GUIDEBOOKS ASSOCIATED WITH INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE FIELD TRIPS; ENDANGERED?

Since 1968, the Geoscience Information Society has attempted to facilitate identification of and access to guidebooks produced for geologic field trips held in North America through the publication of the various editions of the Union List of Geologic Field Trip Guidebooks of North America, and the subsequent online version “Geologic Guidebooks of North America Database”. Even with the concerted effort of dedicated geology librarians, there are gaps in these lists of guidebooks to geologic field trips in North America.

This raises the question, how have guidebooks to geologic field trips outside of North America fared? Are they being preserved, and how easily can they be identified and located? To begin to answer these questions, a pilot study was conducted to identify reoccurring international geological conferences, to determine which conferences hold associated geologic field trips, and to find out whether guidebooks to the trips can be identified with resources commonly used to find geologic literature. The pilot study was restricted to the years 2010 through 1014. This paper is a report of the study results, and includes suggestions to organizers of international geological conferences.