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LINNAEAN COLLECTIONS SURVEY FORM

Invited by Tomas Anfalt of Project Linnaeus, a group of librarians and scholars met in London in April 1999 to discuss the possibility of several collaborative projects involving collections relating to Carl Linnaeus. It was decided that as a preliminary effort we would try to collect some information on existing Linnaean collections, in order to get some idea of their distribution, scope, level of documentation and accessibility. To that end, we are distributing this survey questionnaire.

Many of the questions can be answered by simply checking off "yes" or "no", and in some cases there is also space for whatever additional information you can provide. Estimates are quite acceptable for all quantitative questions. If you can only answer part of the survey questionnaire now, we would appreciate it if you would do that and send it back to us, indicating which parts you can complete in the near future.

For purposes of this survey, Linnaean works can be said to include published or unpublished collection of materials which cover "the scientific and other writings of Linnaeus, his editorial activities, travels, the theses and orations in which he was more or less concerned, letters, life, portraits, herbarium and collections, lectures, his family, and even the societies, periodicals and places named after him" (review of A Catalogue of the Works of Linnaeus, 2nd ed. 1933, in: Nature, London: 16 Dec 1933, pp.911-912).

Thank you for your assistance, and we will send you a copy of the summary results of this survey when they are available.

Contents of this survey questionnaire:

Your contact information:

Name of person completing questionnaire:
Professional title:

Name of institution:
Address:

Telephone number:
Fax number:
Internet address:

Section 1: Description of Linnaean collections:

1a) Are all or some your Linnaean works kept as a separate collection?
Yes, all ____   Yes, some ____   No ____

If the answer is no, please proceed to question 1e)

If the answer is yes (all or some), please continue with question 1b)

1b) If you have a separate Linnaean collection, does it have a title? Yes ____   No ____
If so, please provide it here:

1c) Did you acquire your Linnaean material as a "ready-made" collection [   ] or piecemeal as part of routine acquisitions? [   ] (Check both if both apply)

1d) If it was acquired as a "ready-made" collection, please provide a statement of its provenance:
(e.g. purchased from the estate of _________, in the year _____)

1e) Is there Linnaean material dispersed throughout your main collections? Yes ____   No ____

1f) If yes, can the works, from their catalogue records, be readily separated from other holdings?
Yes ____   No ____

1g) Are your Linnaean works organized by Soulsby* number?
Yes, all ____   Yes, some ____   No ____

1h) If not, how are they organized?

*By Soulsby number we mean the numbering scheme used in: Soulsby, B. H. A catalogue of the works of Linnaeus (and publications more immediately relating thereto) preserved in the libraries of the British Museum (Bloomsbury) and the British Museum (Natural History) (South Kensington). 2nd ed. London, 1933 Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum.

1i) Would you please provide a brief description of your Linnaean collections here (or, please attach or send a description)?

1j) Were particular individuals important in the history of your institution's Linnaean acquisitions?
If so, please provide information here or on a separate sheet.

Section 2: Description of Linnaean materials:

NOTE: We would like to know whether you own Linnaean materials of the various types listed. (If you have Linnaean materials of a type not listed in this section, please report on them in 2g.) For each type, we are also asking for an approximate number of items. This can be a rough count from your catalogue, from your shelves, or from any other source that would enable you to give us some idea of how much material you hold in each category. These do not have to be exact numbers.

2a) Do you have any published works by Carl Linnaeus in your collections?
Yes ____   No ____

Approximate number of items ___________________

2b) If you have published works by Linnaeus, do they include any of the dissertations that he supervised?

_____ Dissertations as originally published
Approximate number of items ___________________

_____ Dissertations in collected editions (Amoenitates Academicae)
Approximate number of items ___________________

_____ No dissertations

2c) Are there other published Linnaean works, as defined in the introduction to this survey, in your collections?
Yes ____   No ____

Approximate number of items ___________________

2d) Do you have any Linnaeus (father, 1707-1778 or son, 1741-1783) manuscripts or letters, even single pieces? If so, please answer here and then provide brief descriptions here or on a separate sheet.

_____ Manuscripts
Approximate number of items ___________________

_____ Letters
Approximate number of items ___________________

_____ No manuscripts or letters relevant to this survey

2e) Do you have any other manuscripts or letters relating to Linnaeus or his activities?
If so, please answer here and then provide brief descriptions here or on a separate sheet.

_____ Manuscripts
Approximate number of items ___________________

_____ Letters
Approximate number of items ___________________

_____ No manuscripts or letters relevant to this survey

2f) Does your Institution hold any Linnaeus-related specimens (e.g., herbarium sheets)?

_____ Primary Linnaeus-related specimens (Specimens which Linnaeus saw or owned)
Approximate number of items ___________________

Please describe some of the main specimen collections / collectors briefly here or on a separate sheet.

_____ Secondary Linnaeus-related specimens (Voucher specimens for illustrations or works which Linnaeus used)
Approximate number of items ___________________

Please describe some of the main specimen collections / collectors briefly here or on a separate sheet.

_____ No specimens relevant to this survey

2g) Do you have any other types of Linnaean material not listed in this section?
Yes ____   No ____

Please describe briefly here or on a separate sheet.

Section 3: Inventories and catalogue records:

3a) Are your Linnaean materials catalogued? Yes ____   No ____

If the answer is no, please proceed to question 3i).

If the answer is yes, please continue with question 3b).

3b) If yes, by what rules are they catalogued?

_____ AACR2
_____ British Museum
_____ Prussian
_____ Old Anglo-American
_____ Other (please describe briefly):

3c) Is there a separate catalogue for your Linnaean materials? Yes ____   No ____

3d) If only some of the Linnaean materials are catalogued, approximately what percent are catalogued?
_____%

3e) If partly catalogued, are there plans to catalogue the remainder?
Yes ____   No ____

3f) Do your Linnaean catalogue records include subject analysis?
Yes ____   No ____

3g) In what form(s) do catalogue records for your Linnaean materials exist? Please check as many answers as apply:

_____ Manuscript or typed inventory list
_____ Cards
_____ Printed (but not published) catalogue
_____ Published catalogue
_____ OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)
_____ Other internal or institutional database
_____ Cooperative database -- Please identify:
_____ Commercial database -- Please identify:
_____ Other electronic form -- Please describe:
_____ Other form not listed here -- Please describe:

3h) Would you please send a sample record (attached or separately) from each catalogue record format checked above (e.g. copy of card, copy of electronic record, etc.)?
These samples would be very helpful to us in ascertaining the types of information currently available pertaining to Linnaean collections.

_____ I am attaching/enclosing samples with this form
_____ I will send samples separately

3i) If your Linnaean materials are not catalogued, do you use an inventory list, index or other means of collection control for this material?
Yes ____   No ____

If yes, please describe briefly:

3j) Is there a separate shelf-list of your Linnaean material?
Yes ____   No ____

Section 4: Access to Catalogue Records of Linnean Collections:

4a) If your Linnaean records are accessible through an online public access catalogue (OPAC), please name your library system software:

4b) If your Linnaean records are accessible in published form, please give bibliographic citation(s) here:

4c) Have your Linnaean records been included in any cooperative database?
If so, please identify and describe how to access:

4d) If your Linnaean records are accessible on the Internet, please provide the URL or other address(es):

Section 5: Additional information:

5a) Are there other aspects of your Linnaean collections or their associated records that you would like us to know about?
Please provide information here or on a separate sheet.

5b) Are there other Linnaean collections in your region that we should know about?
If so, would you please provide contact information here or on a separate sheet.

5c) In addition to compiled statistics, we might also want to post information specific to individual institutions on the project website. (This would not include actual samples of catalogue records, which we are requesting only for our reference.)
May we include information about your Linnaean collections and their accessibility, so that the information can be made available to researchers?
Yes ____   No ____

Comments:

Thank you again for your help with this survey.

Please send your completed form and any sample catalogue or inventory records to ct0u@andrew.cmu.edu

Or, if you are unable to respond via the internet, please mail or fax your completed questionnaire to:

Linnaeus Survey
C/o Charlotte Tancin, Librarian
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, U.S.A.

Fax: +1 412 268 5677

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