LC-PCC
Policy Statements for Chapter 16: Identifying Places
LC-PCC PS for 16.2.2.2
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LC practice/PCC practice: For names in the United States, base the preferred name on the form found in the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS): http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic
For names in Australia, base the preferred name on the form found in the Geoscience Australia, place name search: http://www.ga.gov.au/map/names/
For names in Canada, base the preferred name on the form found in Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Geographical Names Data Base: http://www4.nrcan.gc.ca/search-place-names/name.php
For names in Great Britain, base the preferred name on the form found in a recent edition of The Ordnance Survey gazetteer of Great Britain, if available, or the GEOnet Names Server (GNS): http://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html
For names in New Zealand, base the preferred name on the form found in Land Information New Zealand’s New Zealand Gazeteer of Official Geographic Names: http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/find-names/nz-gazetteer-official-names ; and Official Names with Macrons: http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/find-names/macrons/ if the name is a Maori name. If a name does not appear in either of the above sources, consult the New Zealand Place Names Database (Archived): http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/find-names/topographic-names-db (Although this database is no longer being maintained, it is a valid source for names not yet added to the other lists.)
; and Official Names with Macrons: http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/find-names/macrons/ if the name is a Maori name. If a name does not appear in either of the above sources, consult the New Zealand Place Names Database (Archived): http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/find-names/topographic-names-db (Although this database is no longer being maintained, it is a valid source for names not yet added to the other lists.)For other names, base the preferred name on the form found in the resource being cataloged together with a consideration of the form found on the GEOnet Names Server (GNS): http://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html.
.[2015-03]
LC-PCC PS for 16.2.2.3
CHOOSING A PREFERRED NAME
Foreign Names Excluding Places in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand
The general order of preference for choosing a preferred name for place is:
1.
an approved English-language form found in GEOnet (called a conventional name) or listed in the table below;
2.
an approved form in GEOnet written in Latin script, or an approved form transliterated according to the ALA-LC Romanization Table for that language;
3.
a form found in other English-language reference sources (e.g., Columbia Gazetteer of the World) when the place name is not found in GEOnet;
4.
a form found in the resource being cataloged, transliterated if appropriate.
Different Forms Available from GEOnet
A. Conventional/English-Language Form
The conventional form of name is a commonly used English-language name approved by the BGN for foreign place names. If GEONet lists both an approved and a conventional form, use the conventional form.
EXAMPLE
GEOnet
| Warsaw (Conventional); Warsawza (Approved) |
authorized access point
| 151 ## | $a Warsaw (Poland) |
LC practice/PCC practice: For the following names, use the English form listed rather than a BGN-approved form:
| LC Choice of Preferred Name | BGN Form of Name |
| Alma-Ata | Almaty |
| Ashkhabad | Ashgabat |
| Brittany | Bretagne |
| Bruges | Brugge |
| Burgundy | Bourgogne |
| Carinthia | Bundesland Kärnten |
| Crimea | Krym, Avtonomna Respublika |
| Cuzco | Cusco |
| East Flanders | Oost-Vlaanderen, Provincie |
| Ghent | Gent |
| Hokkaido | Hokkaidō |
| Jaffa | Yafo |
| Kyoto | Kyōto |
| Louvain | Leuven |
| Lower Austria | Niederösterreich, Bundesland |
| Malacca | Melaka, Negeri |
| Mantua | Mantova |
| North Brabant | Noord-Brabant, Provincie |
| North Holland | Noord-Holland, Provincie |
| Osaka | Ōsaka |
| Padua | Padova |
| Picardy | Picardie |
| Saint Gall | Sankt Gallen |
| Seville | Sevilla |
| Sicily | Siciliana, Regione Autonoma |
| South Holland | Zuid-Holland, Provincie |
| Styria | Steiermark, Bundesland |
| Syracuse | Siracusa |
| Tehran | Tehrān |
| Upper Austria | Oberösterreich, Bundesland |
| West Flanders | West-Vlaanderen, Provincie |
| Zurich | Zürich |
If the preferred name for a foreign place is an English form, use that same English form whenever that foreign place name appears at the beginning of the name of another place. Typically, this situation often occurs when GEOnet has a conventional name for the city, and the province, prefecture, etc., and the city share the same name.
EXAMPLE
| 151 ## | $a Venice (Italy) |
| 151 ## | $a Venice (Italy : Province) |
| not 151 ## | $a Venezia (Italy : Province) |
GEOnet has no conventional form for the province, but gives the conventional form Venice for the city
| 151 ## | $a Kyoto (Japan) |
| 151 ## | $a Kyoto (Japan : Prefecture) |
| not 151 ## | $a Kyōto-fu (Japan) |
LC/PCC choice of preferred name for the city is Kyoto so that name is also used for the prefecture
| 151 ## | $a Cologne (Germany) |
| 151 ## | $a Cologne-Deutz (Cologne, Germany) |
| not 151 ## | $a Köln-Deutz (Cologne, Germany) |
but
| 151 ## | $a Garching bei München (Germany) |
| not 151 ## | $a Garching bei Munich (Germany) |
Note: GEOnet sometimes lists English-language forms as variants using the designation (Anglicized Variant). These Anglicized variants may be recorded as variant names.
B. Approved Form
If there is no conventional form listed in GEOnet and the place is not one that uses an English-language form because it shares the same name as other places (see A. above), use the approved form of the place as the preferred name unless it is a transliterated form.
See Policy Statement 16.2.2.5
for instructions on place names in non-preferred scripts.
for instructions on place names in non-preferred scripts. C. Multiple Conventional or Approved Forms
GEOnet may have multiple names designated as conventional forms or approved forms for a place. This occurs when longer and shorter forms of names are approved or when a place has more than one official language.
If GEOnet shows both a conventional or approved form and a short form of the place name, generally select the longer form as the preferred name, unless 16.2.2.8 is applicable (first part of place name includes a term indicating type of jurisdiction).
is applicable (first part of place name includes a term indicating type of jurisdiction).EXAMPLE
GEOnet
| Borno State (Approved); Borno (Approved); Borno (Short) |
authorized access point
| 151 ## | $a Borno State (Nigeria) |
GEOnet
| Taoyuan (Conventional); Taoyuan City (Conventional); Taouyan (Short); Taoyuan Shi (Approved) |
authorized access point
| 151 ## | $a Taoyuan City (Taiwan) |
GEOnet
| Sulz am Neckar (Approved); Sulz (Short) |
authorized access point
| 151 ## | $a Sulz am Neckar (Germany) |
GEOnet
| Calabria (Approved); Regione Calabria (Approved); Calabria (Short) |
authorized access point
| 151 ## | $a Calabria (Italy) |
Shorter form used because jurisdictional term is omitted
GEOnet
| Bavaria (Conventional); Free State of Bavaria (Conventional); Bavaria (Short) |
authorized access point
| 151 ## | $a Bavaria (Germany) |
Shorter form is used because jurisdictional term is omitted
When choosing the preferred name for a place with multiple approved forms in different languages and no conventional form, use the approved form that represents the language form spoken by the majority of people in the country in which the place is located. In case of doubt, use the approved name listed first in GEOnet. The other approved forms may be recorded as variant names.
EXAMPLE
GEOnet
| Espoo (Approved); Esbo (Approved) |
authority record
| 151 ## | $a Espoo (Finland) |
| 451 ## | $a Esbo (Finland) |
Finnish approved form: Espoo. Swedish approved form: Esbo. Finnish form listed first and Finnish spoken by the majority of people in Finland
When updating an existing authorized access point for a place with multiple approved language forms and no conventional form, do not change the authorized form if it corresponds to one of the approved language forms listed in GEOnet.
EXAMPLE
GEOnet
| Poschiavo (Approved); Puschlav (Approved) |
existing authority record
| 151 ## | $a Poschiavo (Switzerland) |
Italian approved form Poschiavo retained in authorized access point; German spoken by the majority of people in Switzerland
English-Language Terms "Mount/Mt." and "Saint/St." in Names
“Mount/Mt.” Always use the spelled-out form “Mount” even if “Mt.” appears on the resource being cataloged or in other sources.
“Saint/St.” Places or jurisdictions in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland: prefer the abbreviation “St.” Places or jurisdictions in Canada: use the form found in the Canadian Geographical Names Database. Places in other countries: Always used the spelled-out form “Saint” even if “St.” appears on the resource being cataloged or in other sources.
Great Britain
Follow the British Library’s practice of using “Great Britain” as the conventional name for the government of the United Kingdom.
Soviet Union and Russia
For the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, use "Soviet Union" as the conventional name. Use "Russian S.F.S.R." for the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, which existed 1917-1991.
[2017-03]
LC-PCC PS for 16.2.2.4
RECORDING A PREFERRED NAME
Choice of Larger Place
LC practice/PCC practice: When adding the name of a larger place as a qualifier, use the current name of the larger place (see RDA 16.2.2.9-RDA 16.2.2.12) and apply Appendix B.11, as applicable. If the smaller place existed when the larger place had an earlier name, and the name in the resource pertains to the earlier period, consider making a variant access point from the form that shows the earlier name of the larger place if the qualifier is appropriate for the smaller place.
-RDA 16.2.2.12) and apply Appendix B.11, as applicable. If the smaller place existed when the larger place had an earlier name, and the name in the resource pertains to the earlier period, consider making a variant access point from the form that shows the earlier name of the larger place if the qualifier is appropriate for the smaller place.EXAMPLE
Variant access point that was previously used as authorized form. Byelorussian S.S.R. became Belarus
Variant access point that was previously used as authorized form. Torit became part of the new country South Sudan
If the smaller place has changed its name or has ceased to exist, use as a qualifier the name the larger place had during the period in which the name of the smaller place is applicable.
Form of Larger Place
LC practice/PCC practice: If the heading for the larger place being added to the smaller place is created according to the provisions of RDA 11.13.1.6 (type of jurisdiction) or RDA 11.13.1.7 (other designation associated with the body), do not include the term for type of jurisdiction or the other designation associated with the body.
(type of jurisdiction) or RDA 11.13.1.7 (other designation associated with the body), do not include the term for type of jurisdiction or the other designation associated with the body.Islands and Island Groups
LC practice/PCC practice: Add to the name of an island or island group that is a jurisdiction the name of its larger jurisdiction only when the island or island group is located near the larger jurisdiction and is commonly associated with it. Otherwise, do not add the name of the larger jurisdiction. In case of doubt, do not add the larger jurisdiction.
[2017-03]
LC-PCC PS for 16.2.2.4
ALTERNATIVE
LC practice/PCC practice for Alternative: Generally apply the alternative, following these guidelines:
Drop initial articles from the beginning of the first element of geographic names in Arabic and other languages employing the Arabic initial article. Similarly, drop Hebrew and Yiddish initial articles. Retain the initial article when the name is to be accessed under the initial article, regardless of language (e.g., “Los Angeles”). Retain initial articles for non-English place names in English-speaking countries. Drop all other initial articles (e.g., drop “The” from “The Dalles”).
EXAMPLE
L'Aquila
A city in Italy
La Tuque
A city in Québec
Los Alamos County
A county in New Mexico with a Spanish name
Los Angeles
A city in California with a Spanish name
La Salle Parish
A parish in Louisiana with a French name
Northwest Territories
not
The Northwest Territories
A territory in Canada
Plains
not
The Plains
A city in Virginia
[2017-07]