Preferred Vocabularies and Identifiers - uchicago-library/ldr_documentation GitHub Wiki

Preferred controlled vocabularies/Identifiers for geographic/spatial entities

The preferred controlled vocabulary/identifier system for geographic entities is the Getty Thesaurus of Geographical Names (TGN). The metadata specialist entering metadata should enter the TGN identifier number (ID) of the entity that is being described.

TGN is extensive in its coverage but it is not exhaustive. For example, it does not contain an entry for the geographical entity "Chicago Metropolitan Area". In case a geographical entity does not occur in TGN, the metadata specialist should consider using DBPedia as a provisional alternative, entering the form "http://dbpedia.org/resource/ [Name of Resource]" (e.g., http://dbpedia.org/resource/Chicago_metropolitan_area). The metadata specialist should also inform the Metadata Analyst librarian so that he can make provisions for submitting a proposal to add the term to TGN.

Identifiers for languages entities

The preferred controlled vocabulary/identifier system for languages is ISO 639-3. The metadata specialist entering metadata should enter the three-letter code for the language in question: for example, "fre" for French, "deu" for German, "tzo" for Tzotzil, and so on. Unfortunately, the SIL search interface does not always perform well on searches by language name, and so, to find the name, the metadata specialist may prefer to search by the name on the Ethnologue website, where the three-letter code is found in the "ISO 639" field in the record for each language.