UNGEGN Norden Division Meeting
24 August 2007, New York

Minutes of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)
Norden Division meeting, Friday 24 August 2007, 13-14 pm, UN Headquarters, New York

Present

Ms. Bente Holmberg, Denmark
Mr. John Jensen, Denmark
Ms. Sirkka Paikkala, Finland, Chair
Mr. Teemu Leskinen, Finland
Mr. Johnny Andersen, Norway
Mr. Botolv Helleland, Norway
Ms. Annette Torensjö, Sweden
Mr. Leif Nilsson, Sweden
Mr. Staffan Nyström, Sweden

1. Opening of the meeting

Sirkka welcomed everybody and opened the meeting. She congratulated the participants for the large number of Nordic papers at the ongoing 9th UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (16 in all + Division report).

2. Toponymic Guidelines for Map Editors and Other Editors in the Nordic countries

  • Denmark: A new version was published at the 9th Conference, in English, includes sections for Greenland and the Faroe Islands as appendices.
  • Finland: An update was published at the 9th Conference, in English.
  • Norway: An update was published at the 9th Conference, in English.
  • Sweden: The third version was published at the 9th Conference, now in both English and Swedish. The Guidelines will be published as a printed version (subject to a charge) and as a PDF file on the web (free). The publication will also be sent to all 9th Conference delegates and UNGEGN experts.


All countries were recommended to make sure that the new versions of their Guidelines would be accessible from the UNGEGN web pages. Finland's representatives had noticed some variation in the Guidelines with regard to the English terms concerning Lapland's indigenous languages (Saami/Sámi) and recommended that the term Saami would be used in a uniform manner, since it is the form that has been used quite regularly in the UNGEGN documentation for some time already. Botolv noticed that Sámi Allaskuvla (Sámi College) in Guovdagaidnu recommended the term Sámi instead of Saami, but as long as there is no agreement among the Nordic Saami groups the latter may still be used in UN contexts.

3. The Nordic Place Names Database (NONDB).

Teemu announced that the Nordic Place Names Database, created as a joint project of the Nordic countries’ Mapping authorities in the late 1990’s and placed at the NLS Finland web pages, is not in operation anymore. The technology behind the service had come to its end and the service could not be maintained anymore. 

4. Chairmanship of the UNGEGN Norden Division

Sirkka reminded that Finland had held the chairmanship since the 8th Conference and there was a tradition of changing chairmanship at the Conferences. The colleagues from Denmark stepped forth and announced that they would be ready to take over for the five-year period between the 9th and 10th Conference. As other representatives cordially welcomed this initiative, Bente told that Mr. Peder Gammeltoft from the University of Copenhagen would act as the Chair and John from the National Survey and Cadastre as the Vice-Chair.  

5. Next Division meeting

The representatives from Denmark had planned the next Norden Division meeting to be held in Copenhagen in 2008.  

6. Closing of the meeting

Sirkka thanked everybody for the successful co-operation during the period 2002-2007. The Division had been active and it was also worth noticing that both Greenland and Iceland had taken part in the Division and UNGEGN activities. Botolv expressed, on behalf of the Division, his thanks to Chair Sirkka and Vice-Chair Teemu for their contributions since the 8th Conference. Botolv also mentioned that Terje Larsen would succeed him as permanent Norwegian representative of UNGEGN and Norden Division. Sirkka closed the meeting.
 
Teemu Leskinen