Encoding Places

LiC uses the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names as the standardized vocabulary for place names.

To locate a place referenced in your text in the Getty TGN, look it up here: https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/index.html Note that place names may use archaic spellings; the author may have used an alternate spelling; or they may be located in different countries as geographic boundaries change. You will likely need to do some general Internet research to help you ensure you’re looking for the right place. For instance, Shelley spells “Chamounix” with a “u”—that place is not recognized in the TGN. However, a simple Google search reveals that the preferred contemporary spelling is “Chamonix.” There are two hits on that search. Now you must determine which is the correct one referenced in the novel.

The string of numbers next to the place name is the unique identifier @key for that place; here, it’s 1032562.

Clicking into the correct result will show you more associated information, including geographic coordinates—these are used by the platform for the geotagging:

In your XML, you’ll need to encode the place name with the appropriate tags, as follows: […] It was from this cause that he had removed to the country; and, induced by the same motive, he now proposed that we should all make an excursion to the valley of <placeName type="tgn" key="1032562">Chamounix</placeName>.[…]

Once a sufficient number of places have been encoded, you will want to update the linked data connections.