[Taxacom] Centrally supported electronic archive

[Paul Kirk]

A pragmatic solution adopted by Index Fungorum was based on the requirements when citing a basionym - a single page number, even if in error, works ... whereas more than one page might not work. So, we determine for each nomenclatural novelty the single page on which the author of the name intended to introduce that nomenclatural novelty - this gets round first mention of the name in the title, abstract, introduction etc. That page number may be one or more pages removed from the rest of the protologue but is of no consequence as we do not cite all the required articles of the Code and the page on which they were each satisfied (this I would call overkill where resources are limited). In providing access to digital images (just plain JPGs, not PDFs with text layers) the prgamatic solution was to hit that page and provide the user with a 'next page' - 'previous page' button.

A move away from the digitial equivalent of a page is the future but until then the 'tagging' of digital page images is a what we need.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Croft
Sent: 27 May 2009 13:57
To: Paul van Rijckevorsel
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Centrally supported electronic archive

These are exactly the issues we wrestled with Paul, and every solution we can up with was an unsatisfactory compromise.

The problem lies with the concept of the protologue itself, which on
the surface seems arbitrary and subject to interpretation.   We had
the same problem with IPNI references.  In theory it is possible be specify the protologue in its entirity:  Bloggsia 25: 15, 19-21, fig.
7, map 3.  The simplest approach is, using this case as an example, is to prepare a PDF of the six complete pages that hold bits of the protologue.  We considered trimming of all the surrounding non-protologue stuff, but his involved too much manual assessment and processing and the possibility of introduced error.

I think Rich's ontological approach of defining all the terms involved in this arena before getting too far into it is a good one.  Until we do this Rich and I will not be able to have a conversation - I see a 'treatment' as the inclusive article or monograph, Rich sees it as collection of my fragments.  Once we get the terminology sorted out, we can use it to define and deliver the various levels of atomization and aggregation that Donat alludes to.  Where and how do we want to do this?

My problem is I can not see a one size fits all solution.  In one situation a protologue fragment will be required, in others, the entire article or work (for the reasons Peter outlines).  BHL will deliver the latter.  Not sure at all about the former.

jim

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 4:43 PM, Paul van Rijckevorsel <dipteryx at freeler.nl> wrote:
> From: "Jim Croft" <jim.croft at gmail.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:59 PM
>
>> When
>> someone calls [f]or the protologue, we do not want to send them the 
>> whole article.  With limited resources we can not afford to scan 
>> an[d] store the whole article when all we want is one page of it...
>
> ***
> Yes, an important issue: if all you want is the protologue, you do not 
> want to have to deal with a whole article. However, a complicating 
> factor is that from a nomenclatural perspective it is not necessarily 
> immediately apparent what the protologue is; in fact it needs to be be 
> 'circumscribed' from case to case. In the modern literature this will 
> (almost always) be straightforward, but the introduction, etc to a 
> book or article may also contain material that belongs to the 
> protologue. Say, the Acknowlegdements may comment: "we are deeply 
> grateful for the hospitality of Mr Przilowsky; in acknowledgement we 
> have named our third species in honour of his eldest daughter". 
> Theoretically, there may be a separation of hundreds of pages between one part of the protologue and another.
>
> ["Protologue ...: everything associated with a name at its valid 
> publication, i.e. description or diagnosis, illustrations, references, 
> synonymy, geographical data, citation of specimens, discussion, and 
> comments."]
>
> It is not required that all the requirements of valid publication are 
> met in a single publication; the final 'validating' publication only 
> needs to refer to all the required parts, which need to have been 
> effectively published earlier. For example the final publication may 
> be a few lines only, but refer to a page-filling illustration 
> elsewhere. So a protologue can be spread over more than one 
> publication. All in all, 'circumscribing' a protologue is not a 
> trivial matter. However, if the result goes into an accessible database, it need be done only once.
>
> Paul
>
>
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>
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>
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>



--
_________________
Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~ http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft

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- Joseph Conrad, author (1857-1924)

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