Bulletin of the Nigerian Ornithologists' Society

Development of a consolidated species index

Following our successful production of a consolidated index for 27 volumes of Malmbus, we (Peter Browne and Bob Dowsett) began discussing by email in October 2005 the more daunting task of producing a consolidated index in similar format for the 14 volumes of Bull NOS.  This was more daunting for three main reasons:

  1. We could locate printed indexes for only volumes 1-5 and 11-14.
  2. The formats of the index entries differed markedly from each other in the two printed indexes and each format was very different from the format used in the Malimbus index.
  3. The scientific names for many species in the two printed indexes were different from each other and different again from those used in the Malimbus index.

We overcame these problems as explained in the linked pages below.  In brief, Peter converted each of the two printed indexes into a form similar to the species index for Malimbus.  For the remaining volumes 6-10, Bob indexed them manually and Peter converted this into the appropriate format.  Peter then compiled a consolidated index for the 14 volumes from these three sources.  This process was lengthy and errors could have arisen at several different places.  However, we estimate that the resulting consolidated index is more than 95% accurate.  We invite users who discover any discrepancies to send details to the webmaster.

For descriptions of the methods used, click on these links: vols. 1-5vols. 6-10vols. 11-14consolidation.