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.