Subject: Hierarchical Geographic Terms

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Abstract

REPEATABLE MULTILINGUAL

MODS Element name: <subject><hierarchicalGeographic>

Short definition: A geographic name given in a hierarchical form relating to the resource.

Input guidelines: Use geographic name terms that are as specific as necessary or appropriate. First order political divisions may have different terms depending on the country. It is recommended to provide geographic terms that fall above the most specific term in the hierarchy (i.e. referring to larger geographic entities), to avoid ambiguity and to facilitate search and browsing.

In general, use the term(s) most commonly used in the original language or its translation for a geographic entity. Form fields in a fieldset must be input in the same language.

The following hierarchy levels are currently available in the DAMS:

  • country: Name of a country, i.e. a political entity considered a country.
  • region: Includes regions that have status as a jurisdiction, as well as regions incorporating more than one first level jurisdiction (e.g. Middle East).
  • state: Includes first order political divisions called states within a country, e.g. in U.S., Argentina, Italy. Use also for French départements.
  • territory: Name of a geographical area belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a governmental authority.
  • county: Name of the largest local administrative unit in various countries.
  • city: Name of an inhabited place incorporated as a city, town, etc.
  • city section: Name of a smaller unit within a populated place, e.g., neighborhood, city or local park, street, street address, zip/postal code, census tract number, or district.
  • area: Names of non-jurisdictional geographic entities. Use area for continents, islands (a tract of land surrounded by water and smaller than a continent but not itself a separate country), and extraterrestrial areas (any extraterrestrial entity or space, including solar systems, galaxies, star systems, planets and geographic features of individual planets). Area may be used for terms that do not fit neatly into other designations in this hierarchy.

The Place Name facet on the start page of the Collections portal is generated from entries in the Subject: Geographic Term form field/<geographic> element.

If you want to create a Place Name facet for an asset you are describing, copy one or more terms from the hierarchical description into the Geographic Term field/element.

Definition

A geographic name given in a hierarchical form relating to the resource.

DAMS input form fields

Hierarchical Geographic Term(s)

DAMS form field nameform field typerequiredMODS elementCollections Portal displaynotes
Countrytext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/countryGeographic Coverage

Name of a country, i.e. a political entity considered a country.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Regiontext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/regionGeographic Coverage

Includes regions that have status as a jurisdiction, as well as regions incorporating more than one first level jurisdiction (e.g. Middle East).

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Statetext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/stateGeographic Coverage

Includes first order political divisions called states within a country, e.g. in U.S., Argentina, Italy. Use also for French départements.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Territorytext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/territoryGeographic Coverage

Name of a geographical area belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a governmental authority.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Countytext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/countyGeographic Coverage

Name of the largest local administrative unit in various countries.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Citytext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/cityGeographic Coverage

Name of an inhabited place incorporated as a city, town, etc.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

City Sectiontext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/citySectionGeographic Coverage

Name of a smaller unit within a populated place, e.g., neighborhood, city or local park, street, street address, zip/postal code, census tract number, or district.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Areatext fieldnosubject/hierarchicalGeographic/areaGeographic Coverage

Names of non-jurisdictional geographic entities. Use area for continents, islands (a tract of land surrounded by water and smaller than a continent but not itself a separate country), and extraterrestrial areas (any extraterrestrial entity or space, including solar systems, galaxies, star systems, planets and geographic features of individual planets). Area may be used for terms that do not fit neatly into other designations in this hierarchy.

For display in the Collections portal, information from this field is combined with values from all other hierarchical term fields. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.

Language of Subject-Hierarchical Geographic Termstext fieldnosubject[@lang]/hierarchicalGeographicN/AEnter the appropriate three-letter language code from ISO-639-2b language codes. Default is "eng" (English).

MODS Element description

Element <subject>

http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/subject.html

Guidelines for use

<subject> is a container element that contains subelements relating to the subject aspect of the resource.

Attributes


Attribute name

Details

XPath syntax examples

lang

value:

Enter the appropriate three-letter language code. Default is English ("eng").

subject[@lang]

Subelements

The following subelements of <subject> are used in the DAMS:

  • hierarchicalGeographic
  • (temporal)
  • (topic)
  • (geographic)
  • (cartographics)
  • (geographicCode)

Subelement <subject><hierarchicalGeographic>

Guidelines for use

<hierarchicalGeographic> is a wrapper element for the hierarchical form of place name. Use geographic name terms that are as specific as necessary or appropriate. First order political divisions may have different terms depending on the country. It is recommended to provide geographic terms that fall above the most specific term in the hierarchy (i.e. referring to larger geographic entities), to avoid ambiguity and to facilitate search and browsing.

In general, use the term(s) most commonly used in the original language or its translation for a geographic entity. Form fields in a fieldset must be input in the same language.

The Place Name facet on the start page of the Collections portal is generated from entries in the <geographic> element (Subject: Geographic Term).

If you want to create a Place Name facet for an asset you are describing, copy one or more terms from the hierarchical description into the <geographic> element.

Attributes

No attributes for <hierarchicalGeographic> are currently implemented in the DAMS.

Subelements

The following subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic> are used in the DAMS:

  • <country> Name of a country, i.e. a political entity considered a country.
  • <region> Includes regions that have status as a jurisdiction, as well as regions incorporating more than one first level jurisdiction (e.g. Middle East).
  • <state>Includes first order political divisions called states within a country, e.g. in U.S., Argentina, Italy. Use also for French départements.
  • <territory> Name of a geographical area belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a governmental authority.
  • <county> Name of the largest local administrative unit in various countries.
  • <city> Name of an inhabited place incorporated as a city, town, etc.
  • <citySection>Name of a smaller unit within a populated place, e.g., neighborhood, city or local park, street, street address, zip/postal code, census tract number, or district.
  • <area>Names of non-jurisdictional geographic entities. Use area for continents, islands (a tract of land surrounded by water and smaller than a continent but not itself a separate country), and extraterrestrial areas (any extraterrestrial entity or space, including solar systems, galaxies, star systems, planets and geographic features of individual planets). Area may be used for terms that do not fit neatly into other designations in this hierarchy.

No attributes for the listed subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic> are currently implemented in the DAMS.

XML Examples

<subject lang="eng">
	<hierarchicalGeographic>
		<country>United States</country>
		<state>Texas</state>
		<county>Travis</county>
		<city>Austin</city>
	</hierarchicalGeographic>
</subject>

<subject>
	<hierarchicalGeographic>
		<area>Rocky Mountains</area>
	</hierarchicalGeographic>
</subject>

Mappings

Dublin Core

Depending on the direction of mapping necessary, check

For mapping hierarchical geographic data, follow the DPLA Geographic and Temporal Guidelines (http://bit.ly/dpla-geo-styleguide). The guidelines recommend collapsing the data from subelements of each <hierarchicalGeographic> element to a single <dc:coverage> element, with values in ascending or descending order, separated by comma or semicolon.

MARC 21

see http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/mods-mapping.html#subject.

MARC 21 fieldMapping conditionMODS elementNotes
*
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/*Do not map authority information to DAMS MODS elements.
662$h
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/areaMap information about extraterrestrial areas to the <area> subelement.
752$h
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/areaMap information about extraterrestrial areas to the <area> subelement.

Solr

In general, all MODS metadata is imported into the DAMS Solr server upon ingest. The ingest process generates Solr fields typically named according to the following schema:

mods_value*_suffix

where

  • value* can be one or multiple element, subelement or attribute names that allow to distinguish Solr fields
  • suffix is s, t, ss, ms or mt, which refers to the type of data stored in a Solr field and how it is indexed. The Solr index usually contains multiple copies of each field with the same content, distinguished by their suffix.

The following table shows mappings between MODS elements and Solr fields for those fields that are currently used for display in the Collections portal, or where additional processing happens in Islandora or during the publishing process. Suffixes are ignored, unless relevant for the mapping.

MODS elementMapping conditionSolr DAMSSolr Collections PortalNotes
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/country
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_countrymods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/region
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_regionmods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/state
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_statemods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/territory
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_territorymods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/county
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_countymods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/city
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_citymods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/citySection
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_citySectionmods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.
subject/hierarchicalGeographic/area
mods_subject_hierarchicalGeographic_areamods_geographic_coverage_consolidatedFor display in the Collections portal, information from this element is combined with values from all other subelements of <hierarchicalGeographic>. The type of geographic entity is added to each value in parentheses.