Master Encoding Guide: Place

Record Content: Place

If a place is included on the slip, it will follow the date on the top line. Place names should be transcribed as they appear, either abbreviated or spelled out, tagged with <place> element. Place names are controlled through two attributes: location and axis.

Required Attributes

@location.
If a place name appears on the slip, it is usually rendered exactly as it appears in the document, therefore "The Hague" might be written in the French, "La Haye," if it appeared that way on the original manuscript. The value of the @location should have the English spelling of the city only. Any other place information, for examle a street address, will be found in the text of the record. If two city locations are included, both cities will be listed as the value of @location, separated with one white space. When there is a question about the proper English spelling of a city, consult the Getty Thesaurus for Geographic Names.

Example: <place location="The Hague">La haye</place>
<place location="Philadelphia">Philadelphia, 32 South Street</place>
<place location="Braintree Quincy">Braintree and Quincy<place>

Most of the city names have been automatically populated using XSL transformation. Encoders need to just check that the values are English city names only.

Optional Attributes

@axis.
There is an optional attribute to include the axis point for a given location. This information is provided in the Getty Thesaurus. The rules for encoding the longitude and latitude axis points will be determined during encoding level 2.