Fynbos I-Forum online database launched

Teamwork: Librarian Margaret Koopman (centre) and interns (from left) Nomonde Satashe and Nomgcobo Ntsham worked for two years to get the new Fynbos i-Forum up and running.

After two years of hard work by UCT librarian Margaret Koopman and newly graduated librarians Nomonde Sotashe and Nomgcobo Ntsham, the revitalised Fynbos I-Forum is finally online.

Set to be an invaluable tool for Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E.) partner organisations, the searchable database includes publications and reports on scientific and management aspects of biodiversity conservation in the Cape Floristic Region. It is available free of charge to users - either online or on CD.

Over the past two years, Koopman, Sotashe and Ntsham, of the Niven Library at UCT's Percy Fitzpatrick Institute, captured the existing fynbos bibliography of the Fynbos Biodome Project of the 1980s, also expanding the database.

The I-Forum now contains 6 229 entries on published and unpublished material and will continue to be expanded as new material becomes available. Users can check that all their own publications are represented, and can submit additional citations through the website.