Specimen Databases for PC

[Karen Wilson]

     Nancy Hensold wrote:
"I have just finished a manual entitled "Specimen Databases in Research and
Collection Management: A Practical Guide for dBase and WordPerfect Users." This
was originally prepared for a Symposium workshop held in Trujillo Peru last
summer and will imminently be published in Spanish in the Symposium Proceeding.
I'm thinking of putting it up on the Net somehow if there is interest, but I
don't know a) how widespread use of dBase is; b) how adaptable dBase & WP
protocol might be to other software app's; and c) whether anyone cares."


Yes, people are interested, Nancy: a lot of people do use dBase III or IV for
specimen databases either for research projects or for herbarium curation (see
for example the Mount Kinabalu project led by John Beaman).  This use can be
seen clearly from the IOPI Database of Plant Databases (edited by Richard
Pankhurst, Edinburgh), where many of the included databases use this program. If
you want to look at the DPD, by the way, it is accessible via the IOPI Home
Page, which is at http://life.csu.edu.au/iopi; the DPD includes about 400
databases from different parts of the world and of widely varying scope. (We
haven't widely advertised the IOPI home page yet because it is still being set
up and there are a few loose ends to tie up; however, the DPD is certainly
accessible there right now.)

As far as making your manual available electronically is concerned, I'd like to
suggest two possible sites: the IOPI Home Page, and the TDWG Home Page. For
IOPI, contact me if you are interested in discussing this further. At the recent
Madrid meeting of TDWG (International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases),
there was discussion about setting up a Home Page - Paco Pando in Madrid
(pando at ma-rjb.csic.es) is Secretary of TDWG now and will have full details (I'm
afraid that I didn't note them down).

Karen Wilson

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     Karen L. Wilson
     Royal Botanic Gardens               E-mail: karen at rbgsyd.gov.au
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