The following are some basic reference documents related to land records systems. Additional reference documents can be found at http://www.nationalcad.org which is the home page for the FGDC Cadastral Subcommittee. Reference Materials and Related Documents - Some of these documents are presented in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Types of Legal Land Descriptions - (pdf) This paper discusses the various types and forms of land descriptions in the United States. Reading a BLM Master Title Plat - (pdf) This document describes the elements and how to read and interpret the Master Title Plat. The Master Title Plat provides a graphic index to federal landownership and related land documents. The National Integrated Lands System - (html) Requirements document - This document describes the functional requirements for land management as high level use cases. These use cases are continuously updated by the NILS project. Glossary of Parcel Terms - (pdf) This is an annotated glossary assembled from a variety of sources that provides definitions for land records and surveying related terms. Land Records Web Sites - (html) An interactive web site with cities, counties and states that are serving land records information. Site provided by the Southwest Colorado Data Center. Register of Deeds - (pdf) his document describes a history of deed recording and role of local deed recording functions. Written by Mike Hasslinger, Waukesha County WI Register of Deeds Register of Deeds Operations - (html) This document describes the general operations of typical register of deeds including the documents they handle. Hawaiian Land Titles - (pdf) The Hawaii land tenure system has many unique characteristics because of the unique settlement and history. The Need for a Multipurpose Cadastre - (pdf) This is the text of the 1980 National Academy of Sciences Report that is considered to be one of the earliest works defining the needs and uses for land records systems.