Tuesday 1 March 2011

Prequel to Natur Cymru

The first edition of Natur Cymru was published in summer 2001 but the tradition of in-depth nature writing goes back to spring 1955. Our predecessor, titled Nature in Wales, was published in an unbroken run for 32 years until 1987.

This is an invaluable resource for anyone seriously studying changes, patterns and trends in the natural world. Copies of the journals are held in libraries and amongst private collections but as of a couple of days ago the whole series is available on line. A big thanks to the National Library of Wales with funding from the JISC Digitisation Programme.

If you’d like to see the collection it’s just a matter of clicking here.

Naturally I went to the first journal and scanned the list of contents with articles by heavyweights such as R M Lockley and Bill Condry.  But of course you don’t need to plough through all 83 volumes. Just type in a search word and you will find pointers to the articles in which it appears. Progress can indeed be a good thing. 

1 comment:

  1. Nature in Wales was a journal for which Wales should be justifiably proud, combining as it did rigorous scientific observation and eloquent natural history writing. It provides a priceless record of environmental change and now thanks to digitisation its contents are freely available and easily searchable. Long live Nature in Wales!

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