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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN): Editorial Guidelines


CONTENTS

Preface
Purpose of These Guidelines
Purpose of the TGN
Focus
Use
Contributors


1 ABOUT THE GETTY THESAURUS OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES (TGN)
    Introduction and Overview (PDF, 4.2 MB, 100pp)

1.1 GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT TGN
    1.1.1 Scope and Structure
    1.1.2 What is a Thesaurus?
    1.1.3 What is a Geographic Place?

1.2 EDITORIAL CONTROL
    1.2.1 Review process
    1.2.2 Does contributors' data follow editorial rules?

1.3 RELEASING THE DATA
    1.3.1 Web browsers
    1.3.2 Data releases
    1.3.3 Sample Displays of TGN Data


1.4 VOCABULARY COORDINATION SYSTEM (VCS)
    1.4.1 Database
    1.4.2 Merged Records
    1.4.3 Operating VCS



2 GENERAL GUIDELINES

2.1 GENERAL INFORMATION
    2.1.1 Following the rules
    2.1.2 Required fields and minimal records
    2.1.3 Format and values
    2.1.4 Capitalization and abbreviation
    2.1.5 Language of the Record
    2.1.6 Production goals
    2.1.7 Leaving unfinished records overnight
    2.1.8 Quality control
    2.1.9 Avoid plagiarism
    2.1.10 Uncertainty and ambiguity in display fields
    2.1.11 Uncertainty and ambiguity in indexing fields
    2.1.12 Uncertain identification of a place

2.2 MERGING RECORDS
    2.2.1 Rules for merging
    2.2.2 Procedures for merging

2.3 MOVING RECORDS
    2.3.1 Rules for moving
    2.3.2 Procedures for moving

2.4 SAMPLE RECORDS
    2.4.1 Sample TGN record
    2.4.2 Sample TGN record in VCS

2.5 LIST OF FIELDS
    2.5.1 About the fields
    2.5.2 List of VCS Fields



3 EDITORIAL RULES


3.1 HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIPS
    3.1.1 Parents
(required)
    3.1.2 Sort Order
    3.1.3 Historical Flag: Current or Historical parents
    3.1.4 Dates for relationship to parents
    3.1.5 Parent String


3.2 IDENTIFYING NUMBERS, STATUS FLAGS, AND SUBJECT SOURCES
    3.2.1 Subject ID
(required default)
    3.2.2 Parent Key
(required)
    3.2.3 Merged Status
(required-default)
    3.2.4 Published Status
(required-default)
    3.2.5 Review Status
(required-default)
    3.2.6 Record Type
(required-default)
    3.2.7 Candidate Status
(required-default)
    3.2.8 Label
(required-default)
    3.2.9 Contributors for the Subject Record
(required)
    3.2.10 Sources for the Subject Record
(required)

3.3 NAMES
    3.3.1 Term ID
(required-default)
    3.3.2 Name
(required)
    3.3.3 Preferred Flag
(required-default)
    3.3.4 Qualifier
    3.3.5 Sequence Number
(required-default)
    3.3.6 Historical Flag
(required-default)
    3.3.7 Name Type
(required-default)
    3.3.8 Vernacular Flag
(required-default)
    3.3.9 Language for Names
    3.3.10 Preferred Flag for Language
    3.3.11 Contributor for Name
(required-default)
    3.3.12 Preferred Flag for Contributor
(required-default)
    3.3.13 Sources for Names
(required)
    3.3.14 Page Number for Name Source
(required)
    3.3.15 Preferred Flag for Source
(required-default)
    3.3.16 Dates for Names
    3.3.17 Display Name Flag
(required-default)
    3.3.18 AACR Flag (LC heading)
    3.3.19 Other Flags
    3.3.20 Assigned To


3.4 DESCRIPTIVE NOTE
    3.4.1 Descriptive Note
    3.4.2 Sources for the Descriptive Note
    3.4.3 Contributor for the Descriptive Note


3.5 ASSOCIATIVE RELATIONSHIPS
    3.5.1 Related Places
    3.5.2 Relationship Type
    3.5.3 Historical Flag
    3.5.4 Dates for Related Places


3.6 PLACE TYPES
    3.6.1 Place Type
(required)
    3.6.2 Preferred Flag
(required-default)
    3.6.3 Sequence Number
(required-default)
    3.6.4 Historical Flag
(required-default)
    3.6.5 Dates for Place Types


3.7 COORDINATES
    3.7.1 Coordinates
    3.7.2 Bounding Coordinates
    3.7.3 Elevation


3.8 ADMINISTRATIVE FLAGS, NOTES, AND REVISION HISTORY
    3.8.1 Comment Flag
    3.8.2 Problem Flag
    3.8.3 Assigned To
    3.8.4 Special Project
    3.8.5 Facet Code
    3.8.6 Legacy ID
    3.8.7 Class Notation
    3.8.8 Image
    3.8.9 Index Note
    3.8.10 Not Found Note
    3.8.11 Status Note
    3.8.12 Editor Note
    3.8.13 Revision History


4.1 APPENDIX A: DIACRITICS
    4.1.1 How to Use Diacritical Codes
    4.1.2 Diacritical Codes: Quick Reference
    4.1.3 Diacritical Codes: Full List


4.2 APPENDIX B: DATES
    4.2.1 How to Record Dates
    4.2.2 How to Use the Date Authority
    4.2.3 Date Authority


4.3 APPENDIX C: SOURCES
    4.3.1 How to Record Sources
    4.3.2 Rules for Sources
    4.3.3 Merging Sources


4.4 APPENDIX D: CONTRIBUTORS
    4.4.1 How to Record Contributors

4.5 APPENDIX E: LANGUAGES
    4.5.1 How to Record Languages
    4.5.2 List of Languages

4.6 APPENDIX F: PLACE TYPES
    4.6.1 How to Record Place Types
    4.6.2 Place Type List


5.0 ADDENDUM Z: DATA DICTIONARY

 

 

 

ART & ARCHITECTURE THESAURUS: EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

    compiled and edited by
    Patricia Harpring, managing editor, and
    the Getty Vocabulary Program:
    Jonathan Ward, editor
    Antonio Beecroft, editor
    Robin Johnson, editor

    Revised: 22 November 2022

 

 

PREFACE

This document contains information about editorial practice for the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)®, one of the vocabularies produced by the Getty Vocabulary Program. The other vocabularies are the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)®, Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)®, Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA)®, and Iconography Authority (IA)™.

NOTE: The guidelines in this document are subject to frequent modification and addition.

 

Purpose of these guidelines
This document contains rules and guidelines intended for use by contributors and editors of the Getty Vocabularies. Developers and other implementers of the vocabulary data may consult these guidelines to extrapolate information and guidance for implementation of the Vocabularies.

 

Purpose of TGN
The AAT, TGN, ULAN, CONA, and IA are structured vocabularies that can be used to improve access to information about art, architecture, and material culture. The Getty Vocabularies are not simple 'value vocabularies'; they are unique knowledge bases in themselves. Through rich metadata and links, the Getty Vocabularies provide powerful conduits for knowledge creation, complex research, and discovery for digital art history and related disciplines.

  • Cataloging: For some users, the Getty Vocabularies are utilized as data value standards at the point of documentation or cataloging, to promote consistency in assignment of a term or to provide options among multiple terms referencing the same concept. The Vocabularies provide preferred names/terms and synonyms for people, places, and things. They also provide structure and classification schemes that can aid in documentation.

  • Linking: For other users, the Getty Vocabularies are used in linking, in order to reference the unique identifier of the Vocabulary record, or to otherwise reconcile their data.

  • Retrieval: For other users, the Getty Vocabularies aid in retrieval and discovery, utilizing synonymous terms, broader/narrower contexts, and other rich contextual data in search assistants, in database retrieval systems, and more broadly in a linked environment. The Vocabularies are rich knowledge bases that contain dozens of fields of rich contextual data about each concept, and semantic networks that highlight links and paths between concepts.

  • Research tools: For other users, the Getty Vocabularies are used as look-up resources, valuable because of the rich information and contextual knowledge that they contain.


  • In order to meet the needs of these various user communities, the Getty Vocabularies are made available in several ways.

  • Data formats: Releases include Linked Open Data (LOD) (JSON, RDF, N3/Turtle, N-Triples for GVP and Linked.Art), XML, Relational Tables, Web Services APIs. These files are used by developers or incorporated in various tools by vendors or others. These releases may be transformed to comply with other formats, such as the MARC format used for ULAN and TGN in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF). Some of these releases contain simplified versions of the data, while others contain the full, rich data sets, providing versions to meet the requirements of various developer communities. The AAT, TGN, and ULAN are available as LOD, relational tables, and XML. AAT, TGN, ULAN, CONA, and IA are available through APIs. The data file releases are refreshed periodically throughout the year. The Getty Vocabularies are published under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0.
  • Online search: The five Getty Vocabularies' online search pages are consistently the top sites visited at the Getty Research Institute Web site each month. Using these search tools, catalogers copy-and-paste Vocabulary terms and IDs as part of their daily workflow. Researchers use the search to locate rich information about the Vocabulary concepts. In the results displays, for each concept the data fields are presented in a logical full-record display for end users, as well as in hierarchical views. The online search data is refreshed monthly.

    Various releases or utilizations of the Getty Vocabulary data may contain more or less of the full, available data for each Vocabulary record, depending upon the purpose of the release. An implementation that intends to ask complex queries using the Vocabulary data would require the full available data. In another example, if a developer only needs to link to the unique identifier for the concept, perhaps a streamlined data set would be more appropriate; e.g., the ULAN data (and soon TGN data also) that is included in the VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) is a subset of the full data available, which is streamlined and parsed to fit the particular requirements of MARC.
     

Focus
Thebes or Diospolis? TGN is a structured vocabulary, including names, descriptions, and other metadata for extant and historical cities, empires, archaeological sites, and physical features important to research of art and architecture. TGN may be linked to GIS, maps, and other geographic resources.

For further discussion of the history and scope of TGN, see About TGN.

 

Use
The Getty Vocabularies are copyrighted: Copyright © J. Paul Getty Trust, released under Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0. The data is available in a Web search interface and in various formats, including Linked Open Data, XML, Relational Tables, and APIs.

 

Contributors
TGN is a compiled resource. TGN is not comprehensive, nor is it intended to be comprehensive for geographic names. The scope of TGN is limited to places necessary for cataloging and research of art history, architectural history, and related disciplines. TGN may change and grow over time to include more historical and multicultural data, to accommodate new research in art history and archaeology, or to reflect changes in the current political world. TGN grows through contributions. Information in TGN was compiled by the Getty Vocabulary Program in collaboration with many institutions and using open source data. Institutions interested in becoming contributors to TGN may write to vocab@getty.edu, explaining the scope of their collections and likely contributions.

 

For further information, please contact

the Getty Vocabulary Program
vocab@getty.edu

Getty Vocabulary Program
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049


 

1

ABOUT THE GETTY THESAURUS OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES

   

1.1

 

General Information about TGN

For a briefer general introduction, see TGN Introduction and Overview (PDF, 4.2 MB, 100pp).

     

1.1.1

 

 

Scope and Structure

     

1.1.1.1

 

 

Scope of the TGN
TGN is not comprehensive; although coverage is multilingual and global, the scope is tailored to the needs of the Getty Vocabularies' core audience. The temporal coverage of TGN ranges from prehistory to the present. The scope of TGN includes names, relationships, place types, dates, and coordinates for places required to catalog, discover, and retrieve information about art, architecture, and other visual cultural heritage, including related disciplines dealing with visual works, such as archaeology and conservation. Visual works include not only works classified as art according to Western aesthetics, but also utilitarian and ceremonial works. For works' information, TGN is used for current location, creation location, discovery location, and subject depicted; for people in ULAN, TGN is used for places of birth, death, and activity. TGN is linked to CONA and IA as well. Development in TGN focuses on the historical world, although as much of the modern world as is necessary for giving context to the historical world and for cataloging and discovery of visual works is included.

Types of places included in TGN are inhabited places (cities, towns, villages), nations, empires, archaeological sites, named general areas, tribal areas, lost settlements (historically documented, but the precise location is unknown), and physical features. Names that reference a built work may be included, when the name serves as a place name; if it is also serves as a built work name, you may record it in CONA and link to TGN (places and built works have different attributes, thus are recorded in separate Vocabularies). Sizable areas within inhabited places may be included if they serve as place names, such as districts, neighborhoods, squares, and large parks. Street addresses are not included. Settlements that were planned but never built may be included, but legendary and fictional places are not included; they may be included in IA.

Various types of names for places are included. Records for modern places often include historical names; historical places may have various names over time. Alternative place names are included, such as indegenous names and official names. Codes and official abbreviations may be included in the name field; for example, ISO codes for nations are included. See the discussion of fields below for more information about flags used to denote codes. Names in multiple languages may be included. Various transliterations may be included. Misspellings may be included, provided they are found with some frequency in published sources, and therefore are useful for retrieval.

What is excluded in TGN? While TGN includes lost settlements that have warrant in historical documentation, excluded are names of imaginary or legendary places that did not exist. These places may be recorded in the Getty Iconography Authority (IA). Generally, excluded also are names for underwater features and other physical features that are not required for cataloging and discovery of visual works or for creating historical hierarchies. Given that TGN is not comprehensive and is optimized for the domain of visual arts, many places found in generic GIS are excluded in TGN. Also, locally used abbreviations and names found in only one archival source are excluded. Street addresses are generally out of scope for TGN; if you require controlled street address as location identifiers in your local data, we advise that you use a local authority. The names of built works are generally out of scope for TGN, although they are occasionally included when used as a place name. Record built works in CONA. Overall, records that lack the minimal information for a TGN record are excluded; see guidelines for contributions for more information regarding minimum contribution requirements.

     

1.1.1.2

 

 

Structure of the data
The focus of each TGN record is information about a place. In the database, each place record (also called a subject in this manual) is identified by a unique numeric ID. Linked to the record for the place are names, the place's parent or position in the hierarchy, other relationships, geographic coordinates, notes, sources for the data, and place types, which are terms describing the role of the place (e.g., inhabited place and state capital). The temporal coverage of the TGN ranges from prehistory to the present and the scope is global.

  • The TGN is a hierarchical database; its trees branch from a root called Top of the TGN hierarchies (Subject_ID: 1000000); it currently has two published facets, World and Extraterrestrial Places. Under the World, the places are generally arranged in hierarchies representing the current political and physical world, although some historical nations and empires are also included. There may be multiple broader contexts, making the TGN polyhierarchical. In addition to the hierarchical relationships, the TGN has equivalent and associative relationships; thus it is a thesaurus, in compliance with ISO and NISO standards.
     

 

 

  • Unpublished facets in TGN are used for candidate records. Unpublished facets and hierarchies are designated by the "name" temp.parent (e.g., temp.parent/candidate records).
     

1.1.2

 

 

What is a Thesaurus?

  • The TGN is a thesaurus. A thesaurus is a semantic network of unique concepts, including relationships between synonyms, broader and narrower (parent/child) contexts, and other related concepts. Thesauri allow three types of relationships: equivalence (synonym), hierarchical (whole/part or genus/species), and associative. Thesauri may be monolingual or multilingual. Most fields in TGN records are written in English. While the TGN is not fully multilingual strictly speaking, the structure of the TGN supports multilinguality insofar as names and scope notes may be written and flagged in multiple languages. Thesauri are used to ensure consistency in indexing and to facilitate the retrieval of information.

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.2.1

 

 

Relationships
Thesauri may have the following three relationships:

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.2.1.1

 

 

Equivalence relationships
The relationships between synonymous terms or names for the same concept, typically distinguishing preferred terms (descriptors) and non-preferred terms (variants).

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.2.1.2

 

 

Hierarchical relationships
Broader and narrower (parent/child) relationships between concepts. Hierarchical relationships are generally either whole/part or genus/species; in the TGN, most hierarchical relationships are whole/part (e.g., California is part of the United States). Relationships may be polyhierarchical, meaning that each child may be linked to multiple parents (e.g., Siena is part of modern Italy and also part of historical Etruria).

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.2.1.3

 

 

Associative relationships
The relationships between concepts that are closely related conceptually, but the relationship is not hierarchical because it is not whole/part or genus/species.

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.3

 

 

What is a Geographic Place?

  • In the context of the TGN, a geographic place is an administrative entity or a physical feature that has a proper name, is of the type recorded in atlases and gazetteers, and is required for cataloging and research of art and architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.3.1

 

 

Political and Administrative Bodies
Administrative entities are political and administrative bodies, current or historical. They are defined by administrative boundaries and conditions, including inhabited places, nations, empires, nations, states, districts, and townships. Administrative entities include those defined by boundaries set up by standard, independent sovereign states. In addition, administrative entities in the TGN may include those with government and boundaries defined by ecclesiastical or tribal authorities. TGN includes former administrative entities, such as historical kingdoms or deserted settlements.

TGN includes lost entities, which are places described in literature or otherwise believed to have existed, although their location in the current world is unknown. Fictional or mythical places are recorded in IA (Getty Iconography Authority) rather than in TGN.

      • Examples

primary political unit

dependent state

autonomous municipality

nation

federation

independent sovereign nation

empire

first level subdivision

country

bailiwick

kingdom

canton

city-state

special city

colony

commissary

commonwealth

metropolitan area

independent city

county

department

dependency

parish (political)

province

region

shire

state

territory

external territory

unincorporated territory

overseas territory

possession

occupied territory

second level subdivision

diocese

archdiocese

parish (ecclesiastical)

arrondissement

third level subdivision

borough

precinct

township

inhabited place

locale

rural community

hamlet

village

American Indian reservation

city

town

Aboriginal reserve

 

 

 

 

1.1.3.2

 

 

Physical Features
Physical features are characteristics of the Earth's surface that have been shaped by natural forces, including continents, mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans. They do not include man-made features, such as roads, reservoirs, or canals. TGN includes physical features only to the extent they are necessary to catalog, document, or do research in art and architectural history and related disciplines.

      • Examples

ocean

pond

river

creek

lakes

lake

intermittent lake

bay

strait

glacier

river mouth

waterfall

desert

oasis

wetland

marsh

continent

subcontinent

fault

volcano

dunes

arroyo

canyon

fluvial island

mountain

mountain range

mountain system

hill

hills

plateau

valley

basin

field

plain

cape

island group

island

peninsula

reef

shore

cave

crater

depression

pampa

prairie

savanna

jungle

forest

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.3.2.1

 

 

Extraterrestrial places
A small number of extraterrestrial places are included in TGN, as needed to document and do research on architecture or art (e.g., designs for architecture proposed for lunar colonies).

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.3.3

 

 

Places that no longer exist
The TGN may include places that are no longer extant. This includes deserted settlements, historical states, lost settlements, and lost physical features, such as submerged islands.

    • Examples
    • Top of the TGN hierarchy (hierarchy root)
      .... World (facet )
      ........ Europe (continent)
      ............ United Kingdom (nation)
      ................ England (country)
      .................... Northumberland (county)
      ........................ Carrawburgh (deserted settlement)



    • Top of the TGN hierarchy (hierarchy root)
      .... World (facet )
      ........ Europe (continent)
      ............ Flanders (former nation/state/empire)
      ................. Aalst (inhabited place) [N]
      ................. Amiens (inhabited place) [N]
      ................. Antwerp (inhabited place) [N]
      ................. Arlon (inhabited place) [N]
      ................. Arnhem (inhabited place) [N]
      ................. Arras (inhabited place) [N]
      ................. Artois (historic region) [N]
      ................. [etc.]

    • Top of the TGN hierarchy (hierarchy root)
      .... World (facet )
      ........ Africa (continent)
      ............ Egypt (nation)
      ................ Urban (region)
      .................... Al-Iskandariyah (governorate)
      ........................ Alexandria (inhabited place)
      ............................. Al-Hadrah (neighborhood)
      ............................. Antirhodos (former island)
      ............................. Pharos (island)

 

 

 

 

 

1.1.3.4

 

 

What is excluded from TGN?
Smaller features typically found within the boundaries of a city are generally not included in TGN. Typically excluded from TGN are buildings, landmarks, and streets within cities, although certain large features may be included. Lost sites may be included if they are generally believed to have existed, even if their precise historical location is not currently known.

Legendary and fictional places are not included. They are included in the Iconography Authority (IA).

     

1.1.3.4.1

   

Built works
In general, architectural works are outside the scope of the TGN. Buildings are occasionally included in the TGN, but these are limited to structures that are located in the countryside (for example, abbeys, villas, and shopping centers), where they serve as a place name in the absence of a larger populated place. Certain other large, major man-made features are also included in TGN, for example the Great Wall of China and the Appian Way. Large, major examples of landscape architecture may be included if they are used as a place name, such as Central Park in New York City.

     

1.1.3.4.2

   

Cultural and political groups
Cultural and Political groups are outside the scope of the TGN. However, the political state of a cultural or political group, and the territory within its boundaries may be included in the TGN. For example, the Ottoman Turks are outside the scope of the TGN, although the Ottoman Empire could be included.

 

     

 

1.2

 

Editorial control

 

     

1.2.1

   

Review process

  • Records are contributed by various institutions or projects or created and edited by the Vocabulary Program editors, following the Editorial Rules laid out in this manual.

  • As time permits, the Vocabulary Program reviews individual records from contributors before they are released in the TGN. All contributions are checked, however less supervision is required for trained, established contributors.

  • Vocabulary Program (VP) editors follow strict rules when adding new records to the TGN. VP editors edit the contributors' records to comply with VP policy and practice; however, given the large number of records in the TGN, editors do not have the time or resources to edit every record. An editorial goal is to have uniform and homogeneous records throughout the TGN, but employing flexible standards for contributors' data means that the TGN database as whole is not entirely consistent or totally uniform.

  • The VP collects new issues that arise during the course of accepting contributions and editing the TGN. The resolutions of these issues are periodically transferred to an updated version of the manual.

 

   

1.2.2

   

Does contributors' data follow editorial rules?

  • The Vocabulary Program communicates with and trains potential contributors, to assure that 1) the incoming data will be within the scope of the TGN, and 2) the incoming data will be in an appropriate format and generally consistent with the TGN standards.

  • Given that the TGN is compiled from various contributors' automated records, it is necessary to allow "flexible standards" in order to accept contributions from a wide variety of institutions with established, diverse practice. Compliance with the critical standards regarding technical rules, structure, content, and editorial guidelines is required; however, certain other content and editorial guidelines are considered non-critical and are therefore not strictly enforced for some contributors. For example, it is critical that all records are in a format that can be imported into the TGN and include the required fields. It is also critical that the required fields are indexed or formatted in a way that will allow retrieval. However, it is not critical that the preferred name in a non-Roman alphabet be transliterated using an ISO standard (although this is highly recommended) or that the descriptive note be phrased according to a uniform style (although this is recommended too).

 

     

 

1.3

 

Data Releases

 

     

1.3.1

   

Web searching

  • On the Getty Web site: Users may search for individual terms and names, qualified by other fields, in the Getty Vocabularies online. Using these search tools, catalogers may copy-and-paste Vocabulary terms and IDs as part of their daily workflow. Researchers use the search to locate rich information about the Vocabulary concepts. In the results displays, for each concept the data fields are presented in a logical full-record display for end users, as well as in hierarchical views. The online search data is refreshed monthly.

 

   

1.3.2

   

Data files

  • Data files: Releases of AAT, TGN, and ULAN include Linked Open Data (LOD) (JSON, RDF, N3/Turtle, N-Triples for GVP and Linked.Art), XML, and Relational Tables. AAT, TGN, ULAN, CONA, and IA are available through APIs. These files are used by developers or incorporated in various tools by vendors or others. These releases may be transformed to comply with other formats, such as the MARC format used for ULAN and TGN in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF®). Some of these releases contain simplified versions of the data, while others contain the full, rich data sets, providing versions to meet the requirements of various developer communities. The data file releases are refreshed periodically throughout the year.
  • Incorporated in vendors' systems: The Getty Vocabularies are used in various collection management systems or other information systems. An example is in TMS (The Museum System) by Gallery Systems.
  • Data Dictionaries: The data dictionaries and other documentation describe the release formats and content of the Getty vocabularies. They do not give step-by-step instructions on how to construct a database or interface based on the data files; analysis and programming resources will be required to implement the vocabularies. The Getty does not provide technical support. View the data dictionaries and data from the Download Center.

 

 

 

 

 

1.3.3

 

 

Sample Displays of TGN Data


 

 

 

 

 

 

1.4

 

Vocabulary Coordination System (VCS)

  • VCS is the editorial system that was custom-designed to house and edit the Getty Vocabularies. AAT, TGN, and ULAN are each stored in a separate iteration of VCS; CONA and IA share an interation of VCS. References to "the system" refer to VCS. References made to "fields" refer to data elements in VCS. References to a "record" or "subject record" refer to an intellectual record comprising all the data linked to a given Subject ID in the data structure.

 

     

1.4.1

   

Database

  • VCS uses a relational database; the database models for each of the Getty Vocabularies are identical in the core fields, differing only where additional tables or controlled values are necessary. See the Data Dictionary for further information.
       

1.4.2

   

Merged Records

  • The TGN is compiled from place names and other geographic information that has been collected by the Getty and other institutions. When multiple contributors have submitted information about the same place, all the names and information about this Place are merged into a single record ("merge" is a function of the VCS editorial system). It is important to retain and display the contributor and the sources for all data contributed to the record.
       

1.4.3

 

 

Operating VCS

  • The chapters in this manual contain definitions of the fields, suggested values, sources where the values may be found, and rules for entering the data where relevant. The fields are presented roughly in the order in which they are found in VCS.

  • While there is some mention of the functionality of VCS in this manual, detailed instructions for the system are not included here. Instructions regarding how to use VCS are provided during training.
       

Updated 22 November 2022
Document is subject to frequent revisions

 




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