References

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 15 Nov 2003 13:04:24 PST
I don't really understand the wiki the way Mary Sue and the other managers 
of it do, but now that I know how to post pictures and edit the genus 
pages, I guess I could work on a References page too. It would not take as 
long as uploading pictures does (I live in the country and have a slow 
phone connection). When you figure out what you want done, tell me about it.

If we limit the references to books (no journal articles) the size should 
remain manageable. The basic information needed is author(s) with FULL 
NAMES, please (not just initials, you scientists), date of publication, and 
full title (including subtitle). It also helps to have the publisher's 
name, because some books are published by different presses in different 
countries (known as copublication; typical example is Timber Press in the 
USA and Batsford in the UK) and the ISBN number, which is a quick way to 
order a book. All this information can normally be found on the reverse of 
the title page.

Mary Sue's concern  -- " So I'd suggest author and date as Jane initially 
proposed as a possibility and hope that some of the more prolific writers 
haven't published a lot in the same year" -- is conventionally addressed by 
adding letters to the dates, e.g., 1981a, 1981b.

I think a BRIEF annotation would be helpful with the entries -- no more 
than one sentence, and perhaps not even a full sentence. Examples: 
"Standard work on the genus." "Color photos of 500 plants." "In Japanese 
with English summary and Latin descriptions." "Outdated but interesting." 
"Riddled with errors, but useful for color photos."

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA


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