releasing rare sp. localities

[Robin Panza]

>taxonomists. If the curator of a collection chooses to limit the
>information available on any particular database, I would hope that a
>very simple means could be devised for someone with a legitimate need for
>the data to obtain it. It can then be withheld from redistribution if

Exactly.  We fully intend to continue to make data available, on precise
localities and on other aspects of our specimens that are not going to be put
on the net.  We just don't see any need for all our data to be available to
everyone on the net, on a self-serve basis.  We want to maintain some control
over where some of our data are going and for what purpose some of the more
sensitive data are being used.

This is no different from how we treat our specimens--we reserve the right
to control access.  If John Q. Public brings the kiddies to the museum and
expects to wander the collections, well, sorry, we don't have the time.  And
if we can make the time, we're not leaving them unsupervised to play as they
wish.

Robin Panza                     panzar at clpgh.org
Section of Birds, Carnegie MNH
Pittsburgh  PA  USA  15213