Another cautionary tale (electronic publishing)

[Barry M. OConnor]

At 3:39 PM 3/15/96, Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr. wrote:
>This is a cautionary tale; I think that electronic publishing is
>coming sooner or later.  But, we have to look ahead and plan carefully...
>
In the mid 1960's a number of new animal species were published on manually
sortable punch cards through the "Pilot Register of Zoology" coming out of
Cornell University.  Because the cards were large in format, they carried
the full textual description and illustrations of the new taxa.  They were
appropriately distributed to libraries (although I don't know how widely)
to validate the names according to the ICZN.  Although the punches on the
cards are not useable any more (anyone still use long wires to sort punch
cards?), the information is still available in the printed format, however,
the cards are yellowing and becoming brittle around the edges (not acid
free?).

Barry M. OConnor                phone: (313) 763-4354
Museum of Zoology               FAX: (313) 763-4080
University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079  USA