As of March 1, 2010, the Indiana Audubon Society (IAS) is pleased to announce an exciting new membership benefit for our online members. Included with your online membership* is a subscription to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online Birds of North America (BNA), a comprehensive reference of North America’s breeding birds.
The print version of BNA encompasses 18 volumes, over 18,000 pages and took the American Ornithologists’ Union, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Academy of Natural Sciences 10 years to complete. The online version is an updatable living reference which includes the life history information detailed in the print version and has the added benefit of including calls, songs, video and supplemental information. Read more about the project at http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna.
The annual BNA subscription cost is $42 but IAS is proud to offer this service to its online members at no additional cost. IAS is able to provide this benefit due to the tremendous response in migrating mail delivery of The Indiana Audubon Quarterly and The Cardinal to electronic delivery in 2009. The special committee for Publications and Website proposed the idea to the IAS Board during the January 2010 meeting and it was enthusiastically accepted. The committee believes BNA access to be a significant benefit to current online members and hopes to use BNA as a tool to recruit new members.
In order to access BNA, you will be required to login to the IAS webpage as usual. From there, go to the Birds of North America link on the Publications menu. You will need to login to it at the bottom of the page where it says Other club and association members login here. Again use your IAS username and password.
Access to BNA will be granted on a quarterly basis for all new members. New access is granted in March, June, September, and December.
* The BNA benefit will not be included with the Library, Fledgling, and Young Birder memberships. To receive the BNA benefit, members must agree to receive the publications online. Members who prefer to receive the publications by mail can receive the BNA benefit by donating $10 a year to help cover the extra cost of printing and postage.