Botanical databases for conservation and development

Authors: Michael Berjak and Jeremy Grimsdell, 87 pp. + demonstration diskette. People and Plants Conservation Manuals. Published by WWF-UK.

This manual is an introduction to the use of databases in botanical projects. The material is presented in an uncomplicated manner, and very little previous knowledge is assumed from the reader – either about databases or computers. A demonstration diskette included provides an introduction to operating a database package: it has been designed to illustrate the principles of all main database operations. For practical applications, readers will have to obtain for themselves a database package programme, which they can then use to build up their own databases following the principles described here.

Download chapter by chapter.

• Introductory pages
• Chapter 1: From data to databases
• Chapter 2: Who owns information?
• Chapter 3: Choosing software and hardware
• Chapter 4: Data standards and categories
• Chapter 5: Planning a project
• Chapter 6: Using a database: an ethnobotanical example
• Chapter 7: Using the demonstration diskette
• Chapter 8: Case studies
• Appendix (contact addresses; brief descriptions of packages and databases)
• References
• Demonstration programme

Michael Berjak is a director of EnviroMap GIS Consultants, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He was previously a Senior Lecturer at the University of Natal. Jeremy Grimsdell was earlier a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Natural Resources, University of Natal. He is currently a freelance editor and writer in the natural sciences.