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Document Details : Title: Wien or Vienna; Kalaallit Nunaat, Grønland or Greenland? Subtitle: Recent Work and Directions in Geographical Names Standardization through the United Nations Author(s): KERFOOT, Helen Journal: Onoma Volume: 35 Date: 2000 Pages: 199-213 DOI: 10.2143/ONO.35.0.574375 Abstract : The United Nations has convened seven Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names and twenty sessions of the supporting Group of Experts (UNGEGN) since 1960, and recent participation augers well for continued international cooperation in this field. Through the work of individual countries, geographic/linguistic divisions, and working groups progress has been made in areas of national and international standardization in different parts of the world. Documents presented to recent UN meetings report on field collection, processing and dissemination; on the creation of data bases and data exchange standards; on romanization systems; and on training courses and tools, such as a glossary, a multilingual list of country names and a publicity brochure. Today the importance of geographical names standardization through the forum of the United Nations is underlined by the participation of recently independent countries and the demands of rapid technological changes, particularly in geographical information systems. The World Wide Web has now provided us with an excellent medium to communicate our work to an ever expanding audience. |
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