John --

See
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-userguide-elements.html#coordinates

------
<coordinates>
"coordinates" contains a statement of coordinates covered by the
resource. One or more statements may be supplied. If one is supplied, it
is a point (i.e., a single location); if two, it is a line; if more than
two, it is a n-sided polygon where n=number of coordinates assigned. No
three points should be co-linear, and coordinates should be supplied in
polygon-traversal order.
-------

We should correct this.

"statement of coordinates" was intended to represent a single point (i.e. a
single pair - latitude and longitude) and looking closely at it, it doesn't
(it seems that it represents a bounding box, i.e. 4-sided polygon). So we
need to change the wording, so that:

" 'coordinates' contains a statement of coordinates covered by the
resource. One or more statements may be supplied."

should be replaced by something along these lines:

" 'coordinates' contains a pair of coordinate representing a single
geographic point. It is repeatable (so one or more points may be
specified)."

I take it that you want to represent a bounding polygon, arbitrary number
of sides (i.e. not limited to a 4-sided polygon)?

--Ray

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Banning" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 4:37 PM
Subject: [MODS] <coordinate> examples


Hi all,
I was curious if anyone could provide examples of how geographic
coordinates are being represented in MODS. I am specifically interested in
representing bounding coordinates for maps. I read in the user guide that
the information contained in this element is "equivalent to MARC 21 fields
034 and 255" but wanted to know specifically if decimal degree
(34.558889°, 16.253889°) or degree/minute/second (34° 33' 32.00", 16° 15'
14.00") the preferred geographic representation?

Thanks in advance,
John Banning