latitude and longitude designation and collection data

[Alfred F. Newton]

I posted the following note to entomo-l but the references might be useful
for the discussion on taxacom too:
     Two very useful resources for getting latitude and longitude data from
typical specimen collection labels, for localities in the USA, have not been
mentioned in the discussions so far:
     1) The GNIS Digital Gazetteer published on CD-ROM (with printed
how-to-use manual) available for $57.00 from U.S. Geological Survey
Headquarters, Earth Science Info Center, 507 National Center, Reston, VA
22092 USA.  This includes virtually all place names and physical features in
the U.S Board on Geographic Names system for the U.S and its territories,
giving coordinates, elevation (if available), County, etc., and has very
flexible search features.  These data are also being published in printed
form as "The National Gazetteer of the United States", available from the
same source above, but only a third or so of the states have been covered so
far.  (A 526-page "United States Concise" volume for the entire country is
available now, but lacks smaller towns and features.)
     2) "The American Atlas" (5th Edition, 1992, compiled by T.G. Shanks,
publ. by ACS Publications Inc. of San Diego, CA, 616 pp.; ISBN
0-935127-13-5; ca. $40.00) gives coordinates, county and time tables (for
astrological purposes, the apparent intended use of the book) for virtually
all populated places in the U.S., organized by state.  This is a convenient
single-volume reference, with many more localities than the U.S.G.S.
"Concise" Gazetteer but not as complete as the CD-ROM mentioned above.



Alfred F. Newton  (newton at fmnh.org)
Field Museum of Natural History - Zoology, Insects
Chicago, IL 60605 USA
     tel. 312-922-9410 ext. 263;  fax 312-663-5397