Dear Anna,

Thank you for making the connection between these two groups. I think it would help if I explained (particularly for the TDWG-LIT group) what questions are being addressed by the TDWG-GUID work under the general heading of "PublicationBank".

During the first GUID workshop, we recognized that different classes of information require (for want of a better term) different strengths of GUIDs. It is a great help for us to be able to recognise that two references are to the same piece of data because they use the same GUID to reference it. Let me give some examples.

If I state that my taxon concept includes a specimen with LSID urn:lsid:my.org:specimen:123 and someone else also includes the same LSID in the list of specimens examined as part of their revision, it helps us to make some firm deductions about shared material. It seems reasonable that we will be able to associate identifiers with specimens in a way that ensures that the vast majority of specimens can receive a single identifier, meaning that all references to that identifier refer to that specimen and that all references to that specimen use that identifier. This second part is what I mean when I speak of a strong identifier.

Now consider the situation with taxon names. Many people are going to wish to refer to the same names (or nomenclatural acts). It will clearly be really valuable if we can work towards having a single GUID for each validly published name, so that we can maximize the interconnectedness of our data. If I say that refer to the name with the LSID urn:lsid:my.org:names:xyz and that LSID has data or metadata indicating that it relates to Aus bus Jones, 2004, and you use the LSID urn:lsid:another.org:names.abc to refer to the same Aus bus Jones, 2004, then we are still left with the same string matching problems we have right now with names. It therefore seems sensible to work with the nomenclators as the "preferred" issuers of LSIDs for taxon names (recognising the gaps we have today for zoological names) and to encourage a move to using those identifiers whenever we wish to provide a secure reference to each name. (Of course this implies an urgent need for tools and services to make this easy.)

Turning to taxon concepts, we had a long debate as to whether it was plausible to try to enforce the same degree of preferred issuers for LSIDs for taxon concepts. If I publish the first LSID-enabled revision of a group, I may need to assign LSIDs to refer to many different taxon concepts. Someone else databasing the taxonomy of the group will have a similar task. Unless we manage a central easy-to-search registry for people quickly to find out whether someone has already assigned an LSID to Aus bus Jones, 2004 sensu Smith, 2006, we will never be able to make any assumptions based on the fact that I have used urn:lsid:my.org:concepts:123.1 and you have used urn:lsid:my.org:concepts:abc.001. Even though the two identifiers are different there is still a good chance that they may refer to the same concept (expressed as name-according to-publication). It seems much more reasonable instead to tackle the problem of getting really strong LSIDs for names (through the nomenclators) and doing the same thing for the taxonomic literature (through someone for whom we used the placeholder name "PublicationBank"). Any concept LSID can resolve through its metadata to two LSIDs, one for a name and one for a publication. Comparing concept LSIDs can therefore be based on the comparisons between these two more fundamental objects.

So, from the standpoint of the GUID group, the requirement here is a very specific one. We need to find a way to manage assigning LSIDs to the publications that make up the taxonomic literature, so that we can all have what would amount to a master list of relevant publications. From this angle, "all" that is needed is a secure registry into which the bibliographic data can be stored, cleaned and assigned identifiers. Of course such a resource could also be an excellent place to register the location of online digital versions of each publication. At that point it becomes something even more valuable. On the other hand, considering it this way suggests that it may already naturally be addressed as part of the BHL or a similar effort, and part of what we would like to do is to identify any existing initiatives which may serve as a part or all of what is required for the LSID work.

As I see it, the TDWG-LIT work gives a framework for the exchange of these bibliographic data, but we also need to understand the best way to get the kind of integrated biodiversity bibliography we would like to have.

Does that all make sense?

Best wishes,

Donald

--------------------------------------------------------------- Donald Hobern (dhobern@gbif.org) Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark Tel: +45-35321483 Mobile: +45-28751483 Fax: +45-35321480 ---------------------------------------------------------------

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From: Taxonomic Databases Working Group GUID Project [mailto:TDWG-GUID@LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU] On Behalf Of Anna Weitzman Sent: 21 March 2006 20:10 To: TDWG-GUID@LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU Subject: Re: PublicationBank - requirements evaluation

Dear Robert,

You may not be aware that TDWG has a list devoted to taxonomic literature standards. It would be great if you (and anyone else interested) would join in that discussion ( TDWG Literature standards mailing list tdwg-lit@lists.tdwg.org; sign up at http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-lit_lists.tdwg.org/general ) and add your expertise. The list has only been active since early February, and the complete correspondence is in the archives ( http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-lit_lists.tdwg.org/ ).

Anna L. Weitzman, Ph.D. Informatics Branch Chief, National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012 Natural History Building, Room W-623, MRC 136 Washington, DC 20013-7012 U.S.A.

phone: (202) 633-0846 fax: (202) 786-3180 email: weitzman@si.edu INOTAXA - http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/bca/status.cfm electronic Biologia Centrali-Americana - http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/bca/

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rhuber@WDC-MARE.ORG 21-Mar-2006 5:06:30 AM >>>

Dear all,

Below is a short 'survey' which hopefully can help to get an overview on how bibliographic information currently is stored in your databases. If you don't like to fill such forms, any other info on your current literature db is also welcome, just send it to me by email!

The list maybe incomplete, if you think important questions are missing there just let me and the others know.

I will try to sumarize the results on the wiki later.

best regards, Robert

1) How is your literature database/module organised? - [ ]Database structure completely normalized - [ ]Database structure not/incomplete normalized

2) How do you hold your bibliographic information? - [ ]Complete set of Bib info (Author, Title,Source, Volume, Pages) - [ ]Incomplete set of Bib info - [ ]Abbreviations (e.g. Stafleu&Cowan) - [ ]Bib Info and Abbreviations

- Specify which bibliographic fields you hold in your db: --[ ]Author(s) --[ ]Title --[ ]Source (Journal/Book) --[ ]Pages --[ ]Date(s) --[ ]Volume --[ ]Issue --[ ]Series --[ ]URL/GUID --[ ]Source Editors --[ ]Series Editors --[ ]Other:

3) How do you store author names: - [ ]Abbreviations (e.g. Brummitt & Powell) - [ ]Complete Name as String, one author per string - [ ]Complete Name as String, all authors in one string - [ ]Last Name, First Name separated

4) How do you store journal names/ other sources - [ ]Complete Name - [ ]Abbreviation - [ ]Both - [ ]If you hold abbreviations acc. to which standard?

Dr. Robert Huber WDC-MARE / PANGAEA - www.pangaea.de http://www.pangaea.de/ , www.wdc-mare.org http://www.wdc-mare.org/ Stratigraphy.net - www.stratigraphy.net http://www.stratigraphy.net/ _____________________________________________ MARUM - Institute for Marine Environmental Sciences (location) University Bremen Leobener Strasse POP 330 440 28359 Bremen Phone ++49 421 218-65593, Fax ++49 421 218-65505 e-mail rhuber@@wdc-mare.org , robert.huber@stratigraphy.net