Georeferenced locality records for repatriation to source institutions

Original georefs - the number of original unique locality records for which geographic coordinates already existed at the outset of the project. These records were not re-georeferenced.

MaNIS georefs - the number of unique localities that went through the georeferencing process under the MaNIS project.

Not georeferenced - the number of unique locality records that went through the georeferencing process, but for which geographic coordinates could not be determined due to vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistencies in the description, or multiple possible locations.

Missed - the number of unique localities that did not undergo georeferencing in the course of the MaNIS project. The main causes for a locality having been missed were missing, indeterminate, or non-standard values for the higher geography. Such records were never downloaded from the gazetteer for georeferencing. Most of these records have vague or unrecorded geography.

File Contents

Each zip file contains at least a tab-delimited text file called MaNISGeorefsForRepatriation-[acronym].txt, where your institution's acronym should be substituted for [acronym] in the file name. This file contains one record for every specimen from your database that was georeferenced under MaNIS, or that had georeferences when they were incorporated into the MaNIS gazetteer. The file contains the fields listed below. Fields preceded by an asterisk should be incorporated into your working databases.

CollectionCode - the acronymn of the institution from which the specimen record originated.
CatNum - the catalog number for the specimen record. In most cases this will be the key by which these records are associated with the specimen records in your database. Before making re-associations using this field, however, be sure that there are no duplicate catalog numbers in your database.
InstitutionObjectID - some collections provided a unique key to specimen records aside from the catalog number. For those who did, it appears in this field.
MaNISGazetteerLocalityID - the unique locality id assigned in the MaNIs gazetteer. This number is not intended to be kept in perpetuity, except as an easy way to refer back through the trail of events during georeferencing in MaNIS in case a question arises.
InstitutionLocalityID - some collections provided a unique key to locality records from their relational databases. For those who did, it appears in this field.
*DecLat - the latitude in decimal degrees using the datum recorded in the datum field.
*DecLong - the longitude in decimal degrees using the datum recorded in the datum field.
*MaxErrorDistance - if calculated, the maximum uncertainty, as defined by the MaNIS georeferencing guidelines, appears in this field.
*Extent - if determined, the extent of the named place in the locality description, as defined by the MaNIS georeferencing guidelines, appears in this field.
*MaxErrorUnits - the length units in which both the MaxErrorDistance and the Extent were recorded.
*Datum - the geodetic datum used by the coordinates recorded in DecLat and DecLong.
*OriginalCoordSystem - the geographical coordinate system in which the original coordinates were determined before translation to decimal degrees.
DatumProj4Keyword - the Proj4 keyword for the datum in the Datum field to show the basis for the transformation of the coordinates in the original datum to those in WGS84.
DecLatInWGS84 - the latitude in decimal degrees after transformation from the original datum to WGS84.
DecLongInWGS84 - the longitude in decimal degrees after transformation from the original datum to WGS84.
*NamedPlace - the geographic feature in the locality description upon which the starting coordinates, offsets, and extent are based.
*DeterminationRef - the mapping or gazetteer resources used to determine the parameter used to georeference the locality.
*DeterminedDate - the date on which the georeference was determined.
*DeterminedBy - the person or organization responsible for determining the georeference.
*NoGeorefBecause - if filled in, the reason why a georeference was not able to be made for the locality.
*LatLongRemarks - comments about the process, assumptions, or additional facts used in detemining the georeference.
CheckThese - comments generated in the course of georeferencing about suspected errors or ommissions in the original locality description.
StandardizedCountry - the country name used to check the georeference against geographic data layers. It cannot be assumed that this value adheres to any established standard, because idiosyncracies do occur in the geographic layers used for validation and our goal was geographic matching rather than strict standardization.
StandardizedState - the first-level administrative subdivision name used (in combination with the StandardizedCountry name, above) to check the georeference against geographic data layers. It cannot be assumed that this value adheres to any established standard. First-level subdivision names were not necessarily found or current for all countries.
StandardizedCounty - the second- or third-level administrative subdivision name used (in combination with the StandardizeCountry and StandardizedState names, above) to check the georeference against geographic data layers. It cannot be assumed that this value adheres to any established standard. Second- and third-level subdivision names were not necessarily found or current for all countries.
*GeorefMethod - one or the other of "not recorded" or "MaNIS georeferencing guidelines." The latter value was assigned for georeferences for which all of the essential metadata were included (DecLat, DecLong, Datum, DeterminationRef, MaxErrorDistance, MaxErrorUnits, and Extent).
ValidToLevel - the geographic subdivisions within which the georeference was found to match based on the the geographic boundry layers used for validation. Georeferences that match the geographic boundary layers are not necessarily correct. Georeferences that don't match geographic boundary layers are not necessrily wrong.
Lacking - the essential metadata fields that were lacking for the georeference.
GeorefedInMaNIS - contains the value "yes" (signifying that the georeference was done under the MaNIS project) or "no" (signifying that the georeference existed already in the data assembled for the MaNIS gazetteer, and was therefore not georeferenced under the MaNIS project).
ChangesSinceOrigLocality - if filled in, contains a description of the nature of the change that has occurred in the locality ("HigherGeog has changed", "Locality has changed", or both) for the specimen record between the time the data were gathered for the MaNIS gazetteer and when the locality check was done. Locality checks were done only for institutions that returned a current snapshot of the locality data with catalog numbers.
*VerificationStatus - All georeferences should be treated as hypotheses until verified by the original collector. Users of these data should be made to understand this concept quite clearly. To assist in the documentation of the status of verification, it is recommended that every institution include a field in the working database for VerificationStatus. The value of this field for every georeference returned from MaNIS should be "unverified" until the original collector sees the specimens plotted on a map and verifies that they were collected within the MaxErrorDistance from the coordinates assigned to that collecting event. At that point the collector may be able to specify a smaller MaxErrorDistance than was determined by the georeferencer without access to the specimen data. Once the collector makes such a verification, it is extremely useful to capture that fact in the specimen database for the benefit of every user of those data in perpetuity. You can do this by changing the value of the VerificationStatus field to "collector-verified." There may be other, intermediary values for VerificationStatus, but the semantics and standard values for these will have to be worked out in the natural history community.

For those institutions with relational databases that have a separate table for locality information, a tab-delimited text file of unique locality records has been included. The file contains all of the fields described above except CollectionCode, CatNum, and InstitutionObjectID.

For those institutions that sent recent snapshots of their specimen records to be compared geographically with the data incorporated in the MaNIS gazetteer, a file containing records for which there were differences between the older and more recent locality data is also included. The file contains the following fields:

CatNum - the catalog number of the specimen record.
OriginalHigherGeog - a concatentation of higher geographic data from the specimen records submitted for the MaNIS gazetteer.
CurrentHigherGeog - a concatentation of higher geographic data from the recent snapshot of specimen records.
HigherGeogDiff - contains the value "different" if the higher geographic data have changed since the records were used to build the MaNIS gazetteer. Otherwise the field contains "same."
OriginalLocalityInfo - a concatentation of locality data from the specimen records submitted for the MaNIS gazetteer.
CurrentLocalityInfo - a concatentation of locality data from the recent snapshot of specimen records.
LocalityDiff - contains the value "different" if the locality data have changed since the records were used to build the MaNIS gazetteer. Otherwise the field contains "same."