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Introducing the
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
The Getty Information Institute is pleased to announce the release of its
latest vocabulary tool, the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
(TGN). Described as *an important and promising start in efforts to create
a unified source for geographic name information around the globe* the
TGN is intended to be a source of geographic names for documenting
and retrieving cultural heritage information. For example, geographic
names may be used to record the current location of an art object, its
place of origin and the sites of an artist's birth, activity and death.
The TGN is the product of eight years of research and is based on data
provided by several Getty projects. The nearly 900,000 places in the
TGN are arranged in a hierarchical structure representing all nations of
the modern world. This hierarchy is arranged from broader to narrower
context (e.g., continents, nations, states, provinces, cities etc.). The
TGN provides vernacular and English names of places, variant names in
other languages, and whenever possible, historical names. The record
for a place may also contain geographical coordinates, dates, and notes.
The TGN is available in three formats: on the Web, as tagged ASCII files,
and in relational tables. The Web version is available at
http://www.gii.getty.edu/tgn_browser. The relational tables and tagged
ASCII files will be available upon request in early 1998.
The TGN will be expanded with the addition of new names and historical
places. While we continue to collaborate with various Getty contributors,
the growth of the TGN depends on our forming partnerships with other
institutions interested in contributing their expertise to the development of
the resource. If you are interested in becoming a contributor to the TGN,
please contact the Getty Information Institute's Vocabulary Program at
(310) 440 6364 or send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Comments and
questions about the TGN may be sent to [log in to unmask] The Vocabulary
Program also plans to host several training sessions on the TGN. If you
are interested in training, please e-mail [log in to unmask]
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