On the situation of official toponyms in the Balearic Islands: the Gazetteer of Menorca and the future Gazetteer of the Balearic Islands

Abstract

At the last meeting of the Commission of Toponymy of the Balearic
Islands, the need for the Autonomous Community to have
a geo-referenced gazetteer that complies with the INSPIRE specifications
of geographical names and that contains the official
place names of the Community was evident.
Currently, there are two projects that aim to create standardized
geographic gazetteers: the Gazetteer of Menorca, with ten years
of history, driven by the Menorcan Institute of Studies (IME) and
the Consell Insular de Menorca (CIME); and the project of the
Gazetteer of the Balearic Islands, which is in the planning phase,
whose mission is to become the reference tool for geographic
names of the Balearic Islands and will collect the official forms
of the place names that it includes. In addition, there is also a
need to harmonize the Basic Gazetteer of Spain (NGBE) with the
gazetteers of our Autonomous Community.
The objective of this article is to present the status of the works
of the Gazetteer of Menorca, to explain how the elaboration of
the Gazetteer of the Balearic Islands is proposed and to show
how the process of harmonization with the NGBE and the INSPIRE
requirements is faced.