Request - associated names in geography don't exist?

[happiah-madson]

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Describe what you're trying to do According to the Geography meeting and pre-meeting held yesterday, all geographical concerns are addressed by Associated Names. Literally no OGL records have associated names. So ???????????????

@mkoo @dustymc @sharpphyl @genevieve-anderegg

[genevieve-anderegg]

My understanding is that the Associated Names that appear in the Place and Time section of the catalog record are derived from services Arctos employs, and those names are pulled from a large list of shapes that are overlapping with the coordinates of the record. These names that get added to records (through localities of course) help with searchability, both textually and spatially. However, Michelle told me before our Geography Committee meeting yesterday that there are currently issues with adding Associated Names to records because it relies on TACC resources and they are "not forthcoming with those". If Associated Names (and my understanding of how they work above is correct) are very helpful for searching records, and if they fill a need that the Geography Committee has been asking for (which is better searchability for watery specimens), then it is paramount that all records should have these Associated Names. Especially for OGL records which are all in the water and often have non-administrative Higher Geography values. Or, Associated Names are not actually that important and just a neat future, in which case that should be clarified. @dustymc @mkoo please correct me if I am wrong!

[genevieve-anderegg]

Screenshot from the edit Locality page showing a locality with no Associated Names:

Would OGL need to go and request a refresh on each Locality using their records? Would that help? If yes, how long would it take? Could a bulk refresh for all their Localities be requested behind the scenes (saving lots of clicks)?

Or am I misunderstanding Associated Names altogether?

[Jegelewicz]

@happiah-madson I think your localities DO have "associated names" but they are called Geography Search Terms in the interface.

[happiah-madson]

@Jegelewicz but I think there are also associated names, b/c @genevieve-anderegg records have another section of linked names (@genevieve-anderegg can you send a screenshot of your records?)

[Jegelewicz]

HAHAHA! Well that's nice!

[happiah-madson]

!!!!!!

[Jegelewicz]

I see it in their records

Why are there two different things? I'm curious!

[happiah-madson]

I have no idea (shockingly).

[happiah-madson]

The layout implies that Geography Search Terms come from higher geography (for us, they usually just repeat the ocean...thereby adding literally nothing) and that Associated Names comes from...the coordinates and what polygons overlay the coordinates?

[genevieve-anderegg]

@Jegelewicz Yes that is what it looks like for DMNS:Inv! @happiah-madson that seems probable?

Happy to file another issue for this because it is likely requesting a UI update BUT I would like it to be abundantly clear in the catalog record what the Associated Names and Geography Search terms are and how they are different than the other Place and Time data (e.g. NOT curatorially asserted/ not verbatim, but an added thingy done by a machine)

[happiah-madson]

(e.g. NOT curatorially asserted/ not verbatim, but an added thingy done by a machine)

Such a critical detail! And clearly the timeline at which it is done is LONG. Since our place records have been around for at least a year and none of them have information. Which does not make this a reliable way to assert geographical things!!!

[dustymc]

Associated Names that appear in the Place and Time section of the catalog record are derived from services Arctos employs, and those names are pulled from a large list of shapes that are overlapping with the coordinates of the record.

Yup.

Geography Search Terms

Those are - uhhhh, geography search terms, terms asserted as part of the geography object meant to help search.

They may also appear in associated names (from spatial intersection), but they are asserted (eg because someone chose geography https://arctos.database.museum/place.cfm?action=detail&geog_auth_rec_id=10000319 - a good example of both).

Such a critical detail!

Yes - and that's why these things are treated differently. (BUT, I occasionally think simple is better than some flavors of correct - separating "says Persia because the collection asserted Persia" and "says Persia because it maps to Persia, the collection has asserted Iowa for some reason" is more detail than anyone is prepared to process??)