The changing role of publishing biodiversity data for Northern Ireland on the internet
Susan Fiona Maitland
Abstract
The Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR) was established as part of the Sciences Division of the Ulster Museum (now part of National Museums Northern Ireland) in 1995, in partnership with Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) and the local recording community. Functioning as a Local Records Centre, CEDaR facilitates the collection, collation, management and dissemination of biodiversity and geodiversity information for Northern Ireland and its coastal waters. One way that CEDaR disseminates this information is via the suite of web sites at www.habitas.org.uk.
Initially web sites were developed on an ad hoc basis however, in March 2004 CEDaR centralised the site development role into one post. Since this was done the workload of this post has increased dramatically. Existing web sites need to be updated and standardized and new sites created for each new CEDaR initiatives.
One of the first web sites to be developed was the Flora of Northern Ireland. Species pages are displayed dynamically, pulling information directly from an Access database containing all the information required for the species pages including image and map details. This method has been adopted for most of the CEDaR web sites, except where the number of species represented is small.
Each site has been designed to allow easy navigation and utilises similar formats for the display of information. The species accounts are written by local experts and museum staff using content and layout standards. The accounts are then proof-read and formatted for the web. This process is laborious and along with the preparation of images to illustrate the species accounts adds a great deal of time to the process of publishing the biodiversity information on the web sites. This presentation will help delegates to better understand how CEDaR staff solved the technical problems.
Initially web sites were developed on an ad hoc basis however, in March 2004 CEDaR centralised the site development role into one post. Since this was done the workload of this post has increased dramatically. Existing web sites need to be updated and standardized and new sites created for each new CEDaR initiatives.
One of the first web sites to be developed was the Flora of Northern Ireland. Species pages are displayed dynamically, pulling information directly from an Access database containing all the information required for the species pages including image and map details. This method has been adopted for most of the CEDaR web sites, except where the number of species represented is small.
Each site has been designed to allow easy navigation and utilises similar formats for the display of information. The species accounts are written by local experts and museum staff using content and layout standards. The accounts are then proof-read and formatted for the web. This process is laborious and along with the preparation of images to illustrate the species accounts adds a great deal of time to the process of publishing the biodiversity information on the web sites. This presentation will help delegates to better understand how CEDaR staff solved the technical problems.