A NEW COMPREHENSIVE BRACHIOPOD BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DATABASE

Rex A. Doescher (1981, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, No. 42) published a compilation of all living and fossil brachiopod genera established up through 1979. Subsequently (1990-1996), he compiled a brachiopod reference database known as SIBIC (Smithsonian International Brachiopod Information Center) at the United States National Museum based on the assembled and managed reprints gathered by G.A. (Gus) Cooper, Gus’s wife (Josephine, who translated much of the Russian brachiopod diagnoses into English) and Richard Grant. Whereas this compilation is most useful to brachiopod workers, it was not comprehensive, as many older pre-1996 publications were not present in the Cooper brachiopod library. This magnificent work came to halt in 1996 when government funding continued to decline, and Doescher retired. We are trying to build a more comprehensive database that includes all articles and monographs we can access from the 1700s until the present. The information is huge, therefore we set up an alphabetical series of files that will make searching for material relatively easy. We are trying to scan and maintain a large PDF library that can be used by all brachiopod workers. Efforts are being made to contact foreign brachiopod workers to obtain copies or PDFs of hard-to-find literature in countries such as Russia, China, Japan, etc.