Biodiversity Databases Techniques, Politics, and Applications

Since the first desktop computers emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the power, speed and storage capacity has increased radically, especially in recent years. Indeed, the whole approach to computing and database management has shifted from the independent researcher keeping records for a particular project to state-of-the-art file storage systems, presentation and distribution over the World Wide Web. Taxonomists are natural information scientists and their outputs are highly desired by anyone interested in biology and geology, or indeed any system that requires retrieval of data. However, to make systems work effectively, it is necessary to bring together social scientists, programmers, database designers and information specialists to...