Scanned (PDF) original descriptions

[Fernando Z. Vaz-de-Mello]

I've been scanning LOTS of scarab taxonomic papers, especially
descriptions, in pdf format, but only for personal use as I don't know how
to do with copyrights!!!!

cheers;
Fernando


At 07:11 13/05/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Richard:
>
>Back in 1996 I did some of this. See our Diptera Site (www.diptera.org)
>under research. Under the Archive of Diptera you will see some rare papers
>in facisimile; also under rare flies (Eurychronomya mallea) you see that we
>again give not only facisimile of the original description, but also
>translation. And on our prototype Species pages, we also included facisimile
>of the original description (see www.diptera.org/syrphid/palflade.htm, for
>example).
>
>The REAL problem remains, however, we know what we should be doing to move
>systematics into the digital age BUT WITHOUT additional support, the few
>remaining taxonomists can only put up a few "prototypes" and hope ALL, NSF,
>GBIF, who ever, will find us the additional resources needed to do a
>comprehensive job.
>
>NSF is now throwing millions at developing a tree of life for "all" 1.7
>million organisms. We, who work in the tenches, know this is a joke because
>we still can not accurately say whether it is 1.7M or 2M or what and know
>most of those species are merely names for a sample from single collection
>event, etc. And that this is again a diverting of resources away from
>inventory work to keep the vertebrate and flower plant people happy, etc.
>
>So to get funding we have to make alliances with the molecular sequence
>people and hope they will give us a few scraps to do our inventory work
>with.
>
>Oh, well ...
>
>F. Christian Thompson
>Systematic Entomology Lab., ARS, USDA
>Smithsonian Institution
>Washington, D. C. 20560-0169
>(202) 382-1800 voice
>(202) 786-9422 FAX
>cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov [NB: no terminal "n"]
>visit our Diptera site at www.diptera.org
>
>
> >>> Richard Pyle <deepreef at BISHOPMUSEUM.ORG> 05/10 6:11 PM >>>
>Greetings Taxacomers...
>
>For a number of reasons, I'm trying to get a sense of how many folks out
>there in systematics-land have gone to the trouble of scanning original
>taxon description publications into electronic format (e.g., PDF files).
>Web searches don't seem to produce much on this front, but I can't believe
>that nobody else has recognized the incredible potential of making digital
>representations of important taxonomic references (especially original
>descriptions). Surely someone out there has begun doing this for personal
>use at the very least (e.g., carry around your systematics reprint
>collection with you wherever you go, on the hard drive of your laptop), if
>not as part of a larger taxon name cataloging effort?
>
>I'm not thinking only about current journal articles (many of which are
>available from the publisher as PDF files), but also (and perhaps more
>significantly) the historical taxonomic literature -- particularly those
>taxonomic gems that are very rare and difficult to obtain in paper form,
>but
>include important original descriptions or revisions.
>
>Anybody know of any activity on this front?
>
>Aloha,
>Rich
>
>Richard L. Pyle
>Ichthyology, Bishop Museum
>1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
>Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
>email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
>http://www.bishopmuseum.org/bishop/HBS/pylerichard.html
>"The opinions expressed are those of the sender, and not necessarily those
>of Bishop Museum."

Fernando Z. Vaz-de-Mello
Depto. Biologia
Universidade Federal de Lavras
Lavras - MG 37200-000
BRASIL
http://www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/workers/FVazdeMello.htm