Introduction to Encyclopaedia Speleologica Practicorum Britannica (ESBri)
This Encyclopaedia came into existence somewhat accidentally on a hot contact place of interests of the climbers and speleologists, who over fifty years ago were administratively welded together in my country. Without going into details, the common encyclopaedic undertaking failed, but the seed sown on a speleological wasteland unexpectedly took root. And instead of an encyclopaedia for the mountaineers about cave mountaineers cave mountaineers, I began to construct an encyclopaedia for the speleologists about the speleologists. Intuition tells me somehow, that this is more natural.
The starting package of the Encyclopaedia was Fachwörterbuch für Karst- und Höhlenkunde by Hubert Trimmel from 1965, translated Piotr Heimroth (Krakow) from German into Polish. As a supplement a similar work of Joe Jennings and Arthur Clarke was developed. Vladimir Pano±'s epochal work has been recently used to build relations between various languages.
After two years of peaceful work I received information that some great speleological encyclopaedia was created. Before I managed to get a copy of this work, I calmly continued my work relying upon Richard Feynman's easygoing creative exposition ("Work calmly over your idea, although you are aware that others work over it, because at the end it always turns out that they are entirely different.") Finally I managed to get a copy of this work and I found with a relief that Richard Feynman was right, of course. The idea behind the Encyclopaedia of Caves and Karst Sciences edited by John Gunn, which from the structural viewpoint is rather a great dictionary, is diametrically different from my idea. And my entire idea for ES is based on the assumption, that speleology and the people who create it deserve their encyclopaedia understood in the most traditional way, that is as a sack of information about each heard expression. For me J. Gunn's work, although it rather modestly touches upon the entire subject (approx. 900 entries on 920 pages) is an epochal work, if we take into consideration the number of entries included in the glossary, which burn with desire to be expanded. I am the one who wants to fulfil this desire.
The task of ES is to combine knowledge and experience of theoreticians and practitioners, speleologists and scientists, precursors, contemporary persons and historians, as well as knowledge about the people creating it all and a multitude of domains from many countries marginally involved in the speleology. Structure of ES is adapted to the above concept. Encyclopaedia, which at the beginning was of a local character, has been restructured in such a manner, so that it could accept any number of language and terrain versions. For the time being three versions have been created, out of which only the Polish version has been developed in a manner enabling to observe the structure. The assumption is that each language version is to have contribution to the general speleology knowledge, for which purpose Trimmel's, Jennings', Gun's and Pano±'s dictionaries serve. All the language and terrain versions meet in Encyclopaedia Speleologica Universalis, the task of which is to combine experiences from various countries.
The English language version is to cover by its interest all the phenomenon and events in the countries using this language. For now it is far from the appearance of the original version, however tremendous contribution of English-speaking speleologists obliges everyone to keep their achievements in a thankful memory of the future generations. Maybe in the future there will be a need to divide the materials according to territorial affiliation.
ES takes by handfuls from human achievements, which are available in paper and electronic form. We are trying very hard to determine who the author of each work is and give testimony to it. However we do not ask anyone for consent to use their materials, except for the authors of large thematic studies. Waiting for the consents would totally block the works. We therefore assume silent consent of the authors to use their works, which in fact usually is the case. However, if such consent is not given, we request such authors to notify us about this fact, and their remarks will be taken into consideration. We also strongly request to indicate any mistakes, both in the content and authorship, so that we could eliminate them promptly.
Entries may be introduced by anyone. The formula of discretion of access for the authors has been successfully checked by WIKIPEDIA and this good idea has also been applied here. The entries go to the so called checkroom, where they are reviewed and approved by the Editor. This mechanism is necessary to assure protection against uncontrolled sabotage from the outside. In order to make things easier (both for the authors and Editors) sample constructions for typical entries are included.
ES is a non-profit project, however the Editor reserve the right to obtain funds necessary to cover actual costs of creating and maintaining, because as for now it is created at the expense of the children, who are not sure yet, if they are ready to consider this work as an investment in the future.
In order to make things easier (both for the authors and Editors) sample constructions for typical entries are included.
Piotr Kulbicki