A TDWG member has asked me to circulate this information to the membership:

We would like to invite you to the 1st International Recorder Conference - Collating and managing natural science field and collection records in Europe which will be held in Luxembourg on the 2nd and 3rd of December 2005. Please check the homepage of the conference for more information and a download of the 1st circular: http://www.symposium.lu/recorder

Theme: European-funded projects such as ENHSIN and BioCASE have helped develop techniques and standards for biodiversity data sharing but there is still a great need for software and standards that can capture, manage and integrate the original natural sciences collection and field data. The theme of this meeting is to introduce field biologists, earth scientists and natural science museum curators across Europe to software and standards that can meet this need.

http://www.nbn.org.uk/information/info.asp?Level1ID=1&Level2ID=1

The meeting will include presentations on the development of Recorder software in the UK and Luxembourg and its associated applications, including 'Thesaurus' software, to collate and manage their data and link to both GIS and web-based delivery systems. The emphasis will be on the development and use of data standards and how Recorder can help build integrated systems for the collation, management and dissemination of information in the natural sciences across Europe.

The conference will cover the conceptual model upon which Recorder is based and give examples of how this is implemented in the application, with examples of Recorder use at different levels from the individual naturalist through local, regional and national collation centres. Examples of working systems will be demonstrated and current development work will be described.

The scope and potential of the BioCASE / Luxembourg Thesaurus will be discussed with examples of how it is being utilised in Recorder and other applications, including (hopefully) its use for terminology control in the London Natural History Museum.

The problems of developing, disseminating and sustainably supporting an international version of Recorder and associated software will be discussed and proposals made for future action.

We hope to see you soon in Luxembourg

Best wishes

For the organising committee Guy Colling and Tania Walisch