The New http://www.conchsoc.org Website

 

The Society’s website has a new look. In its new guise it aims to improve its approach to supporting and advertising the promotion, study and conservation of molluscs by providing a range of resources for identification and recording distributions. It incorporates the following features:

If you are not already familiar with the website, or indeed the Internet, this is an ideal opportunity to get started with a step-by-step guide outlined in the following article. Why not log onto the Internet now (www.conchsoc.org) as you will almost certainly find the following information and instructions easier to follow if you read this article in conjunction with the website on the screen in front of you. In addition to specific details about the Society’s website, this article also provides basic information on how a website works which you may find of general use and interest.

 

The opening page gives immediate access to the main sections, including Recording, Conservation, Identification Aids, Meetings, Members Interests, Publications, etc. The most recent News Headline on a molluscan or conservation topic is displayed immediately below the title banner. It provides access to the full story and to other recent news items. An archive of previous news items and press releases is also maintained on the site and is reached from within the Site Map (see below).

 

In order to keep the news up to date, it is important that the webmaster be advised by email of items of molluscan or conservation interest of which you may learn. If you spot a story in whatever format do let the webmaster know. A brief summary with the source and headline should enable the news item to be tracked down. Keeping the news page up to date is an important indicator to website visitors that the site is active and maintained. The Home page includes a facility at the top right hand for searching the entire site, but see below for details of this.

 

The main navigation bar is situated below the title banner on each page after the Home page. On the majority of the pages there is a supplementary menu of links on the left. These links are to pages to which you might wish to refer, or are related to the page you are on, so that you do not have too far to go to find related information. Links are a useful tool to benefit from the interconnectivity of the Society’s website, or may take you to other websites which contain information that may be helpful for your particular requirements.

 

The text at the foot of every page provides links to Health and Safety Policy, Privacy Policy, Links to related sites, Code of Conduct for Field Work, and Data Release Policy. On some pages, particularly those relating to identification, there are “breadcrumb trails” (just below the top navigation bar) to enable you to quickly return to a page in order to confirm key features or to take another route in the identification key. The News pages and Abstracts of Papers from the Journal open with a list of headlines. Each headline is a link to the full story or Abstract. When you hover over or click on one of these headlines the text turns green. Having opened and read an Abstract, when you return to the main page again, the headline is then in purple font. This indicates to you that you have ‘visited’ this particular Abstract.

 

This is a new feature on the website and will form the subject of a separate article. It is an evolving section and aims to provide a general reference source to help with identification, for all species of mollusc found within the UK. At the present time it covers mainly marine molluscs. The account of each species includes descriptions, images, details of the distribution (including a map of the recorded distribution within the UK as shown on the National Biodiversity Network [NBN]), key identification features, and comparison with species with which it could be confused. The speed with which the Encyclopedia can be built up will be greatly enhanced if Society members are able to loan good specimens to be photographed.

 

This guide is designed to help identify the majority of the species of freshwater and brackish water snails likely to be found in Britain and Ireland. It is adapted from the excellent “Süsswassermollusken” by P. Glöer and C. Meier-Brook, 1994, published by Deutscher Jungendbund für Naturbeobachtung, Hamburg. Dr. Peter Glöer has kindly provided copies of the photographs used in his book and has granted the Society permission to use them to illustrate the section.

 

Starting a search is simple. If you are not on the Home page (the opening screen of the website) click on the word HOME where it appears at the top of each page on the left hand side below the Society’s name. When on the Home page, type your key words in the box next to the word Search then click on the word, Search. This facility then searches the whole website for your chosen word or words and the results are shown in the browser window that follows. Even a mistype can sometimes still find the correct information.

 

The search is powered by “Atomz” (http://www.atomz.com/). This is a hosted ‘application’ (piece of software) delivered completely free over the Internet; the suppliers support their costs through text-based advertisements. The advertisements are a small price to pay for the advantages the application brings to navigating the Society website and consist of a few lines of innocuous text of Related Sponsored Results above the Site Results.

 

The links to pages containing the requested information are in blue underlined text. 10 results are shown per page, below the horizontal line under the Sponsored Results. (If you click a Sponsored Result it is easy to get side tracked, which, of course, is what pays Atomz bills). The term used in your search is shown in bold text.

 

You probably already know that clicking on a link will open the page showing results. However, not all users are aware of the different features and items of information that can be shown on the results page.

 

Here are the basic elements of a search page:

 

• Show or Hide Summaries – most times you will want to display the summaries in order to see the description relating to what you are seeking.

 

• Sort by Date or Sort by Relevance – sometimes you need to find the most recent information, and at other times you need the most relevant. These alternatives are most useful when the results are many.

 

• Page Title – This is the name of the page, and is always the first line of a search result. You may see a URL (Universal Resource Locator, the ‘web address’ which enables a web page to be located wherever it may be) instead of a title if the page doesn’t include a title in its HTML code. (Hyper Text Markup Language, the coding which enables the web browser to function) Also, if Google hasn’t yet indexed a page, it may not show the title.

 

• URL (Universal Resource Locator) – is shown below the text information about the page and is shown in green.

 

• Text for search result – The text below the title is a clip from the result page that contains your keywords. You see the search terms in bold on the search result.

 

The site map is sometimes the simplest way to find your way around the new site. It isn’t actually a map but a list, arranged alphabetically by main sections, and alphabetically within each main section. Remember: all links are coloured – blue for unvisited, purple for visited, and green underlined whenever you place the cursor over one. If it is black text, it is NOT a link.

 

The majority of the files are in a format that will open in your browser without any problem. A few, which are mainly confined to the Reports of Field Meetings and Species Lists from field meetings, are in pdf (Portable Document Format) which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader as a “helper application”. Most modern computers come with it already installed, but if you do not have a copy, it is available as a free download from

 

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrob at/readstep2.html.

 

Adobe Acrobat’s logo is included on the relevant pages and by clicking on it the download will start, making it readily available.

 

The reason for using the pdf format is that it makes for fast downloading of documents, even long ones, and it can incorporate text, graphs, tables and images all in one document completely independently of the operating system and programs available on the user’s computer.

 

You may return to the Home Page at any time by clicking the link in the top navigation bar or by clicking the logo at the top of any page.

 

The website is there to be used by Society members, as well as to inform any member of the general public who happens upon it during a surf of the Internet searching for information on shells, molluscs, snails, slugs – whatever keywords they have selected. Hopefully you will find most of your molluscan enquiries answered on our website but if not, why not try the links to other similar organisations, links to which are included in the Links page, accessed from the navigation text at the bottom of every page.

 

A good website relies on regular updates, new information, and new resources. If you have any suggestions for additional content or have some material to contribute, do get in touch with the webmaster whose details are provided, along with those of all the Officers of the Society, on the Contact Us page, accessed from the second button on the top navigation bar.