Check-lists, Guides, Floras/Faunas

[Tom Parker]

baumel wrote:
>
> I think that digital floras or faunas on internet are better because they
> are more enable to evolve than paper format.
>

Greetings:

Last year a taxonomic checklist(with synonyms) was produced for
encountered marine invertebrates.  When it had been decided that this
list would be distributed electronically there was much enthusiasm for
this low cost "publication" method.  However we soon realized that such
an electronic document would be subjected to uncontrolled modification
by each recepient.  Versions would spring up as each user made
modifications and additions and then re-distriubted their version to
other interested parties.  Of course it was realized that each
subsequent version would likely carry the original title page so no
other user could get a clue as to who's version they were using.

Our solution was to distribute the electronic list as a .pdf document so
that readers could not easily make these uncontrolled versions.

A flora or fauna document that is distributed merely as a wordprocessor
document or spreadsheet will quickly become a modified publication with
few copies remaining true to the original document. This will quickly
result in taxonomic confusions.

Its not just what species you study, but what version of documentation
are you use to support your taxonomic interest.  I think the .pdf method
of locking in the version has been helpful and should probably
considered by others approaching electronic distrubtion of taxonomic
references.

bye for now

Thomas Parker
Marine Biology Lab
<tparker at lacsd.org>