BOTANICAL INFORMATION AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT
1995 / 96
Jim CROFT (06) 250 9490
To establish and manage flexible and effective databases of botanical information, accessible to researchers, government and the public, and to provide a national focus for and play a coordinating role in national botanical data management.
As a focus for national plant taxonomic, systematic and phylogenetic studies, the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research aims to use the most efficient means of acquiring, storing, processing and analysing botanical data and information to increase the amount and quality of botanical knowledge for research, environmental management and decision-making and for public information.
To achieve this, staff use modern computing and communications technology to provide access to data-processing facilities at their workplace and access local and remote network information resources. Computing facilities are based on Unix, MSDOS and Macintosh platforms, depending on the application.
The Centre facilities are equipped with high-speed network cabling with fibre-optic connections to the CSIRO and AARNet communications backbones and computer workstations allow use of modern network resource discovery and retrieval tools.
Complex botanical information based on plant specimen data, plant name and bibliographic data, morphological and anatomical data, and distributional and phytogeographic data is stored in highly structured databases and is available for analysis by a variety of scientific applications. These include the specimen databases of the Australian National Herbarium, the Australian Plant Name Index, the Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (ROTAP) database and a variety of statistical and cladistic analysis packages, DELTA system for encoding plant descriptive information, mapping and spatial analysis packages, etc.
A major problem confronting the biological community is the implementation of common standards and conventions for biological databases to enable the use of larger aggregate datasets from several institutions; staff are actively involved in developing and implementing national and international standards for use in botanical databases and in sharing botanical data between institutions. A national project coordinated by the Centre using all Australian Eucalyptus specimens and survey records is a good example of this.
The Centre aims to make as much botanical information and the results of its research as possible available to the scientific community, to enhance collaboration and reduce duplicated effort. This is done through its World Wide Web and Gopher servers which make text and image data available to users on the internet, through widely used protocols.
Jim CROFT (06) 250 9490
To database the collections of ANH, both CANB and CBG. To link data elements of the ANH database and those of the ANBG. Implementation of accepted data standards in Centre Applications.
Jim Croft (ANBG; 20%) Pennie Hohnen Greg Whitbread (ANBG; 20%) Joan Graham John Hook (ANBG; 20%) Jo Palmer Judy West (10%) Chris Penketh Bernie Hyland (nominal) Sophie Clayton Greg Chandler Andrew Ford Sara York (ANBG)
ERIN Other Australian and International Herbaria Universities
ERIN $41,901
ANH database - computerise 40,000 specimens (CANB and CBG) and add new accessions to database (QRS); complete databasing of ANH Acacia collections; provide corrected database records for continent-wide eucalyptus project (UA4); develop strategy for integrating CANB and CBG databases and applications after evaluation of the two systems; prepare documentation of databases, their structure and standards/conventions used.
Jim CROFT (06) 250 9490
To provide appropriate terminal and network access to Centre staff and to provide access to network information in other institutions. To provide appropriate scientific computing and analysis facilities.
Jim Croft (ANBG; 20%) Pennie Hohnen Greg Whitbread (ANBG; 20%) Cathy Miller John Hook (ANBG; 20%) Richard Blyton (nominal) Andrew Young (nominal)
ANBG ERIN Other Herbaria Universities CSIRO site IT managers
Nil
Functional fibre-optic communications link between ANBG servers and Centre buildings; functional communications connections for all staff in Centre extensions; email access for all Centre staff, at their workplace where appropriate; access by Centre staff to network information tools such as Gopher and World Wide Web.
Ian TELFORD (06) 250 9462
To survey and index botanical taxonomic literature and to provide access to this information for botanical research. To restructure and integrate CAP/APNI datasets. To maintain and update HEP and ROTAP databases
Jim Croft (ANBG; 5%) Kirsten Cowley Greg Whitbread (ANBG; 5%) Cathy Miller John Hook (ANBG; 5%) Ian Telford (ANBG) Lyn Craven (nominal) John Briggs (nominal)
Other Herbaria Universities
Nil
Journals survey and taxonomic/nomenclature information entered on CAP/APNI; list of journals/articles survey maintained; transfer HEP database to ANH; establish database in appropriate software; scan relevant literature and begin updating database; restructure CAP/APNI as a single application. ROTAP database: liaise with ESU; integrate database with other botanical datasets.
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