Creating and Using a Glacier Authority Index to Document Climate Change. Issue 5 (3rd July 2020) - Radio, Erik
Abstract: Authority lists or indices are key components of cataloging and metadata work as they provide critical anchoring points to disambiguate between various entities. This article describes the creation of a glacier index at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Snow and Ice Data Center which required synthesizing various data sources into a comprehensive list. This paper explores the background of this project, criteria used to justify the creation of the index, the complications inherent in creating a data source for two different types of memory institutions, publishing that data in Wikidata, and the impacts the index has for describing aspects of climate change.