1.3 1999 Forty years on
 
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In the 1999 website the general aim was to initiate a process of dissemination and feedback of information about the island as a interdisciplinary educational resource, at a time when it has become impossible to talk about our relation to nature without referring  to 'ecology'.  A more specific aim is to bring the topic of conservation management to the forefront of education for sustainability.  A third aim was to elicit a process of  ongoing contributions to a site- based electronic archive, which can be constantly  updated through contributions of text, pictures, and cross-references to materials  that widen and deepen the Skomer story. 
To begin the process of collection and compilation in September 1998 the following document was circulated to a number of  individuals who are, or have been, associated with Skomer. Its origins lie in some  thoughts about how people have expressed their inner feelings about the island.  Many pages of facts and ideas have been generated from Skomer as an outdoor  laboratory, but I had only come across two people, Annie Robinson, and Roseanne  Alexander, both diarists, whose writings convey a personal special sense of place,  and reveal that time spent there was made precious. The aim was to assemble  material that would augment their reflective contributions in the hope that something  might also appear with a touch of exultation about it.
SKOMER: Reminiscences and Reflections
A Celebration of 40 years of Nature Protection
As a contribution to the 40th anniversary of Skomer Island being established as a national nature  reserve in 1959, and as part of its 'community and environment' programme, the museum's  SCAN team is seeking contributions to assemble a self- indexing computer file of reminiscences  and reflections from people who know the island well. These will be grafted onto the scientific  knowledge about the island and its management.  There is no restriction on the length of the  items, which will be presented as received*. The only suggestion for standardisation is that each  contribution should be in three parts; first impressions; feelings engendered by the most recent  subsequent visit; and overall reflections on the notional impact made over the intervening years.
As an archive and educational resource the final product will be available for free distribution via  the internet. The following four historical contributions set the scene**.
There is no deadline. Version 1 of the compilation will be available as soon as the first  contributions have been received. This will be updated frequently as responses build up. Items  for inclusion should be sent, preferably on disk as an ASCII text file, to Denis Bellamy,  Department of Biodiversity and Systematic Biology, National Museum, Cardiff.
Photocopies of hand-written letters of historical importance will be accepted for transcription.
Master copies of the programme and its component files will be held jointly between the museum  and the local wildlife trust.
The project was received with enthusiasm, particularly by David Saunders,  Secretary of the Widlife Trust,  who trawled the Trust's archives for suitable  material, which has widened its scope, and Ronald Lockley, who suggested the  book he co- edited on the outcomes of the 1946 expedition, could provide valuable  historical information on how the island came to be declared a national nature  reserve.  It also had the wholehearted support of Mike and Roseanne Alexander,  who's life together on the island added much to Skomer's stock of creativity.
A thread between contributions is the juxtaposition of facts and notions to define  what makes Skomer work as a personal experience. 'Skomer:1999' is not a  scientific production, but rather the aim is to assemble contributions that awaken aesthetic and creative faculties, and place more scientifically orientated studies  and the island's management plan in a greater social picture.
Denis Bellamy, Ed.