WORK IN PROGRESS
Background
A considerable amount of lichen survey and monitoring work is carried out across Britain and Ireland every year, but the documentation is rarely published. This literature (previously referred to in the BLS as ‘grey literature’) includes a wide variety of documentation that has not been produced through traditional publishing routes, e.g. commercial or academic publishing. Here, the majority of literature tends to be reports of field lichen surveys, where these works are commissioned by conservation charities (e.g. National Trust, Woodland Trust etc.), statutory bodies (e.g. Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural England etc.) or the private sector (e.g. ecological consultancies, developers).
These surveys contain extensive detail in the form of raw data, such as species lists, site descriptions, individual tree descriptions, quadrat data and photographs, as well as site assessments, application of lichen indices and management recommendations. These are invaluable for site managers/landowners, for lichenologists re-visiting the same sites in later years and to make comparisons with other sites. The documents may also contain detailed information on the occurrence and ecology of priority species and some have been prepared especially for such purposes (so-called 'Species Dossiers').
This webpage is the British Lichen Society’s inventory for unpublished literature, comprised of lichen and habitat data collected from across Britain & Ireland. This is an invaluable resource that highlights the rich wealth of lichen knowledge and information that has been collected over the years. The inventory lists over 1000 reports produced by lichenologists and is a searchable system, that is available in a catalogue and mapped format, providing a mechanism to search for documentation and ensure the maximum use of this important information.
Accessibility
The reports listed on the inventory have been prepared by lichenologists under contract involving clauses of confidentiality or copyright. Therefore, access to these reports cannot be provided by the British Lichen Society and must be through the commissioning bodies and data owners.
The BLS has provided a list of the report commissioners to highlight data ownership and copyright for each report, where these organisations should be contacted and document accessibility discussed with the commissioning body direct. If reports are available online, a link has been provided in the downloadable spreadsheet. The purpose of this inventory is to ensure literature is documented and accounted for, but accessibility sits with the commissioning body.
Catalogue & Mapping
The inventory of lichen surveys can be accessed as a downloadable excel file by clicking here and this contains all documentation currently listed on the BLS’s files. Please note that this project is work in progress and the report register is incomplete, with some major contributors missing from the list. A large proportion of these reports have also been mapped, where the geographic information was available. Therefore, it is important that both the excel catalogue and the mapping is consulted for a comprehensive search of existing reports. Map markers in green have a link to download the report.
Download lichen survey reports inventory here.
Issues with the database
The database is an ongoing project that will be constantly updated over time. If you encounter any errors in the database then please indicate the issue here [insert link]. The Project Officer will work to amend this as soon as possible.
Project History
Whereas published papers are catalogued in bibliographies published in print or on web sites, there is no such facility for unpublished reports. However, many reports and other manuscripts on British lichens prepared up until 1975 were catalogued by D.L. Hawksworth and M.R.D. Seaward in their Lichenology in the British Isles 1568-1975, published by Richmond Publishing in 1977. Unfortunately, since then there was no centralized register of unpublished lichen reports, and there was (and still is) a great danger that many of these invaluable documents will be effectively 'lost', even if they physically survive in filing cabinets or archives! This problem was raised many times at meetings of the BLS Conservation Committee over the years.
In order to redress this problem, for the benefit of lichenologists and conservation bodies, Sandy and Brian Coppins prepared an annotated list of their own unpublished reports for various governmental and non-governmental agencies. Since then additional contributions have been incorporated, but with the swathe of surveys conducted across Britain & Ireland - the list was in desperate need to be updated again.
In 2019, the ‘Grey Literature Project’ was instigated under Rebecca Yahr’s presidency, to collate all existing literature and to centralise this in one place, managed by April Windle and Tracey Lovering. Before this project, the information was dispersed and inaccessible, with a huge amount of historic literature in hard-copy format only. The Society has a long-term commitment to ensure this information is catalogued, but at present the inventory is a large under-representation of the literature that has been produced. Therefore, efforts to collate this information is ongoing and lichenologists working in Britain and Ireland are invited to add to this list, so that a near comprehensive catalogue of such works can be produced.
Updated: 18 December 2024