GrottoCenter Blog

The UIS is proposing to UNESCO that September 13 be declared International Karst and Cave Day. UNESCO is expected to make a decision soon, and we can take advantage of September 13, 2025, to ask our UNESCO ambassadors to support this project. All information is available here IDCK If you are in France I suggest you contact Our Ambassador https://unesco.delegfrance.org/Contact-us , Ms. Ahlem Gharbi Here is the message I sent to her Madame l'Ambassadrice, Je vous écris en tant que président de l’association Wikicaves qui a son siège en France et qui œuvre dans le cadre de l’Union Internationale de Spéléologie pour rendre accessible les informations sur le milieu souterrain (https://grottocenter.org) afin de permettre sa protection. Comme vous le savez peut-être, la République de Slovénie a préparé un projet de proposition pour la 222e session du Comité exécutif de l'UNESCO demandant que le 13 septembre soit proclamé Journée internationale des Grottes et du Karst (IDCK). ...

We have undertaken to build a global digital library dedicated to the underground environment. As part of this project, we have just set up two servers that allow libraries to easily retrieve everything contained in the Grottocenter BBS. https://wiki.grottocenter.org/wiki/GrottoCenter:En/OAI_and_Z39.50_servers Among the initial partners in this project is the Belgian Speleology Federation. During her internship at the Maison de la Speleologie, Camille worked with Nathalie and Loran to contact all the clubs to obtain authorization to archive their publications. Nathalie is currently digitizing the documents that have not yet been digitized. The first results, which everyone can benefit from, are as follows: The publications of the Charleroi Speleology Club are available https://grottocenter.org/ui/documents/208875 As well as those of the Belgian Speleology Club https://grottocenter.org/ui/documents/21672 https://grottocenter.org/ui/documents/230092 The Liège Speleology Club make...

Camille Renard and Yohann Schatt, engineering students at Polytech Montpellier, have just completed an internship as part of the project, led by the International Union of Speleology, to create a global digital library on Karst and the underground environment. The first partners of this project are, in addition to the UIS and its commissions, the Italian Speleological Society (SSI), the Belgian speleological organizations (UBS, Maison de la Speleologie, Spéléo J), the SCNAT through the scientific commission of the Swiss Speleological Society and the Wikicaves association, which organized these courses and participated in their financing. Thank you all. Camille completed her internship in Namur with Nathalie Gouffiol, librarian at the Maison de la Spéléologie. She developed a fully functional OAI-PMH server that allowed Nathalie to retrieve analyses for articles from the journal Regards and integrate them into her database. To achieve this, Camille relied on the OAI standard as well ...

Work continues to organize the sharing of data on the underground environment. Speleoteca has been under ODbL license for a few days now. This will allow data exchanges with the BBS on Grottocenter and with the Maison de la Speleologie de Namur (Speleo J) without having to submit a request, as all three databases are under the same license.

As part of ongoing efforts to facilitate data exchange between documentation centers dealing with the underground world and karst, the Namur Underground Heritage Library has recently placed its database under the ODbL license. This allows for automatic data exchange with other libraries using the same license, particularly with BBS data accessible on Grottocenter.

You now have access to explanations of all the features, as well as an FAQ listing the questions we receive. The menu has been expanded, and translations are underway. If you'd like to contribute to the translation process, it's very simple: create an account by editing the page corresponding to the language you speak.

As part of her internship at the Maison de la Speleologie - Spéléo J - in Namur, Camille is contacting all the Belgian clubs to ask if they agree to have their journals, publications, and topos archived and made freely accessible. If you are interested and have not received the message directly, you can contact the Wikicaves association https://fr.wikicaves.org/contact Nathalie and Camille are working on digitizing the documents and will need a helping hand: don't hesitate to contact them if you have some free time this month.

Discover in issue 129 of Spéléo Mag an article that presents an overview of the tools and methods to implement for managing data on the underground environment. http://www.speleomag.com

The Wikicaves association is holding its general meeting and invites you to participate in a discussion about Grottocenter. Wikicaves meeting in English Vendredi, 21 mars · De 21:00 à 23:00 Fuseau horaire : Europe/Paris Lien de l'appel vidéo : https://meet.google.com/ujh-amcf-ivb Ou composez le : ‪(FR) +33 1 87 40 49 45‬ CODE : ‪243 253 076‬# Plus de numéros de téléphone : https://tel.meet/ujh-amcf-ivb?pin=2310152846345

The International Union of Speleology has been working for several decades to propose standardized symbols that can be used to describe surface phenomena, to make plans of caves and artificial cavities and recently to ensure the conservation of the underground environment. Work has just been done to provide access to all this information at a single address https://ontology.uis-speleo.org/symbols/ Each symbol has its own URL and can be accompanied by detailed information

Today is your birthday! Thank you all for your support, your commitment, but also your doubts and your hopes. How to find an image to illustrate this event? I propose you the key figures that are displayed on the home page and that change constantly.

In the field of natural and human sciences, the MNHN contributes to the production, development and sharing of knowledge on the geological and biological diversity of the Earth, on the diversity of cultures and societies and on the history of the planet. To this end, its mission is to develop in synergy fundamental and applied research, expertise, valorization, enrichment, conservation and provision of collections and data, training including teaching, educational action and the dissemination of scientific and technical culture for all audiences. The MNHN Center for Ecology and Conservation Sciences (UMR 7204 CESCO) coordinates the "Bat Migration Routes in Europe" Project, the aim of which is to study the migration routes of bats in Europe. For this, acoustic recordings are collected across Europe, in order to highlight the hot spots of activity of several species of migratory bats according to environmental variables As part of this project, an agreement has been establishe...

Bernard Thomachot keeps an up-to-date table in which he lists the new cavities, notes those located in France and those that have been verified Here is the summary with 274,700 new cavities in France, including 25,792 that have been verified End of 2024 Grottocenter gives access to 120,812 cavities. The table with all the data is available HERE