Design and Implementation of Metadata for Indian Fungi (Heterobasidiomycetes)

Microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa and viruses play
a vital role in the maintenance of earth's ecosystems and biosphere.
Data on microorganisms are as important as other organisms, but most
of the time they remain unused, as it is not documented properly. The
proposed database prototype model's function would be to document and
digitize the species of Indian fungi (Heterobasidiomycetes). In the
proposed study, metadata for each fungal species and for images will
be developed. The database is web enabled and is in RDBMS. First type
of metadata will be located in the header of the each data set (in
HTML file) and some will be in the form of thesaurus, dictionary and
controlled vocabulary and ontologies. To assess user information
needs, use of scenario, "focus groups interviews" and "questionnaires
will be used, as a research method.

The proposed database prototype model's function would be to document
and digitize the species of Indian fungi (Heterobasidiomycetes). In
the proposed study, metadata for each fungal species and for images
will be developed.

Information for metadata was taken from the journal article by
Shubhada Nagarkar et al, 2002. There are two types of metadata, one
conforming to FGDC metadata standards and the second type will be
internal metadata dealing with Uredinales terminology.