Guidance on Geographic Names

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The standard Janus contributors have adopted for place name authority records is the Getty thesaurus of geographic names which is available at http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/index.html

In some cases the thesaurus includes a preferred term but also includes an English preferred term. English preferred terms are designated by "English-P" which appears next to the entry. Where the thesaurus includes an English preferred term, this should be used rather than the standard preferred term. For example:

• China (not Zhonghua)
• Russia (not Rossiya)
• but Myanmar (not Burma)

Please note that the Getty thesaurus often brings up place names in the United States before much larger places in the rest of the world!

There is no need to include the additional elements describing the place type (e.g. inhabited place) which are included in the thesaurus.

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