Geocoding Localities

[Chrissy van Hilst]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
To: EXTERNAL--CMSNAMES

From: Chrissy van Hilst
Subject: Geocoding Localities

I am working on a geocoding project at USNM. We are in the process of
working up protocols for enhancing specimen locality data by attaching
latitude and longitude. The goal is to be able to use these data in GIS
applications to look at everything from change over time to species
distribution. I'm looking for feedback from other collections that may
have done this or thought about it and other members of the community
that may have thoughts and ideas. One of my concerns is augmenting
imprecise localities with very precise lat/longs. We want this data to
be meaningful and mappable but we do not want to imply more precision
than we really have. Please email me with your comments at
cvanhils at sivm.si.edu.

Thank you,
Christina van Hilst
National Museum of Natural History, VZ
202-786-2488