Design and Implementation of Metadata for Indian Fungi (Heterobasidiomycetes): Lessons From Library and Information Science Field

Abstract

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. This paper outlines the proposed database prototype model to document and digitize the species of Indian fungi. In the proposed study, metadata for each fungal species and for images will be developed. 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 scenarios", "focus groups interviews" and "questionnaires" will be used, as a research method. The paper concludes with a discussion of the contribution of the library and information science professionals in the development of scientific database and metadata.