Speleological Abstracts (SA/BBS)

Speleological Abstracts (SA/BBS) is an annual review of the world's speleological literature. About 4000 titles are included every year, most of them with a short abstract in English, French or in another non-Cyrillic International Union of Speleology language (UIS). The titles are those that were published or which were available between January and the end of December of the year concerned. The reviewed titles are numbered incrementally and are classified by subject using 8 chapter headings and numerous sub-headings. The titles in each sub-heading are listed alphabetically by author. The following subject chapters are considered:

• 1. Karstology and Geospeleology;
• 2. Regional speleology;
• 3. Biospeleology;
• 4. Anthropospeleology;
• 5. Palaeontospeleology;
• 6. Applied speleology;
• 7. Technical speleology;
• 8. Documentary speleology.

Titles that have a geographical connection are listed in chapter 2 (Regional Speleology). Chapters 1 and 3 to 8 include titles without any geographical connection and/or with specialized contents, e.g. biospeleology, technical speleology. etc.

To facilitate bibliographical searches, each issue of SA/BBS includes the following indexes:

• 1. An alphabetical index by author: this allows location of titles published by a given author.
• 2. A geographical index: this allows rapid location of a given country; there is a direct link to chapter 2, allowing access to locations by means of the headlines.
• 3. Various cross indexes: at the end of every sub-chapter. They allow location of all other titles relating to a given subject or a given country (nation) that have been placed in a different sub-chapter. To aid the bibliographical research in the cross indexes, the search may be narroewed to the title numbers that correspond to a given chapter.
• 4. A list of the reviewed publications and periodicals: having found titles of interest, and now needing more details, this list helps in obtaining the required volumes from a speleological library.

A brand-new CD-Rom of the SA / BBS is also being developed. It contains 12 years of abstracts, from 1988 to 1999. The 60,000 references can be accessed easily, thanks to a new search engine.

For further information please check the webpage: www.ssslib.ch/bbs

Editors of the SA

Editor:

UIS, Bibliography Commission of the Union Internationale de Spéléologie.

Coeditors:

•  Fédération Francaise de Spéléologie
•  Società Speleologica Italiana
•  British Cave Research Association
•  Société Suisse de Spéléologie
•  Federaciò Catalana d'Espeleologia