Hi Everyone,

I've started creating geographic name authority records and I am curious as to how others are handling coordinates in the 034 field for larger jurisdictions such as townships.

DCM Z1 recommends entering bounding box coordinates as opposed to points for larger jurisdictions, and most of the training materials I'm seeing recommend obtaining these values through GNIS. Unfortunately, I can't quite sort out what coordinates GNIS is actually providing for larger jurisdictions or how to translate these into an 034. For instance, if I look at the entry for Harrison County (Ind.) there are seventeen sets of coordinates:

I thought that perhaps these coordinates were outlining a polygon of the county boundaries, but it looks like:

1) the furthest outlying values don't correspond with the bounding box generated by Klokantech for Harrison County;

2) some of the coordinates fall within the county as opposed to along the boundaries;

3) for the heading I'm attempting to establish, Boone Township in Harrison County, there are three sets of coordinates, which seems a bit off for creating a four-sided polygon.

In cases like these, should I be using GNIS as the source of the coordinates for the 034 in a geographic name heading. If so, how? If not, what sources are people commonly using and are they trying to capture a bounding box as opposed to point coordinates?

Thanks!

Ronda L. Sewald