[Zoobank-list] Fwd: Save AnimalBase

[Yde de Jong]

Dear all,

To your information below forwarded message for 
help from AnimalBase. I think AnimalBase is an 
important resource and it would be bad if it 
disappears. It is well fitting to the ZooBank 
ambitions, so that could be a connection.

Kind regards,

Yde


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

All,

I'm forwarding an email regarding AnimalBase, a 
project digitizing old taxonomic literature and 
making it available on the web. If anyone knows 
where they might be able to attract funding, or 
if they may be able to fit into a larger 
digitization project, please contact Serge Gofas 
or Francisco Welter-Schultes.  I've looked at the 
site and they have a fair amount of literature 
already digitized and indexed by taxonomic name - 
it would be a shame to lose this.

Cheers,

-Karen

Karen I. Stocks, PhD
Assistant Research Scientist, San Diego Supercomputer Center
Lecturer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Mailing Address:
       University of California San Diego, SDSC
       9500 Gilman Drive # 0505
       La Jolla, CA  92093-0505
       USA
  tel:  +1 858 534-5009
  fax: +1 858 822-3610 (new number as of 8/2005)
  kstocks at sdsc.edu

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

Dear Karen
I have just received a mail from Francisco 
Welter-Schultes, the leader of the database on 
old zoological literature "AnimalBase" which you 
may already know (otherwise follow the link 
below). Now he was denied funding this year and 
pleas for international support, which I did and 
will ask around me the people I know to do, this 
is really a great project. Below are Francisco's 
letter and my reply as an example.

All the best wishes
Serge

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

Since 2003 the Library of Goettingen University 
has been digitizing early zoological literature 
in cooperation with the Zoological Institute. 
Nearly the complete zootaxonomically relevant 
literature between 1551 and 1770 is now available 
to the public. The genus and species level taxa 
described between 1757 and 1770 (some 10,000 
taxa) were entered into a database (AnimalBase). 
Digitized literature and taxa can be found online 
at www.animalbase.org.

It is now scheduled to digitize more literature 
from between 1771 and 1800, and to enter some 
50,000 taxa described in these works. The project 
was financed by the German Science Foundation 
(the most important public source for financing 
science in Germany). Now they are asking 
themselves whether the project is useful for 
scientists and should be continued for the period 
after 1770. Preliminarily they have rejected our 
motion, based on reviewers who seemed to be 
biologists, but did not even know the difference 
between genus and species. Now reviews are needed 
from persons who are able to give a professional 
opinion.

It would be of great help if you could write a 
short review about this project (not more than 
half a page, or 250 words), explaining shortly in 
your own words whether the project makes sense or 
not. The following points should serve as a guide.

1 - Is the AnimalBase project of Goettingen 
University useful and necessary for my own work, 
and why? Is the project an enrichment for science?

2 - Does it make sense to digitize such old 
literature? Is this literature of any present-day 
significance, or outdated?

3  - Had there been previously sufficient efforts 
to digitize the literature without programming 
the AnimalBase database, and would specialists 
find the literature also without AnimalBase?

4 - Does it make sense to enter the old taxa 
described until 1800 directly from the original 
sources into a database, and to provide links to 
the original literature?

5 - Does AnimalBase work properly? Is it possible 
and easy to find animal names and literature in 
the database? Has the database been correctly 
arranged for the intended functions?

6 - Academic position, city, and field in which I am specialized.

Reviews can be sent to Francisco Welter-Schultes by e-mail fwelter at gwdg.de


Thank you in advance for helping to keep this project alive.

=======================
This is the review I have sent in, as an example

Support for AnimalBase project in Goettingen.

This review is written as a support to the 
AnimalBase database project currently implemented 
at Goettingen University.  I became aware of the 
site about one year ago and considered this a 
major breakthrough in my work by making 
zoological literature accessible to taxonomists 
worldwide.

The rationale for needing AnimalBase goes through several points:
- There are international rules of zoological 
nomenclature that require that the oldest name 
published for an animal after 1758 be used as the 
sole valid name. The accurate compliance with 
this needs access to the original published 
descriptions, type localities and other 
information.
- Most books earlier than the 1900's are rare, 
are very expensive on the antiquarian market 
(easily above 10 000 EUR for one reference), and 
unfortunately many librarians are now reluctant 
to give access (not mentioning sending on loan or 
granting permission to photocopy) the old books, 
Thus In m,any instances I have been slowed down 
in taxonomic work by such restrictions to access.
- The action taken in AnimalBase is pragmatic i. 
e. major needs are covered by original digitizing 
work (e.g. the starting point of Zoological 
nomenclature, Linnaeus' "Systema narurae" of 1758 
was not available online before it were digitized 
in Göttingen), but links are provided to 
digitized books where appropriate. As major 
sources there are books at Bibliothèque Nationale 
de France, Paris, or on a website dedicated to 
the volumes of the "Challenger" oceanographic 
expedition. In this way, efforts are not 
duplicated and awareness of all existing efforts 
is enhanced. On the long term, it should be 
desirable that
AnimalBase should play for the online old 
literature a role paralel to GenBank for sequence 
data i-.e. to be a general gateway to the 
existing fund. Many minor sites with digital 
books would be hard to locate without AnimalBase.

As of my experience, the current scheme 
implemented in AnimalBase is efficient and 
user-friendly, and also has the means to 
incorporate efforts from external collaborators 
as the project gets better known.
For all the reasons above I consider that, in the 
age of online science, it would be a sad drawback 
if this project would not obtain the material 
support needed for its expansion and perennity.

Serge Gofas  <sgofas at uma.es>
Profesor titular, University of Málaga, Spain
Taxonomic editor of CLEMAM database (Molluscs of European seas)
Taxonomic editor for Mollusca in European 
Register of Marine Species (an E.U. funded 
project).


--
Serge Gofas
Profesor titular
Departamento de Biología Animal
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga
Campus de Teatinos - E-29071 Málaga, Spain
Tel. (34) 952 13 15 39 - Fax (34) 952 13 16 68



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