Check-lists, Guides, Floras/Faunas

[Susan B. Farmer]

>Dear colleagues,
>
>I would like to begin a thread to discuss issues related to outputs of
>taxonomic work.  In particular, the production of Check-lists, Guides,
>Floras/Faunas are of special interest; there are many aspects of this
>type of work that still follow 200+ year old formats and should be
>modernized.  Some of these include:

I guess it depends on the target audience and what you want them
to do with them.  Electronic multi-entry keys are pretty wonderful;
but they're rather useless in the field without a computer of
some sort.

IMO,
Checklists give you an idea what you can find -- or what you need to look for.
Guides are to be taken in the field
Floras/Faunas are more for lab work -- generally because of their
size.

I think Guides/floras/faunas should be arranged alphabetically.  When you
have a 1500+ page book, it makes it *much* easier to find the group
of organisms that you are interested in.  Distribution maps are nice
(one dot per county will do), as are illustrations of important or unusual
features -- if not the whole organism.

Just my $0.02

Susan Farmer
sfarmer at goldsword.com
Botany Department, University of Tennessee
http://www.goldsword.com/sfarmer/Trillium