Address

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Addresses are ways to locate or contact Agents. There are both physical addresses and electronic addresses, and various types of each of these. Electronic addresses include phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and web pages. As well as being informational, addresses are used in extensively in transactions such as loans, permits, and accessions. Any one Agent may have any number of addresses of either type. Addresses that are being used in transactions cannot be deleted or changed. This is in order to retain them against the possibility that a missing item was actually shipped to the incorrect address, and thereby facilitate any attempt to trace the shipment.

Address Type: The kind of physical address, or how the address is used. The vocabulary is controlled by ctaddr_type.

Job Title: The professional title of the Agent at this address. Examples might include:

• Curator of Exhibits
• Professor of Botany
• Insect Collection Manager

The Agent is usually a person, but not necessarily. An address for an Agent of the type organization might include an anonymous position. For example, and address for “Alaska Department of Fish and Game” might include the title, “Regional Biologist.”

Institution: The name of the institution where the agent is employed, if applicable. Examples might include:

• American Museum of Natural History
• University of California at Berkeley
• National Institute of Standards and Technology

Department: The name of a division within in the Institution where the agent is employed, if applicable. Examples might include:

• Paleontology Division
• Department of Biology
• Rabies/Virology Unit

Street Address 1: Usually a street name preceded by a numbered location on that street. Examples might include:

• 907 Yukon Drive
• Central Park W. at 47th Street

Street Address 2: An extension of Street Address1, or an alternative local delivery point. Examples might include:

• P. O. Box 123456
• Suite 33-B

Mail Stop: In some sources a Mail Stop is defined as the last four digits of an extended Zip Code. {There is no reason why such a value would not work hyphenated to to the the five-digit U.S. Zip Codes. Should we retain this data field?}

City: The name of the city or town in which the address is located. Examples might include:

• Philadelphia
• Toronto
• Nairobi

State: The name of the division of a country within which the address occurs. Examples might include:

• California
• Sonora
• Ontario

Postal Code: A code assigned to a location by the postal system of the country in which the address is located. In the U.S., this would be a Zip Code, either in the five-digit form or the extended 5-plus-4-digit form. Examples might include:

• 99775
• 99775-6960
• M5S 2C6
• 199034

Country: The name of the country in which the address is located. Examples might include:

• Finland
• United States
• Cuba

Formatted Address: This is the address formatted for printing into reports such as invoices and mailing labels. It is automatically created by concatenating values from the standard data fields above.

Remarks: Any necessary explanation of the address. Examples might include:

• Sabbatical address during academic year 04/05.
• Not valid for Federal Express deliveries.
• Jones uses home address in June and July.

Valid?: A flag indicating whether or not the address is still valid. Invalid (old, or corrected) addresses are maintained against the possibility that they might be needed to resolve a lost shipment.

Electronic Address Type: The kind of electronic address. Vocabulary is controlled by ctelectronic_addr_type.

Electronic Address: The value for the electronic address. Examples might include:

• 907-474-6155
• charles.darwin@gmail.com
• http://natural.selection.org/charlie/home