WILSON, HUGH D. Department of Biology Herbarium, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3258. - Botanical informatics and full text indexing, compression, and retrieval.
Active centers of systematic research are moving, as the computer
revolution proceeds, to transfer raw taxonomic data (specimens,
checklists, floras, manuals) to digital form. While this process has
involved work with complex, expensive database management software in
the past, emergence of the Internet as a global medium for information
flow has stimulated the development, in the public domain, of
relatively simple full-text indexing and retrieval systems for text,
images, and textual images. These new systems allow content providers
to work in a familiar, text-based environment to create
information-rich documents (checklists, manuals, monographs, specimen
databases) using standard, commercial microcomputer software (word
processing, spreadsheet, database). Base document files, under full
control and continuous update by those responsible for the data, are
then converted to compressed, full text indices which are
"full-text" in the sense that every word in the text is
indexed and queries operate only on the index to do the searching.
Conversion to 'document database' from original documents can be a
simple, quick process for updating and correcting the data resource
that involves no contact with either hardware or software specialists.
Systems produced by the Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group and
now online will be used to demonstrate procedural steps and advantages
of full text indexing, compression, and retrieval of botanical data.
Key words: bioinformatics, computer, database, floristics, informatics, internet