[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 77 (Friday, April 20, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Page 20322]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-9768]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

U.S. Geological Survey


Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Review of the 
Address Data Content Standard

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FGDC is conducting a public review of the draft Address 
Data Content Standard. An interagency team under the FGDC Subcommittee 
on Cultural & Demographic Data developed this draft standard over 
several years and the FGDC Coordination Group comprised of 
representatives from Federal agencies approved releasing this standard 
for public review. The FGDC invites software vendors and data users and 
producers in public and private sectors to comment on this standard to 
ensure that the standard meets their needs.
    Comments that address specific issues/changes/additions may result 
in revisions to the draft NSDI Address Data Content Standard. After 
comments have been evaluated, participants will receive notification of 
how their comments were addressed. After formal endorsement of the 
standard by the FGDC, the standard and a summary analysis of the 
changes will be made available to the public.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 22, 2001.

ADDRESSES: The draft standard may be downloaded via Internet address 
http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/status/sub2__4.html
    Request for printed copies of the standard should be addressed to 
``Address Data Content Standard,'' FGDC Secretariat (attn: Julie Binder 
Maitra), U.S. Geological Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise 
Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia 20192 or facsimile 703-648-5755 or 
Internet at [email protected].
    Reviewer's comments may be sent to FGDC via Internet mail to [email protected]. Reviewer's comments may also be sent to the FGDC 
Secretariat at the above postal address. Please send one hardcopy 
version of the comments and a softcopy version on 3.5-inch diskette in 
Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. All reviewers are strongly urged to 
use the template for sending comments that may be downloaded from 
Internet address http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/directives/dir2d.html

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following is information about the draft 
Address Data Content Standard, submitted by the FGDC Subcommittee on 
Cultural and Demographic Data (SCDD):
    Addresses are widely used by many organizations. Addresses 
reference and uniquely identify particular points of interest, are used 
to access and deliver information to specific locations, and can serve 
as the basis for aggregating data by location.
    Many organizations maintain address lists or have databases and 
datasets that contain addresses. Organizations typically have detailed 
specifications about the structure of their address information but 
documentation about the content of the address information is limited. 
Knowledge of both structure and content is required to successfully 
share information.
    The purpose of this standard is to facilitate the sharing of 
address information. The Address Data Content Standard (the Standard) 
accomplishes this by providing a method for documenting the content of 
address information and simplifies the documentation process by 
recognizing some commonly used discrete units of address information.
    Objective: The objective of the Standard is to provide a method for 
documenting the content of address information. The Standard is a 
Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) data usability standard. Data 
usability standards describe how to express the applicability or 
essence of a dataset or data element and include data quality, 
assessment, accuracy, and reporting or documentation standards.
    The Standard additionally standardizes some commonly used discrete 
units of address information, referred to as ``descriptive elements''. 
It provides standardized terms and their definitions to alleviate 
inconsistencies in the use of the descriptive elements and to simplify 
the documentation process.
    Scope: The Standard establishes the requirements for documenting 
the content of addresses.
    The Standard is applicable to addresses that reference and uniquely 
identify particular points of interest. The standard is applicable to 
the following address types: geographic, mailing, or physical. It 
specifically excludes electronic addresses.
    The Standard is applicable to shared addresses. The Standard does 
not require addresses be shared and does not provide guidelines for 
determining whether addresses can be shared. Some organizations cannot 
share addresses or some part of address information due to requirements 
for confidentiality and security. However, the principles of the 
Standard can be extended to all addresses, including addresses 
maintained within an organization that are not shared.
    Applicability: Data producers or maintainers shall comply with the 
requirements of the Standard when they share their address information 
with data users.
    The Standard places no requirement on internal organization use of 
address data.

    Dated: April 11, 2001.
Karen Siderelis,
Geographic Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 01-9768 Filed 4-19-01; 8:45 am]
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