Editing with Lists
The Holy Grail of authoritative sources is one that provides a current and comprehensive list of multiple structures, saving you time and effort during the editing process.
Comprehensive lists are most commonly found for schools and fire stations on district or department websites and allow you to verify multiple structures while only having to reference a single authoritative source.
For example, the Santa Fe Public School District website has a page listing out all of their schools by type or grade level:
And the City of Spokane’s Fire Department site has a page listing out all of their stations with addresses:
But of course, you know all this already! So why are we bringing it up?
Well, if you encounter a list similar to those in the examples above, then we’d like to encourage you to seize the opportunity to check all of the structures in said list; to verify that all their attributes and locations are correct, to guarantee that all their names have consistent formatting (especially important for all fire stations within a department), and to confirm that each structure in the list is represented by a point on the map.
Taking this approach ensures that we’ll have a comprehensive, consistent, and accurate collection of structures for each school district or fire department (or any other structure type for which you might happen to find an authoritative list).
So why not make your job as an editor just a little bit easier, and take the time to review a list of structures? You’ll save some time on research and potentially add lots of points to your edit history!
P.S. When working through a list, it’s always good practice to review a point’s edit history. And if no changes are required, then remember to mark the point as verified!