Geographic data-USA

[Tom Moritz]

The USGS's Geographic Names Information System has been commercially available
on compact disk (CD-ROM) for several years.  At the California Academy of
Sciences we have it available to all networked workstations running it from
a CD-ROM tower which sits on our network.
The system has some flaws and gaps but is generally very comprehensive if
a project were undertaken to make it retrospective as well and to correct for
some deficiencies (as I recall one standard point is used to represent the
mouth of streams) it could become an invaluable source for US locales and
for NBS (I might add).

The CD-ROM product is distributed uner the name "Place Names Index" and
is available from a company ("Buckminster" I think) based in Mineral,
Virginia (I'll supply the exact details for acquisition in a following
message -- I'm working away from my files...)

The USGS NCIC will also sell the GNIS in machine readable form but the
company that distributes the CD-ROM felt that they needed to edit
something like 30,000 records (1st ed.) & at least a 2d ed. has been
released...

--Tom Moritz, Library
California Academy of Sciences
(from IUCN Library, Gland Switzerland)


On Wed, 3 Aug 1994, CAROL K. MALCOLM wrote:

> Documents containing the latitude and longitude for any feature on
> a USGS 7.5 minute topo map are available from The USGS.  Specifically
> this infomation has been compiled by the NCIC (National Cartographic
> Information Center) for their GNIS (Geographic Names Information
> Systems) programs.  These gazetteers are available in book ($36.00)
> or microfiche ($7.00) from:
>                 USGS
>                 Books and Open File Reports
>                 Federal Center Bldg 41
>                 Box 25425
>                 Denver, Colorado 80225
>
> My information is a few years old, prices may have changed.  I would
> certainly be interested in hearing about updates to this project.  These
> data would be very useful online.
>
> Carol K. Malcolm
> Texas Natural History Collection
> Texas Memorial Museum-UT Austin