A Books for Butantan Update

THE INSTITUTO BUTANTAN LIBRARY IS RE-BUILDING WITH HELP FROM CNAH & THE WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION

HOW YOU CAN HELP BUTANTAN

In late 2010, The Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH) received a $25,000.00 grant from the Wallace Research Foundation to assist in re-building the academic book titles in the library of the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, Brazil. A fire at the institute destroyed its research library earlier this year and has left the faculty, staff, and students devastated by the loss of books, data, and research material. While CNAH cannot replace the invaluable intellectual work that went up in flames, we can help to substantially replace the Butantan library so they can begin anew their quest for information about the amphibians, reptiles, turtles, and crocodilians of the world.

CNAH and the Wallace Research Foundation partnered with Eric Thiss of Serpent's Tale in Minnesota to purchase books on the herpetofauna of the Western Hemisphere, with an emphasis on North America. We have concentrated on books published since 1935 because many of these are still under copyright and generally are not legally available as electronic downloads on the internet. With respect to journals, please contact Eric Thiss (zoobooks@acegroup.cc) for a list of those we still need. A list of those we already have is appended below.

And we still want herpetologists to help us. We need donations of books. Each book that we receive as a donation will be sent to Butantan and will free up funds to purchase another tome. Don't worry about sending duplicate books; we are planning on auctioning off duplicates to raise funds for additional acquisitions. Anyone that can assist CNAH and the Wallace Research Foundation by making such a book donation should send their contribution via U.S. mail media rate to:

Serpent's Tale
P.O. Box 405
Lanesboro, Minnesota 55949
507-467-8733

If you haven't a spare book, send CNAH money. Additional funds mean additional books and help with the freight charges. We need to pay for both. And money is so much easier to send. Just go to

www.cnah.org

Select PayPal on the CNAH website main page and make a cash donation. Be sure to add "Butantan" to the PayPal or check memo line. Or, if you prefer, send a check to the address below. All donations will be used to purchase books for Butantan.

Cash donations over $50.00 and all book donations will receive a letter of acknowledgement for tax purposes.

Above all, CNAH is continually thankful to the Wallace Research Foundation for their generosity and compassion toward the students, faculty, and staff of the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, Brazil. Without the interest and vision of WRF, this effort by CNAH would never have been possible. On behalf of The Center for North American Herpetology Board of Directors and the herpetological community worldwide, we continue to applaud the WRF commitment to education, research, and conservation.

Joseph T. Collins
The Center for North American Herpetology
1502 Medinah Circle
Lawrence, Kansas 66047
(785) 393-4757
jcollins@ku.edu

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We already have complete bound sets of these journals:

Journal of Herpetology
Herpetological Review
Brimleyana
Chicago Academy of Sciences (herp papers only) Los Angeles County Museum Science Bulletin (herp papers only) Chelonian Conservation and Biology SSAR Herpetological Circulars University of Kansas Occasional Papers (herp papers only) Uniiversity of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History (herp papers only) HL Herpetological Monographs Herpetologica Reptile and Amphibian sections of the Zoological Record Bulletin of the Maryland Herp Society SSAR Catalogue of American Amphibians & Reptiles