International Journal of Speleology
40 years of Speleological Science
(1964-2004)

The International Journal of Speleology (hereafter IJS) is the Official Journal of the Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS), the most important worldwide speleological organisation. The IJS was first published in 1964 and to date 33 volumes with a total of 59 issues, containing more than 8000 pages, have been printed and distributed worldwide. The IJS is owned by the Italian Speleological Society (Società Speleologica Italiana) and has been managed and printed in the “bel paese” since 1981.

With the distribution of Volume 33 in 2004, a 40-year long cycle has come to an end.

The 40 year anniversary of the IJS raised the idea of making a memorial CD to be distributed during the 14th International Congress of Speleology in Athens (Greece) during 2005. In fact, it is difficult to find the entire IJS collection even in well known libraries, and this CD provides the opportunity – thanks to modern technology – for anyone to consult 40 years of Scientific Speleology.

This multimedia CD contains a database of all IJS volumes from number 1 (1/2) 1964 to number 33 (1/4) 2004 and the handbook MANUAL FOR KARST WATER ANALISYS.

With this product the new IJS editorial staff hopes to provide a useful service to many cave scientists all over the world.

Many thanks have to be expressed to Arrigo Cigna, who provided us with the entire collection of IJS (probably the only one in the world !!?), to Giovanni Badino for his remarkable skills in finding adequate financing, to the Società Speleologica Italiana and all the Italian Speleological Federations who have sponsored this idea (see pages inside the CD), to the UIS for its continuous and valuable support and to all the scientific cave journals with whom IJS has relationships of brotherhood. Thanks to Mauro Chiesi, Ugo Sauro and Andy Schober for the magnificent pictures shown in the Flash introduction. We are also greatly indebted to David Lowe for reacting at very short notice to provide rapid, but not exhaustive, improvement of most of the English texts.

This CD is dedicated to the memory of Francesco Dal Cin (1946-2005), Italian rugby player and caver, who worked unceasingly to bring together cave explorers and scientists. Francesco left us on May 4th 2005, at an age of 59.

The Editor in Chief
Jo De Waele