Information from another list: ===
> I recently received a letter from Francisco Welter-Schultes from > AnimalBase, who asks the > scientific community for assistance in the endangered survival of the > AnimalBase project. > If you would like to help the project, please read the text below and send > a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Since 2003 the Library of Goettingen University has been digitizing > early zoological literature in cooperation with the Zoological > Institute. Nearly the complete zootaxonomically relevant literature > between 1551 and 1770 is now available to the public. > The genus and species level taxa described between 1757 and 1770 > (some 10,000 taxa) were entered into a database (AnimalBase). > Digitized literature and taxa can be found online at > www.animalbase.org. > > It is now sceduled to digitize more literature from between 1771 and > 1800, and to enter some 50,000 taxa described in these works. The > project was financed by the German Science Foundation (the most > important public source for financing science in Germany). Now they > are asking themselves whether the project is useful for scientists > and should be continued for the period after 1770. Preliminarily they > have rejected our motion, based on reviewers who seemed to be > biologists, but did not even know the difference between genus and > species. Now reviews are demanded by persons who are able to give a >professional opinion. > > It would be of great help if you could write a short review about > this project (not more than half a page, or 250 words), explaining > shortly in your own words whether the project makes sense or not. The > following points should serve as a guide. > > 1 - Is the AnimalBase project of Goettingen University for my own > work useful and necessary, and why? Is the project an enrichment for > science? > > 2 - Does it make sense to digitize such old literature? Is this > literature of any present-day significance, or outdated? > > 3 - Had it been sufficient to digitize the literature without > programming the AnimalBase database, and would specialists find > the literature also without AnimalBase? > > 4 - Does it make sense to enter the old taxa described > until 1800 directly from the original sources into a database, and to > provide links to the original literature? > > 5 - Does AnimalBase work properly? Is it possible and easy to find > animal names and literature in the database? Has the database been > correctly arranged for the intended functions? > > 6 - Academic position, city, and field in which I am specialized. > ===
