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This article examines the shifting geo-political significance of Hangzhou as presented in two local gazetteers dating from the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1276). Focusing on literary works quoted in both of these gazetteers that describe two of Hangzhou's famous halls on West Lake, I argue that geographic discourses on these halls manifest a tension between two conflicting presentations of Hangzhou's geo-political significance as understood by literati elite of the Southern Song. In writings concerning the Hall of Possessing Beauty (Youmei tang ...), Hangzhou was viewed as a city of rising economic and cultural importance during the Northern Song. Writings on the Hall of Centrality and Harmony (Zhonghe tang ...), in contrast, depict Hangzhou as an imperial refuge for a court in flight and associate it with the motif of territorial loss during the Southern Song when the city became the dynastic capital. By examining how these two views of Hangzhou are contrasted, this essay concludes that gazetteers functioned to grade and rank different kinds of landscapes in order to make geo-political arguments about the proper reconstitution of the empire during the Southern Song. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first attempt in English language scholarship to study an important genre - the comprehensive gazetteer (zongzhi ) - in China's long tradition of geographical writing. Specifically, it focuses on the most efflorescent period of this genre during the late Ming, when private initiatives almost completely replaced state-sponsorship in its production. The first part of the article investigates these late Ming gazetteers' authorship and intended audience, their relation to the printing and publishing market, and the private scholars' motivation of engagements. The second part analyzes the spatial order that was projected in these privately produced gazetteers. As a whole, the article presents a picture in which ordinary literati of the late Ming participated in the ordering of space with unprecedented enthusiasm. In this process, they endorsed the spatial structure of the realm ordered by the administrative hierarchy, yet at the same time twisted this structure and tested its limits in many aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pioneering research projects in North America that have advanced the integration of formal mathematical georeferencing and informal placename georeferencing in knowledge organization systems are described and related to visualization applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utility of every imaginable application which incorporates a gazetteer hinges on the simple fact that the resulting system will only be as useful, complete, or accurate as the underlying gazetteer itself. A major issue confronting gazetteers utilized in systems today is that they are not complete and measures of their accuracy are largely unknown. In this paper we describe a methodology which addresses this problem by automatically generating highly complete and detailed regional gazetteers from Internet sources. We utilize information extraction and integration techniques to automatically obtain geographic features and associated footprints and feature types from freely and widely available online data which could be applied to create a gazetteer for nearly any area. We discuss the distinguishing characteristics of the generated gazetteer and extend previous work to define measures which can be used to assess the completeness and accuracy of gazetteers. Using these measures, the generated gazetteer is evaluated against the Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer and the Los Angeles Comprehensive Bibliographic Database. Our results indicate that a gazetteer created by our methods will be at least as complete as any gazetteer currently available for certain feature classes, while falling short in others. We conclude by offering suggestions to address these shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the popularity of genealogy continues to grow, an increasing number of genealogists are venturing into map and geography libraries to research their family histories. An assortment of geographical materials is essential for this type of research including gazetteers, atlases, historical maps and aerial photos. Given this genuine regard for geography, genealogists can and should be introduced to GIS. Numerous types of data that genealogists collect can be visually represented in mapping projects using ESRI's ArcView 9.1 software. Libraries that offer GIS services are perfectly suited to foster that initiation. GIS Librarians will be able to show examples and demonstrate for genealogists the endless possibilities in building a personalized family history atlas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, it has been difficult for libraries to maintain large collections of map resources because of the cost of these resources and the difficulties in storing oversized gazetteers and atlases, and large loose maps. In addition to print resources, the public now has access to an overabundance of online maps and map related resources. The resources in this column have been selected after the review of a large number of map resources on the World Wide Web. The sites were chosen based on content, relevancy, quality, reliability, stability, and ease of use. Abstracts appear for the best online resources including: five online gazetteers, six atlases, three comprehensive map resource sites,four historical maps sites, four containing road maps and travel information, and one “just for fun.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the value of local gazetteers as historical resources for research on China's economic development, foreign relations, religious beliefs, frontier peoples, and natural disasters. The author cites examples of information found in gazetteers in each of these categories, chronologically extending back to the 12th century. Notable books on historical geography are also discussed, including Gu Yanwu's "Tianxia Junguo Libing Shu" (Characteristics of each province in the empire) and Zhu Yizun's "Rixia Jiuwen" (Historical studies of Beijing), both written during the late imperial era, and the more recent works of such scholars as Chen Yuan and He Bingdi (Ho Ping-ti). [ABSTRACT FROM CONTRIBUTOR]