Data localities

[Curtis Clark]

At 05:36 2002.10.23, Robert Mesibov wrote:
>You can understand why verbal locations are popular.

Robert of course makes an unassailable case for coordinate locations, but I
always recommend to my students that, best case, they also include (1)
hierarchic political units (in California, down to county, and perhaps
nearest town) and (2) driving/walking directions. The former allows a quick
estimation of whether a site could be visited on a specific field trip, and
the latter helps you get there. Re-locating collection sites is in many
cases crucial, every bit of information helps, and not everyone has a GIS
system that will easily help localize coordinates.

Of course all this is in addition to coordinate data.


--
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Biological Sciences Department            Voice: +1 909 869 4062
California State Polytechnic University     FAX: +1 909 869 4078
Pomona CA 91768-4032  USA                  jcclark at csupomona.edu