource list done in crimson
(naturally!) with links to bibliographies and dictionaries relevant to
GIS (Click on "General GIS resources")
Resources not online:
McDonnell, Rachel. International GIS dictionary. Cambridge :
GeoInformation International ; New York : John Wiley & Sons, 1995. ISBN
0470236078 (USA only).
Encyclopedic dictionary of cartography in 25 languages. 2d
enlarged ed. Munchen, K. G. Sauer, 1997, ISBN 3-598-10764-1.
Glossary of the mapping Sciences, prepared by a Joint Committee
of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Congress on
Surveying and Mapping and American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing. Bethesda, MD : ACSM, ASPRS; New York : ASCE, 1994. ISBN
0-7844-0050-4, 1-57083-011-4.
Under subject of Geographic Names:
Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 3 volumes, 1998, U.S. Gazetteer, and a
multi-volume set of world gazetteers, all from the U.S. Board of
Geographic Names.
and for Geophysical and geomorphological subjects:
The Encyclopedia of Geomorphology, Rhodes W. Fairbridge, editor, 1968
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