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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The Literature Interest Group and Charter has now been approved by the
TDWG Executive. The group’s web site is at: <a
href="http://www.tdwg.org/activities/literature/">http://www.tdwg.org/activities/literature/</a>.
A brief description of the goals of the group follows below. More information
is available in the charter and on the Wiki. Please join the mailing list
using the link on that web page if you are interested. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The group will hold a meeting on Sunday, 16 September 2007 from
2:30-5:00 pm in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bratislava</st1:place></st1:City>.
The meeting will be held at the Faculty of Science. Please contact me for
directions, maps and details if you plan to attend.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h2><b><font size=3 color="#6a9832" face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Summary<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=bodytext><font size=3 color="#617694" face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Due to the
international calls for greater availability of biodiversity data, an
increasing number of institutions, especially the Biodiversity Heritage Library
project (BHL) are digitising taxonomic literature and making these materials
freely available on the World Wide Web. Most of the digitally available
literature is in the form of image files and to a lesser extent, text files
generated, sometimes very imperfectly, using optical character recognition
(OCR). These are the two forms planned by the BHL. In a few cases text or
metadata are searchable, but those are idiosyncratically formatted, marked up
or split into fields. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=bodytext><font size=3 color="#617694" face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>An increasing
number of institutions, publishers and funding bodies are however showing
interest in making full text of portions of the taxonomic literature available.
Having standards in place will facilitate their work and encourage them to make
the literature data interoperable with other pertinent data. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h2><b><font size=3 color="#6a9832" face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Becoming Involved<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=bodytext><font size=3 color="#617694" face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>The Literature
group welcomes participation from all interested parties with biological,
library, and publishing backgrounds. Members of the group are interested in
standards and technologies for analysing biodiversity data from taxonomic
literature and combining them with knowledge from other biodiversity data sets.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=bodytext><font size=3 color="#617694" face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Participants in
other TDWG groups that work on data included in taxonomic literature are
strongly encouraged to participate. This participation is vital to ensure the
standards are compatible and interoperable. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=bodytext><font size=3 color="#617694" face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>The TDWG process
requires that new Task Groups be launched through an Interest Group. The
Literature group can facilitate establishment of new Task Groups that relate to
taxonomic literature standards. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=bodytext><font size=3 color="#617694" face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Please contact
the Convener or Core members to discuss potential projects or join existing
Task Groups. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#373737'>Anna L. Weitzman, PhD</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#373737'>Botanical and Biodiversity
Informatics Research</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><font size=3
color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:#373737'>National</span></font></st1:PlaceName><font color="#373737"><span
style='color:#373737'> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Museum</st1:PlaceType></span></font></st1:place><font
color="#373737"><span style='color:#373737'> of Natural History</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#373737'>Smithsonian Institution</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#373737'>office: 202.633.0846</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#373737'>mobile: 202.415.4684</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#373737" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#373737'>weitzman@si.edu</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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