Looking Forward To IT!

Thanks to everyone who contributed, this issue has a good mix of malacological research and projects and man-mollusc interactions. Many of the contributors are young malacologists, on whom the future of malacology rests. The Society supports young researchers through its Forum, its awards and grants (now less exclusive), and lower subscription rates; individuals can help further through the Bookstall Appeal.

The future challenges which this and other taxon-based societies face, will be addressed at the April meeting with the Conchological Society. If you canít make the meeting, air your views in the next Bulletin. The slow decline in membership may be linked to the emphasis on integrative biology in Universities. Should we broaden our approach? Other changes will be unpredictable and rapid. Most of us know examples of rapid changes in habitat - my garden's malacofauna is very different from 15 years ago. (Helix are now common after an accidental release, but as Kerney's new Atlas makes clear, their appearance is just one instance of a regional phenomenon - it wasn't that they escaped, but that they escaped and survived!) There are also unpredictable changes in the technology we use. Information Technology, in just a decade, has revolutionised what we can do. Perhaps all we can predict is that we must keep an open-mind and embrace new possibilities.

Please send items for the next half-yearly Bulletin (Number 34, February 2000) to reach me by mid-January. Please keep articles simple and succinct, avoiding or explaining specialist terms, so that your article can be appreciated by malacologists outside your field. Where appropriate, include a reference to a more detailed account, and an illustration. Remember that the Web version uses colour illustrations. As well as articles, I rely on you for ësnippetsí of news, cartoons.

Bill Bailey

Dr S E R Bailey
School of Biological Sciences,
3.614 Stopford Building,
The University of Manchester,
Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PT, UK.

Tel: 0161 275 3861
Fax: 0161 275 3938

Email: BBAI...@FS1.SCG.MAN.AC.UK  or  s.ba...@m336wy.freeserve.co.uk

Sorry: American Conchologists of America

Apologies to The Conchologists of America for referring to their quarterly journal American Conchologist as American Malacologist in the last Bulletin. The words are not interchangeable if capitalised.

TAXONOMIC / NOMENCLATURAL DISCLAIMER

This publication is not deemed to be valid for taxonomic/nomenclatural purposes [see Article 8b in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 3rd Edition (1985) edited by W. D. Ride et al.].