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The Association Upcoming Meetings:
10th
CAVEPS and Quaternary Extinction Symposium CANQUA June 5-8, 2005 2nd
International Congress
The Quaternary Times Directory of Quaternary Scientists 2005 Northeastern Friends of the Pleistocene meeting Quaternary-Related Journal Discounts Quaternary Job Opportunities Quaternary-Related Abstracts Quaternary-Related Links Society of American Archaeology Fellowship Announcement Search the AMQUA Site
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Electronic Abstracts The final pdf (portable document format) version of the Abstracts of the September 1998
Puerto Vallarta meeting are now available at the AMQUA website (http://
vishnu.glg.nau.edu/amqua/). The file can be read within a web browser or downloaded for
later use. It contains all of the abstracts from the meeting, in addition to supplementary
material supplied by authors of some invited abstracts after the meeting. Hot-links within
the document allow the reader to move quickly to abstracts selected from the table of
contents, open an e-mail message to the author of an abstract and search for contributions
by a particular author. The entire document can be searched for any word or phrase. Should
the reader require a hard copy, the whole volume or any individual abstract can be
printed. And because of the small size of the document, it is readily sent as an e-mail
attachment or distributed on floppy disc. Like all pdf files, the pdf version of the AMQUA
abstracts runs on all computer platforms, requiring only that the user have installed the
"Reader" software which is distributed free and comes pre installed on most
computers. AMQUA is a pioneer for producing its abstract volume in this fashion. The pdf format is
the standard for document archival and distribution, but its value for publishing and
distributing scientific publications is yet to be fully appreciated. The many features
that make a pdf document more user-friendly than a printed document include: (1) links to
other documents, web sites, or e-mail addresses; (2) ability to incorporate more
illustrative material, including color diagrams (or even video/sound clips); (3) low
production cost compared to print and (4) ease of distribution. The eminent portability of the pdf version of the AMQUA abstracts means that they are likely to be seen by a much wider audience than would be the case if only the printed version existed. In fact, some university teachers have told me that they automatically forwarded the pdf version of the Beringia Workshop abstracts (also available at the AMQUA site) to all of their students and plan to do the same with the pdf AMQUA abstracts. Undoubtedly, other scientific organizations will soon begin to produce pdf versions of their meeting abstracts--not to replace the printed version, but rather as a means of reaching that part of the scientific audience that normally would never see the printed version. Dr. John V. Matthews, Jr. Printed Abstracts Past Due Notices |