Let's see - copyrights run how long?
Many years ago, I typed Kay Cunningham Vaught's 1989 "A
Classification of the living Mollusca" into a database - it is now in
Filemaker. I have gradually and arbitrarily modified it as I found
time and inclination to comply more closely with Bouchet & Rocroi.
Although I don't have the ANSP volume of specimens, my problem of
moving (and finding) lots is similar. Until recently, l've resisted
upgrading Vaught's subgenera.
There is/was also available Millard's (1999 I think) work which
includes fossils. I have it in (searchable) Word format.
Thus, there is no need to re-type everything - just the errors I may
have introduced. But I don't know if there are intellectual ownership
issues with those works, and of course, everything is immediately out of date.
John
Lancaster, PA
At 02:38 PM 12/29/2009, you wrote:
>The problem with our taxonomic dictionary is that parts of it are
>considerably out of date, reflecting the pace at which one curator
>and one collection manager can adjust a dry collection of 450,000
>lots to keep up with changes in taxonomy. It would be no great task,
>however, to build a new one from scratch to family level, using one
>of the current arrangements. You could do that in an evening.
>However, the challenge then would be to place all the genera in
>their correct families. This would be a major work, but the result
>would be of enormous use to everyone who runs a database for their
>collection. There would be no need to do it in any particular
>program; Access would work just as well, or Paradox, or any other
>database program. Perhaps this is something the COA might like to
>sponsor a person to do?
>
>PC.
>
>Paul Callomon
>Collections Manager
>Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
>Department of Malacology
>Academy of Natural Sciences
>1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
>Tel 215-405-5096
>Fax 215-299-1170
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