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Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin (Project leader)

Rationale Project aims Methods Results Participants Publications Links

Rationale Since 1986 Dr. Henri D. Grissino-Mayer (presently at University of Tennessee in Knoxville) has been collecting reprints and copies of written material related to tree-ring research, and compiling citations with keywords and abstracts into a database. Within years, what had started as a student’s hobby became the main bibliographic resource in tree-ring research worldwide. The database was published online in 1996 at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research of the University of Arizona in Tucson. For this original version of approx. 4500 references, online search requests were estimated to 40-50,000 between 1996 and 2002. However, although H. Grissino-Mayer had been including approx. 1,000 new references every year in his database, the online data had not been updated since 1998 because of insufficient financial and personnel resources. In addition, the "search" interface lacked user-friendliness, and the input of references was not based on controlled fields (e.g. keywords, tree species names, journals), which implies higher managing costs and lower quality. Project aims As a first priority, the data content of the online Bibliography of Dendrochronology was updated. H. Grissino-Mayer is responsible for quality assurance. User-friendly search and input interfaces were developed. A pay photocopy service has been set up by the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. This service is restricted to otherwise hardly available documents and in compliance with international copyright regulations. The original collection was enriched in 2003 with approx. 1600 documents donated by Prof. F.H. Schweingruber and compiled by temporary staff at the Swiss Federal Institute WSL, under the supervision of Claudia Grütter, WSL Head Librarian. Methods Re-designing of H. Grissino-Mayer's database into a relational database. Definition of standardized lists of keywords (Latin and common plant names, geographic information, and methodology) Design and programming of layouts for standardized input of bibliographic information in the FileMaker database Programming and design of the Web site (search, data input) Sorting and archiving documents from F. Schweingruber's collection, entering the references of selected documents (including keywords and abstracts) in the database. Results The work was carried out between October 2001 and February 2003. The new version of the online Bibliography of Dendrochronology, with updated data content and an improved user’s interface, is now available at: http://www01.wsl.ch/dendrobiblio. As of November 1, 2003, the database held 9647 references (Figure 1). English abstracts are available for 30% of the references and keywords for 85%. The latter figure is expected to increase to 100% by the end of 2004. In addition, a searchable database of 1013 full Latin names and English and/or local names of plant species relevant to tree-ring research is available online at http://www01.wsl.ch/species. As of November 1, 2003, 1177 plant species and genera were cited at least once in the Bibliography. 1012 of these species or genera were mentioned in less than 10 references, 67 of them in 10 to 19 references, 66 of them in 20 to 49 references, and only 36 species were mentioned 50 times or more.         Figure 1. Number of documents published per 50- and 10-year interval between 1737 and 2002 and referenced in the Bibliography of Dendrochronology as of Nov.1, 2003, represented on a logarithmic scale.   Figure 2. Distribution of languages of publication in the Bibliography of Dendrochronology as of Nov.1, 2003, represented on a logarithmic scale.   Participants Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin (WSL) Henri D. Grissino-Mayer (University of Tennessee in Knoxville) Claudia Grütter (WSL) Links The Ultimate Tree-Ring Web Pages

Project 4.02.1349 "Tree-ring literature for all - A joint tree-ring literature database project" - Project duration: 2002-2004 The success of scientific international co-operative programmes such as the Long-term forest Ecosystem Research LWF depends on an unprecedented sharing of scientific data and information. Please check our Data access policy.