An update from our contacts at the USGS… New Geographic Names Fact Sheet Released: The USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) has released a new version of the “Geographic Names” fact sheet. The fact sheet highlights the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) which contains more than 2 million geographic names in the US – from populated places, schools, reservoirs, and parks to streams, valleys, springs, ridges, and every feature type except roads and highways. Data from the GNIS are used for emergency preparedness, mapmaking, local and regional planning, service delivery routing, marketing, site selection, environmental analysis, genealogical research, and other applications. See http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3016/