Digital picture collection
(The flora and fauna of the Carpathian Basin)

Digital Collection of species
(The Carpathian Basin)

My name is József Hamar. I am an ecologist I am surveying the ecological condition of the river valleys of the  Tisza river system with Slovakian, Ukrainian, Romanian and Hungarian experts, teachers and scientists. We are compiling specialist and popular books about it. (see www.tiszaklub.hu Publications).
The flora and fauna of the Carpathian Basin is extremely rich but endangered. That is why we wish to make a non-profit collection of pictures of the photogenic species groups (see: www.tiszaklub.hu –Gallery, for a selection of the already existing ones)
These are the reasons why we would like you to contribute to the collection taking the following information into account:
About the collection
•	Its aim is to make a collection of digital pictures of living organisms recognizable from them, which serve educational and research purposes, not commercial ones, therefore accessible for everyone (without breaching copyrights). It provides help for experts and lay people as well to learn about species, and makes their identification easier. The quality and the size of the pictures are adjusted to this purpose.
•	We would like to forward the collection to schools, institutions, research centres both in our country and abroad.
•	Copyright always goes for the person who took the picture.
•	The pictures would be collected in .jpg format, in a size required for identification (a so-called thumbnail, 800×600 pixel on average, 300dpi). This provides a 200×300mm virtual size on the monitor at maximum, whose print size is the same as that of a matchbox.
•	The identification name of the file would contain the Latin name of the species (taxon). A list of species could be attached to the directory providing both the technical denominations and the Hungarian names.
•	The directory would also contain a separate text file with the authors’ name and address as well as the copyrights given by them. On the basis of my enquiries, the following option emerged: (1) the pictures can be used for educational and research purposes, but not for commercial ones, (2) in every other case (commercial use, picture alteration, printing, etc.) permission from the author is needed.
•	We collect pictures of living organisms that can mainly be identified from them, which are practically well-known groups: large mushrooms, vascular plants (i.e. that have flowers), water insects, dragonflies, crustaceans, gastropods, bivalves, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and representatives of other characteristic, well-known species (groups) that have educational value, such as the Tisza mayfly the stag beetle, the bog-moss, the peacock butterfly, etc.
•	Species unidentifiable by the author will be identified by experts. They also look through the pictures to check them. The safest is if the authors call the file either the scientific name or the Hungarian name of the species if they know it. If they have two or more pictures of the same species, the files should be numbered (e.g. Hedera helix1.jpg).
About the pictures:
I work with digital pictures sent in. If missing, I write the author’s name in the pictures of the collection (e.g. © István Kovács). Without permission from the author, the pictures of the collection may not be published!
In the compilation of the collection, experts, amateurs and lay people take part. (At the end of 2004 there were about 4,000 pictures.) With the help of the species list we also collect pictures from the Internet, when we have obtained the necessary permissions  to supplement and complete the collection. At the end of the project, or, if required, in the process, every participant will get the required or the whole collection!
We are able to send the original and/or bigger pictures to the experts by author.

Copyright owned by author. Photos usable for non-profit purposes if unaltered. Editor (hamar.j@externet.hu) expects opinions, suggestions, corrections and further photos, because the enlargement of this Collection continues. This Collection can be accessed and copied from the Internet: 
1, www.tiszaklub.hu,  and/or  2, ftp://carpathian-basin-species-collection.tiszaklub.dyndns.hu

References: István Matskási director, zoologist, matskasi@zoo.zoo.nhmus.hu; and Attila Bankovics, ornitologist, bankovic@zool.nhmus.hu, Hungarian Museum of Natural Sciences;
Simon, Tibor botanist, simon-tib@freemail.hu, Hungary;
Constantin Dragulescu botanist; ctindrg@yahoo.com, Romania,
Ludvik Potish zoologist, , lpotish@gmail.com, Ukraine;
János Bogoly naturaliste, bogoly.janos@szm.sk., Slovakia;

Yours sincerely,

Dr. József Hamar
ecologist, tiszaklub@t-online.hu
Home: hamar.j@externet.hu